The forest remembers. Help it sing again.

An ancient corruption called the Hollowbark is spreading through the Thornwood Vale — purple veins in the roots, hollow eyes in the wolves. It has taken Willow, Grove Keeper and the one person who could have stopped it, and it is dragging her toward its dead heart.

You are Rowan Brightward. Sword in one hand, spellfire in the other, you follow her through five corrupted realms, gathering the scattered shards of the Vale's forgotten song — the only thing that can call her back.

Emberfall is a hand-drawn 16-bit action platformer: 40 levels of running, climbing, vine-swinging and combat across an autumn-twilight world, built for players who like to sweep a stage clean before they leave it.

Sword in one hand, spellfire in the other

Melee with sword and shield, or pick your moment and cast. Four elemental spells each play differently — a steady starter bolt, a short-range blast with area damage, a slow homing seeker, and a fast piercing lance that punches through a whole line of enemies. Swap freely mid-level; the right spell for a nest of larvae is the wrong one for a diving eagle.

Five worlds, forty hand-drawn levels

• Whispering Woods — copper canopies and the first stirrings of the corruption

• Mire of Whispers — sunken ruins, bad footing, worse company

• Frostspine Heights — vertical climbs and the wolf packs that hunt them

• Frozen Wastes — a world with its heart gone cold

• The Scorched Reach — the dead centre of the Hollowbark, and World's End

Eighteen enemy types, from crows and dragonflies to spitting larvae, scorpions and alpha wolves — each realm brings its own bestiary, and the in-game Bestiary fills in as you meet them.

Clean every level, three stars at a time

Finishing a level earns one star. Collecting every artefact hidden in it earns a second. Clearing every enemy earns a third. Nothing forces you to do it — but the levels are drawn to reward the players who do, with tucked-away ledges, optional platforming detours and shortcuts you only spot on the second run.

Kit out, stock up, spend it

Choose your loadout before you drop in, then work with what the level gives you. Apples heal. Mushrooms grant timed buffs — speed, higher jumps, harder-hitting spells, brief invincibility — or poison you if you grab the wrong one. Coins you find can be spent in-level on spells and health. Anything left in your backpack at the exit cashes out.

Eleven song-shards

Scattered across the five realms are eleven artefacts — the Crown of the Hollow King, the Icefang Shard, the Heart of the Scorched Reach and eight more. They are fragments of the Vale's original melody. Find them and Willow's own resistance grows a little stronger, realm by realm.

A story told in pixel cutscenes

In-engine cutscenes open the game, each realm, and the finale — no cinematic pulled from another art style. Rowan gets one glimpse of Willow per realm, and each time a little more of the real her surfaces. The ending is a rescue, not a kill: the villain is grief, and the song releases it.

Buy once, play all of it

All 40 levels unlocked from the first launch, with Steam achievements to chase and an original soundtrack scoring every realm. No ads, no in-app purchases, no online requirement, nothing to unlock with money.

Features

• 40 hand-drawn pixel-art levels across 5 campaigns

• Sword-and-shield melee plus 4 distinct elemental spells

• 18 enemy types and a Bestiary that fills as you meet them

• 11 hidden song-shard artefacts to hunt down

• Three-star every level: finish it, loot it, clear it

• Loadout, buffs, apples and an in-level shop to spend coins on

• Story cutscenes in-engine, always skippable

• Original soundtrack, one theme per realm

• Native Windows and Linux builds

A game by Mobile Vision Technologies.