horonox

``time is a blade: one edge makes the wound; the other cuts you free''

horonox is a turn-based puzzle game about building one complete history by travelling through space and time. Blue and orange pieces travel through the same board along opposing temporal paths. Every action you take affects both. Explore the timeline backward and forward, choose which direction to follow, and alter events from either side. To solve each level, close every path and leave behind a history that is complete, consistent, and free of paradoxes.

TIME FLOWS BOTH WAYS
Blue and orange pieces obey opposite arrows of time, but your actions matter equally to both. Keys, doors, portals, gates, traps, and creatures may approach the same moment from two different directions. Every board is therefore a puzzle not only of where things are, but also of when they are—and where they came from.

Move through the board, scroll backward and forward, and examine the consequences of an action on both sides of the timeline. A move that helps now may make an earlier or later event impossible. A successful solution must work as one coherent history.

BUILD A HISTORY WITHOUT PARADOXES
Pick up a key, return to an earlier moment, and take it there instead: the later pickup can no longer happen. You have created a paradox. Because blue and orange objects experience time in opposite directions, contradictions can emerge from either end of the timeline.

Your own path must also be complete. Spawn new clone of yourself at a chosen place and moment, and you gain a powerful new way to manipulate the board—but you also open two ends of a new temporal path. Both must be resolved. Connect paths through portals, bring them to a deliberate end at gates, and account for every clone of yourself. A level is complete only when no paradoxes or temporal dead ends remain.

THINK WITHOUT PRESSURE
There are no timers and no demands on your reflexes. Every action can be undone, every moment can be revisited, and every level can be restarted. Experiment freely, test a hypothesis, and follow its consequences for as long as you need.

The calm pace does not mean simple puzzles. Later levels ask you to trace several interdependent paths through time, plan events from both directions, or study the whole timeline before the causal structure becomes clear.

BENEATH THE BOARD
At first, you know only that something terrible has happened. As you progress, the visual language of this strange place—its pawns, rooks, and time loops—begins to take on a deeper meaning. Notes and fragments of memory point towards a reality hidden beneath the board.

Behind the light, geometric presentation and quiet background music lies a story about guilt, control, and the limits of changing the past. Within every puzzle, time may run both ways. Your journey, however, continues inexorably onward.

CREATE YOUR OWN TIMELINES
The full game includes a built-in level editor. Design your own boards, test their temporal logic, and export them as portable level codes. Share a level by copying its string, or import somebody else’s creation and see whether you can close every path they devised.

KEY FEATURES

Two directions of time: blue and orange objects move through the same board in opposite temporal directions; your actions affect the past and future alike.

No paradoxes, no loose ends: complete every temporal path so that the entire timeline forms a coherent history.

An expanding temporal toolkit: new mechanics are introduced gradually, eventually letting you navigate through time, choose its direction, and spawn new clones.

Dozens of handcrafted levels: encounter keys, doors, portals, gates, traps, creatures, and increasingly elaborate interactions.

A calm but demanding experience: experiment at your own pace, undo any mistake, and carefully trace each action’s consequences.

Built-in level editor: create, export, import, and share puzzles as portable level codes.

A story beneath the board: uncover a quiet mystery about memory, guilt, and control through scattered notes and forgotten fragments.