How to play
Tap, click, press space or the up arrow to jump. Avoid every obstacle to keep your score climbing.
About Jump Runner
Jump Runner is an endless runner with one move: jump. A green square races along a flat track, red blocks rise out of the ground ahead, and each one has to be cleared with a single well-timed hop. The score climbs for as long as you stay on your feet.
How to play
Tap the screen, click, or press the space bar or the up arrow to jump. That is the only control. You run automatically, you cannot slow down, and you cannot jump again until you have landed, so there is no saving a bad jump in mid-air.
The blocks come in different widths and heights. Some are low and thin, and almost any jump gets you over. Others are tall and wide and need you to take off at just the right spot. Touch one and the run ends. Tap to start again from zero.
Your score rises with distance, roughly ten points a second, so it measures how long you survived.
The pace picks up
The game speeds up in two ways. The ground scrolls faster the longer you run, and the gaps between blocks shrink. At the start you get a block every second and a half or so, with plenty of time to settle between jumps. Half a minute in, they arrive about twice as often, and you are landing from one jump with the next block already close.
Timing a jump
Every jump is the same height and lasts the same time, about two thirds of a second. What you control is when it starts. Jump too early and you come down on top of the block. Jump too late and you run into its front face.
For a tall block, leave it later than feels comfortable. You want to be at the top of your arc as you pass over it, and that means taking off fairly close. For a low block there is far more room for error, and jumping a little early is fine.
As the speed rises, the right take-off point moves further back from the block, because you cover more ground in the air. Players who do well early and then hit a wall at a certain score are usually still using their slow-speed timing. Adjust as you go: the faster the track, the earlier the tap.
When two blocks come close together, think about where you will land. Sometimes the correct move is to jump the first one slightly late so you touch down with enough room to jump again.
Stay loose
Runners like this one punish tension. If you stare at your own square, every block seems to arrive suddenly. Keep your eyes a little to the right, where the blocks enter, and let the jumps become a rhythm. Many players find their best runs happen when they stop counting the score altogether.
Scores worth chasing
A hundred is a good first aim. Three hundred takes you into the faster stretch, and five hundred is a properly strong run.
Easy to pick up
There is nothing to learn beyond the one button, which makes Jump Runner a good choice for a quick break and for younger players. Runs are short, restarts are instant, and the game works equally well with a keyboard or a touchscreen.
Jump Runner is free and plays in your browser on any device, with no download.