How to play
- Goal
- Push off and ride the gnomes' bob down the frost giant's ice chute to the finish as fast as you can.
- How it ends
- A run ends at the finish line; going over a rim spills the crew, who right the bob and push on, so every run reaches the bottom.
- Record
- The fastest run on each track; every finished run counts.
- After GO the crew push the bob down the start: press Push (Space) on each thump of their boots. The closer to the thump, the bigger the shove; a press between thumps stumbles and costs speed, so mashing is slow. At the end of the push the crew jump in.
- Then the bob runs downhill on its own. In a bend it rides up the outer wall; lean (◀ ▶) out a moment before the bend so it climbs early, keep it on the blue ring of the wall gauge, where the bend holds it, and lean back as the bend ends. Every swing across the chute and every held lean costs a little speed.
- Each wall ends at a rim. Strike it hard, or be pressed into it too fast, and the bob goes over: the crew spill, right it and push on, about three seconds lost. When the gauge's blue ring lies beyond a rim, that rim glows red: hold Brake until it clears, as briefly as you dare. Ride through the frost runes on the walls for speed, lean up a wall over slush, land straight off kickers, and lean into the giant's breath.
Controls
| Push · Space · ↑ · W | Shove on each thump of the crew's boots |
|---|---|
| ◀ ▶ Lean · ← → · A D | Push the bob across the chute, up or down a wall |
| Brake (hold) · ↓ · S · Shift | The iron claws: slow down before a bend too fast for its rim |
| R | Start the track again |
| Escape | Pause |
The bob is a code-built warehouse model, the gnomes and the frost giant are warehouse rigged figures, and the chute, the rims and the snow are drawn by the game with three.js; the bob's swing up the walls, the push and every spill come from the game's own physics, the same arithmetic the records worker uses to ride a run again before it ranks the time. The music is four beds composed for the game in the Morass music repository, and the sounds and fonts come from the Morass warehouse. Your progress stays in this browser under morass.gnome-bobsled.v1. No ads or analytics run inside the game.
Watch how to play
About Gnome Bobsled
A bobsled time trial in full 3D down the frost giant's mountain. Four tinker gnomes run their brass-shod bob down the start, boots thumping on a beat, and hop in as the ice chute drops away; then it is you, the banked walls and the clock, with the giant himself watching from the far crest.
The chute is round, and the bob rides up its walls: the faster it goes into a bend, the higher it climbs, and on its own it swings past where the bend would hold it, back down and across, losing speed with every swing. Lean out a moment before the bend, settle it where the bend holds it, lean back as the bend ends: the real pilot's craft. A small wall gauge shows where the bend ahead will hold the bob at your speed, and when that lies beyond a rim, the rim glows red and it is time to brake.
Sixty tracks in twelve halls each bring something new: frost runes that boost you if you ride through them, wall-to-wall S-bends, glassy glaze, low-rimmed hairpins that want the brake, slush to ride over, kickers into the air, the giant's breath streaming across the chute, long spiralling bends, and everything at once under the aurora at the Giant's Crown. Every track keeps the Ten fastest runs, and the site rides each run again before it keeps a place; your best run and the record ride beside you as ghosts. Each part of the mountain has its own music, composed for the game.
