What Fliptempo is
Fliptempo is a free one-button runner played in the browser. Your ball races forward on its own down a corridor with a floor and a ceiling. Tap, and gravity flips: the ball falls toward the ceiling. Tap again and it falls back to the floor. That is the whole control scheme. Everything else, the hazards, the gems, the scoring, is about when you tap.
The name comes from the music. Every world has its own soundtrack, the corridor's lights step with the beat, flips made on the beat score a bonus, and in the final world the hazards themselves move in time with the track. Once you find the tempo of a level, flipping starts to feel like playing along.
The goal
The campaign is thirty short, handmade levels across five worlds: Downtown, the Storm, the Belt, the Forge and the Signal. You play through all five on levels 1 to 15, then through all five again, faster and denser, on 16 to 30. Reach the finish gate to clear a level and open the next one.
Clearing is only the first star. A second and third come from collecting every gem in the level and from reaching its flip target, a minimum number of real crossings. Three stars on every level, on Easy and then on Hard, is the long-term goal, and your total stars set your rank. Gems, the game's only currency, buy new crafts with different handling.
Alongside the campaign there is a Daily course, the same for everyone each day with three attempts, and an Endless mode with no finish line where only your score counts.
Your first five minutes
- Just tap. On your very first visit the game skips the menu and drops you straight into level 1, with a TAP TO FLIP prompt. The opening of every level is empty, so the first tap is safe.
- Make your flips real. A flip only counts toward your chain if the ball genuinely moves across the corridor. Each counted flip raises your score multiplier; five in a row doubles it and sets your trail alight.
- Do not sit on a wall. Rest on one wall for more than about a second and your chain breaks. Short touches are good, though: they charge your Surge meter, and a full meter fires Surge, a few seconds in which you smash straight through obstacles.
- Crash, learn, repeat. One hit ends the attempt and the level restarts immediately. Every level is laid out the same way every time, so each attempt teaches you the next part of the course.
- Grab the magenta gems. There are five per level on Easy. They sit on a line that is always safe to fly, they count toward the bonus stars, and each one is banked the moment you touch it.
After a few levels, open the Garage to see what your gems will buy, and try the Daily for a quick extra handful of gems.
Controls
| Action | Desktop | Phone or tablet |
|---|---|---|
| Flip gravity | Space, or click the play field | Tap the play field |
| Continue on a results screen | Space | Tap the button |
| Pause and settings | Click the gear in the corner | Tap the gear |
The game also pauses itself if you switch tabs or apps mid-run. The settings screen has separate volume sliders for master, music and effects, sliders for screen shake and flash intensity (worth lowering if strobing light bothers you), and a haptics switch for phones.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download and no account, and there is nothing to buy with real money. Every craft is bought with gems you earn by playing, and the only way to open a level is to clear the one before it.
Where is my progress saved?
In your own browser, on the device you play on. Stars, gems, crafts and trophies stay as long as that browser keeps its site data; clearing it, or playing in a private window, starts you fresh. Progress does not move between devices. If you want to start over on purpose, Settings has a reset button, which asks you to tap it a second time to confirm.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. One tap is the whole control scheme, and the play field is tall and narrow, so it suits a phone held upright. On a wide screen the scenery carries on into the bars at the sides.
How long is it?
Each level is short: about six seconds of flying for level 1 on Easy, around eleven for level 30, and roughly nineteen to twenty-eight seconds on Hard. Flying the whole campaign cleanly takes only minutes. Learning the levels, earning three stars on both difficulties, saving 5,540 gems for every craft, and chasing your Endless best is what keeps it going.
Easy or Hard?
Start on Easy. Hard is open from the beginning, but its levels are about three times as long, 12% faster, laid out differently and carry ten gems instead of five. Each difficulty has its own progress, so switching costs nothing.
Is there a way past a level I cannot beat?
No skips and no continues. Every level is built around a route that is proven to be flyable, though, and it always holds the gems, so following the gems is the surest way to find it. The two quieter levels, 10 and 26, are deliberate breathers if you have been stuck just before them.