The Path of the Ouroboros
The serpent that bites its own tail rolls through the four colours of the Great Work: black, white, yellow and red. Jump the dross, cross the water and fire, and reach the Philosophers' Tree. About two minutes.
Opus Magnum · Chapter IV
The Path of the Ouroboros
The Ouroboros eats its own tail: the end of the work is its beginning. Here it rolls like a wheel through the four stages, from black ash to red fire.
Jump the obstacles, gather gold, reach the Tree.
The work rests
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I made this game the way I make projects for clients: many separate parts, brought into one piece of work. If you need something interactive, write to me.
Why a serpent rolls
The Ouroboros, a serpent biting its own tail, is one of the oldest signs in alchemy. It appears in a Greek alchemical manuscript next to the words "One is All". It stands for a process that feeds on itself and never really ends.
Alchemists recognised the stages of their work by colour: black (Nigredo), white (Albedo), yellow (Citrinitas) and red (Rubedo). Each landscape in this game is one of those colours, with its own trouble on the road: dross in the ash, water in the white, double piles in the gold, fire in the red.
On each stage you can catch its emblem: the Salamander that lives in fire, the Moon of the white work, the Sun of the yellow, the Phoenix of the red. The road ends at the Philosophers' Tree, the fruit of the work.
- Tap, click, Space or ↑: the serpent jumps. Tap again in the air for a second jump.
- Dross, ravens and falling into water or fire each put out one of three fires. Each new stage relights one.
- Sparks are worth 10 grains, the stage emblem 50. Twelve sparks without a hit double the gold.
- The Hourglass slows the road for a few seconds.
- Each stage lasts about 25 seconds. Reach the Tree at the end of Rubedo to win.