# wick WICK: one button. Tap to kick off the wall, hold to grip. Pause.

# Core The one table every slice of WICK shares: the constants that define the shaft, the sea and the camera framing, the blackboard the rules write and everyone reads, an event bus, the phase machine's single writer, and the Keeper's script. `local Core = require("game.Core")`. See `/zero/source/design/spec.md`. ## Exports - `Core.SHAFT`, `Core.SEA`, `Core.CAMERA`, `Core.STAGING_TIMEOUT` — the place. - `Core.state` — `phase`, `player {x, y, vx, vy, wall, facing, gripping, grip, alive}`, `height`, `best`, `seaHeight`, `seaRate`, `surged`, `lampLit`, `elapsed`, `kicks`, `run`. - `Core.events.on(name, fn) -> unsubscribe`, `Core.events.emit(name, ...)`, `Core.events.count(name)`. - `Core.setPhase(p)` — called by `game.Climb` only. - `Core.LINES`, `Core.say(id)` — the Keeper's lines; `say` emits `"say"` and `"caption"`. - `Core.heightClimbed()`, `Core.seaGap()`, `Core.resetRun()`, `Core.clamp`, `Core.lerp`.

# ClimbRules The simulation behind WICK, driven by seconds. `game.Climb` is the mount; everything the game actually does is here — the cling, the slide, the kick, the grip, the sea, the hazards, the verdict — behind four calls that take nothing but numbers and strings. ```luau local Rules = require("game.ClimbRules") Rules.press() -- the button went down Rules.setHeld(true) -- and is being held, this frame Rules.uiAction("start") -- a card asked for something Rules.introDone() -- the staging slice released the opening Rules.tick(1 / 60) -- one frame of the game ``` It writes `Core.state` and nothing else. It reads the course from `game.Shaft`. ## Why it is not in the component A whole 120 m climb is a loop over `tick(1/60)` with a `press()` on a steady beat, so the arc, the difficulty curve and the sea can be measured over the real course in one pass — in any mode, without the renderer, a device or a frame budget. That is how the tuning below was found, and it is how it should be re-checked after any change to `Shaft`: ```luau Core.state.phase = "title" Rules.uiAction("start"); Rules.introDone() local t, nextTap = 0, 0 while Core.state.phase == "climb" or t == 0 do if t >= nextTap then Rules.press(); nextTap = t + 0.1 end Rules.tick(1 / 60) t += 1 / 60 end -- Core.state.phase is "won" or "lost"; Core.state.elapsed is the round ``` ## The arc A kick crosses the 5.3 m between two plumb faces in 1.15 s, tops out about 3.5 m above the launch, and catches the far wall 1.8 m higher than it left. A steady tap climbs a little over 1 m/s, so the 116 m from the start to the lamp takes a clean run a shade over 90 seconds. Where the granite leans inward the crossing shortens and the same kick lands higher; where it bulges out the kick has to stretch and barely gains. Measured over the real course, tap by tap: | Seconds between taps | Round | |---|---| | 0.05 | won, 110.7 s | | 0.08 | won, 92.6 s | | 0.10 | won, 96.9 s | | 0.15 | won, 100.4 s | | 0.20 | won, 123.5 s | | 0.30 | won, 120.4 s | | 0.45 | lost, drowned at 109 m after 145.5 s | | never | lost, drowned after 7.3 s | ## The sea It homes on a gap rather than rising at a flat rate: a floor it always climbs at, plus more the further behind it falls, up to a cap. So it sits a handful of metres under a climber who keeps moving — in frame, and one bad landing away — and it takes a climber who stops. At `Core.SEA.surgeAt` the floor rises and the gap it is content with closes. ## What can go wrong on the wall | | | |---|---| | A window | No granite to catch. A paw within `lipReach` of the sill or the head catches that instead; otherwise the cat drops through the opening until the wall resumes. `fall`, then `land`. | | A spike, a live wire, a chain | Knocked off: claws out, grip gone, scrabbling down the face for `knockSeconds` before it catches a couple of metres lower. `hazard`, then `land`. A chain caught in mid-air throws the cat across the shaft, tumbling rather than dropping. | | Crumbling plaster | It holds the landing for `plasterGrace`, then comes away once. That patch is bare for the rest of the run. | A hazard never kills, and no hazard takes the same cat twice in a run — a climber knocked off a face falls back into the stretch that hit it, and a hazard that could hit it again there is a stretch of shaft a steady rhythm never passes. The sea is the only thing that kills.

# kick The 'Kick' control.

# pause The 'Pause' control.