First Light: Sabaean Madcaps

Marib, in the kingdom of Saba, an hour before dawn. Once a year the sacred fire is carried from the hearth at the foot of the great stepped temple of Almaqah up to the summit altar, and it has to arrive before first light — the instant the sun's rim clears the eastern ridge. You are a madcap: one of the reckless incense-runners who take the stairs at a sprint because caution loses.

You have one dawn. One hundred and fifty seconds. Seven terraces, a priest standing on each of them, and Wahab'il the Smuggest waiting at the altar with a taper of his own, ready to light it himself — with the sun, and with great warmth — if you are late.

Climb.

The race

• Seven terraces. Each one is a flight of stairs on a different face of the temple, so the climb corkscrews and the sky keeps changing behind you.
• Seven priests. They stand in the stairway, they will not move, and they get smugger the higher you go. Shove past them. They have opinions about it, out loud.
• The madcap gauge. Risk is the fuel. A dash banks madcap, a shove banks more, and a full gauge is real speed — but the gauge bleeds the moment you stop taking chances.
• The censer. A hard dash guts the flame; a shove can put it out entirely. A dark censer lights nothing at the top. Any brazier on the temple will relight it, and there are braziers on every terrace — if you can spare the seconds.
• The dawn clock. The rail on the right is the sun climbing toward the ridge. When it arrives, the race is over, one way or the other.

Controls

Everything is playable with a mouse and keyboard, a touchscreen, or a controller.

	Keyboard / mouse	Touch	Controller
Move	W A S D or arrows	left stick on screen	left stick
Jump / vault	Space	Jump	A / Cross
Dash	Shift	Dash	X / Square, or right trigger
Shove	E, or left click	Shove	B / Circle
Pause	Escape	Pause pip	Start
Choose a menu line	arrows, then Enter	tap the line	d-pad, then A
Back / resume	Escape or right click	tap Back	B / Circle
Run it again	R	tap Again	Y / Triangle

The screen lays out from whatever shape you are holding — it plays in portrait on a phone, and in landscape on a laptop or a television.

Worth seeing

• The sky. It runs from indigo and stars to rose to gold across a single race, and the temple's ochre sandstone changes colour under it the whole way up.
• The last thirty seconds on the seventh terrace, with the sun already on the ridge.
• Wahab'il, who is gracious in defeat, which is worse.