You can also play the game at https://jingke-rl-kytvdlloqv.now.sh.

Historically Jing Ke failed his assassination attempt against the future first emperor of China, making his failed assassination perhaps the most well known tragic historic incident in ancient China. This game tries to put you in control of Jing Ke's last moments.

You can repeat Jing Ke's mistake or you can just be lucky and succeed in murdering the King of Qin.

Jing Ke hid his dagger inside the map of the provinces that were thought to be intended to be gifted to the king of Qin: of course, hidden in that map --

Controls

  • vi keys provide 8 directional movement
  • all other keys are displayed on the right side as "actions"
  • you need to (e)xpand the map to begin (because the dagger is hidden inside it!), but you might want to get closer to the king before expanding the map.
  • you probably want to start (d)ashing as soon as you get the chance

Legend

  • O - Qin (O)fficials
  • @ - You, Jing Ke
  • W - (W)uyang Qin
  • K - (K)ing of Qin
  • S - Qin (S)oldiers

Historical Background

Obviously this is a game about Jing Ke. At the end of China's Warring States period, the Kingdom of Qin, led by its king Ying Zheng, better known in the future as Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor of the unified Chinese empire), is on the verge of conquering all kingdoms of the then fragmented China.

The kingdom of Han, foreseeing the fate of being conquered, sent assassin Jing Ke in attempt to end the reign of Ying Zheng, and the rest of the failed assassination, can be read on the Wikipedia page.

HP & Mobility

A low mobility prevents you from being able to (d)ash, a high mobility auto dodges attacks.

A slash into nothing will cost you mobility, a slash into something will gain you mobility.

Note that as in real life, two sword wounds will likely kill you.

Be careful.

Combat

I aimed to be more tactical, so your dagger poke (by pressing "a") will not automatically hit your target. You need to predict where your target is going, and poke the dagger at the right time.

The Difficulty

Some might feel this is too easy (or too hard, I really have not looked at the balance). I intended to make this a bit "historical" in the sense that all the mistakes Jing Ke made was reproducible. In your actual run, however, you will hardly throw your dagger away (leaving you defenseless). Yet if you want to die like the real Jing Ke, you can.

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