On the night before her wedding the Grand Vizier seizes the palace of Qamar, puts the Sultan into an enchanted sleep and carries Prince Kian off to his tower beyond the desert and the sea. Princess Zahra takes her scimitar and goes after them: over the palace roofs, out of the dungeons, across the dunes on her white mare, over the gulf in a small sailing boat, through the trapped tombs of the City of Pillars and up the Tower of Seven Winds - and then the two of them still have to get home.
This device seems to have no mouse and keyboard. The game needs them, or a game controller.
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| W A S D / arrows, mouse | run, look around (a click takes the mouse, Esc gives it back and pauses); Shift walks and does not step off edges |
| Space | jump - towards a ledge she grabs it; running beside a high wall she runs along it, running at a wall she runs up it |
| C or Ctrl | at an edge: climb down and hang; hanging: let go; running: roll |
| E | use: levers, push blocks, mount the horse, board the boat |
| Left mouse button or F | cut with the scimitar (three in a row make a combo) |
| Right mouse button or R | block - just before a blow lands it parries; with a direction it dodges |
| Q or middle mouse button | draw or put away the sword |
| H, M | whistle for the horse; look at the map (once you have it) |
| Riding / sailing | W and S faster and slower, A and D steer; sailing: W and S haul in and let out the sail |
| Esc / P, F11 | pause, fullscreen |
| Game controller | left stick moves, right stick looks, A jump, X attack, Y use, B crouch, RB block, D-pad up sword, D-pad down whistle, Back map |
| Code | C, no game engine: the game draws with WebGL 2 directly (OpenGL ES 3 on a Raspberry Pi 5, where it was made) |
| People and horses | no modelling tool: every character is sculpted in code from smooth shapes, turned into a mesh when the game starts and moved by a skeleton; walking, climbing, fencing and riding are computed, not recorded |
| Look | sunlight and moonlight with shadows, torchlight, sky and haze; sandstone, plaster, star tiles, marble, carpets and dunes are painted by shaders |
| Sound | no recordings: a software mixer plays synthesized effects, and a small ensemble of oud, qanun, ney, strings and drums plays in the old maqam scales |
An original adventure in the spirit of the classic tomb-raiding and prince-of-the-desert games. Your progress is kept in this browser. Licenses