WICKTwo-finger physics game
You do not control a character. You control the rope.
The last sun has gone out. What is left of the light is a single burning thread, and it is held between your two fingers. Its total length never changes — so the distance between your fingers is the only input the game has.
Taut and slack
Spread them apart and it snaps taut. Bring them together and it sags into a basket.
Taut is hot enough to light a lantern, hot enough to burn through the gloom, and expensive enough to kill you. Slack is cold, dim, and able to cradle a falling ember and carry it across the room. Not two modes with a button between them — the same rope, at a different width.
Fuel
Fuel is both your health and your light.
Every second you burn bright is a second closer to the dark, so the room you can see is the room that is killing you. Find the oil pods, because nothing else will refill you.
Placement, not timing
Nothing snaps to anything.
Embers are loose particles that roll and settle wherever the rope happens to sag, so every catch is a placement problem rather than a timing test. Lift one finger and that end pins itself in place, leaving the other free to sweep — one of several tactics the game never tells you about.
What you get, and what you don’t
No ads
None.
No in-app purchases
Nothing to buy, ever.
No network access at all
The app never connects to anything.
A couple of megabytes
Every texture is drawn at launch and every sound is synthesised on the device.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
- How do you control WICK?
- Your two fingers on the glass are the two ends of the thread, and the thread's total length never changes. The distance between your fingers is the game's only input: spread them and it snaps taut, bring them together and it sags into a basket.
- Is WICK free?
- Yes. No ads, no in-app purchases, no account. The thread you are handed at the start is the whole game.
- Does it work offline?
- Yes. There is no network code in the app at all, so it runs fine in airplane mode and nothing ever leaves your phone.
- How do I carry an ember?
- Catch it in the slack — the sagging thread is a basket. Delivering is its own move: carry the ember over the brazier, then lower the sag until it settles in the bowl.
- What actually kills you?
- Running out of fuel. Fuel is both your health bar and your light radius, and burning taut spends it fastest. Oil pods are the only refill.
- What languages does it support?
- Sixteen, including English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, German, French and Arabic. The game follows your device language.
- Is this related to John Wick, or to candle wicks?
- No. WICK is an original iOS action game. The wick in the title is the burning thread itself — the rope you hold between two fingers.
Two fingers. One thread. However far you get before the dark takes it back.