Typing action thriller

Tracebreak
Time is running out.

You do not pick the night. The night pages you. Every assignment drops you into a different building with a different job, and the only thing standing between you and the people hunting you is how fast and how clean you can type.

  • In development
  • Single player
  • Keyboard
  • PC
See a night play out All games
The Tracebreak title screen: the word TRACEBREAK in amber above the line TIME IS RUNNING OUT, with operator statistics and difficulty options below.

How it plays

Three rules.

No menus to manage, no inventory to sort. You sit down at a terminal, you get a job you didn't ask for, and you type your way out of it.

Dispatch

The night picks you

Every run opens with an assignment. It decides who you are tonight, which building you're inside, and what you're there to take. You never get the same night twice.

Execute

Words are the weapon

Type the words on screen to attack. Red words are incoming — catch those before the bar runs out or you take the hit. Keep a clean streak and everything you type lands harder.

Trace

Mistakes are the clock

Every typo raises the trace. Let it fill and you're locked out and the night is over — so accuracy isn't a score at the end, it's the thing keeping you in the building.

Operation Spillway

One night at Kestrel Dam.

Seven rooms, one building, one run — start to finish, in the order it happened. This is a real assignment, not a staged shot.

Room one of seven, the visitor gallery. An elite threat called BLACK_ICE is arming an attack while the player types the word sign.
Room 01 / 7 · Visitor gallery

The page is accepted and the door closes behind you. Something in the room escalates to an elite before you've typed a full word.

Room three of seven, the turbine hall. A honeypot node is on screen and a red parry word reading burn sits under a draining timer bar.
Room 03 / 7 · Turbine hall

A honeypot — bait dressed up as an easy target. The red word underneath is the trap springing: type it before the bar empties or the trace jumps.

Room five of seven, the grout gallery. The word signature is half typed in green, with a red parry word reading relay below it.
Room 05 / 7 · Grout gallery

Green is what you've already landed. The objective is secured in the log behind you, and the room is still charging at you while you read it.

The same fight later: BLACK_ICE is down to fifteen health, the combo counter reads four for 1.60 times damage, and the word pocket is being typed.
Room 05 / 7 · Four words clean

Same fight, a minute later. Four clean words in a row is 1.60× damage — the only real damage bonus in the game is not making mistakes.

Room seven of seven, the crest walkway. The boss HEADWATER is in phase two at 97 of 133 health, with the phrase the crest lights are on to type and a red parry reading behavioral flag.
Room 07 / 7 · Crest walkway · Headwater, phase two

The last room of the night. Phase two comes at you ten percent faster and starts using the dam's own vocabulary against you — the crest lights are on, and it wants you to know it scheduled that.

Status

Still in the building.

Tracebreak is in active development at Ctzul Software. Release plans and a Steam page will be posted here when they're ready.

See the other games Get in touch