Color Gates

🎮 About This Game

Color Gates is the third co-operative game in the TwozyGames lineup, and the one built around a resource the two of you have to share whether you like it or not. There are exactly two colours in the world — amber and azure — and exactly one of you is each, always. The only colour verb is a trade, and it flips both of you at once, so the colour that lets you move forward is the colour you have just taken off your partner. The floor is tiled in those same two colours and you are only safe on your own, which means colour is not something you deal with at a door once and forget; it is the ground under your feet the entire time. Grey is the only floor that lets the meter fall, and there is never very much of it. Six levels, and the doors between them do not open for one person.

🎯 How to Play

Both of you walk — P1 on WASD, P2 on the arrow keys — and either of you can call the trade, P1 with Space and P2 with the slash key. A trade swaps both colours instantly and then goes on a short cooldown, so it is a decision rather than something to mash. Stand on your own colour and the meter holds where it is. Stand on the wrong one and it fills; around two seconds and that player is lost and the level restarts. Only grey drains it, so a grey pocket is a breath rather than a rest stop. The doors are opened by pressure plates, and both plates in a room are always the same colour — since only one of you can be that colour, somebody is standing on the wrong one and burning for the whole charge. Charging deliberately takes longer than any single player can survive, which is why you have to keep handing the burn back. Once the plates finish, the door latches open for several seconds: charge first, then run. A coloured gate is different again — it is solid, not slow, and no amount of burning gets you through the wrong-coloured one. Solo swaps between the two characters with Shift.

💡 Tips & Strategy

• ▸Start trading the moment the charge starts, not when a meter looks frightening. The charge is longer than either of you can survive alone, so the split has to be even from the first second.
• ▸Hand the colour to whoever is cleaner rather than trading on a rhythm. The cooldown is short enough to keep the two meters level if you actually watch them.
• ▸Grey is the only floor that heals, so plan the route around where you can breathe instead of around the shortest line. A detour through grey is usually cheaper than the straight run.
• ▸Standing on your own colour does nothing for you except stop the bleeding — the meter holds, it does not fall. Do not park somewhere amber and expect to recover.
• ▸Do not try to charge the plates and cross the door at the same time. It latches, so the sequence is always charge, then walk.
• ▸Coloured gates are walls, not penalties. If a door wants amber and you are azure, the answer is a trade, never a sprint.
• ▸Playing alone is not the same physics as playing together. Steering one character at a time costs roughly twice the wall clock for the same ground while both meters keep running, so leave your partner standing on grey before any long errand.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions