Custom Devil

Twelve levels that lie to you, and a death counter that remembers

Single player
action
arcade

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About Custom Devil

A trap platformer in the Level Devil tradition, and it commits to the joke properly. Twelve hand-built levels, named for what they are about to do to you — First Steps, Trust Issues, Now You See It, Moonwalk, Catch Me — each of which looks perfectly readable until you step on it. Floors fall. Platforms vanish a third of a second after you land. Spikes pop out of blank ground when you get within a stride. Saws slide, swing and orbit. Whole strips of level reverse your controls, halve your gravity, or simply refuse to let you through.

There is nothing chasing you and there are no lives. You die, you restart that level, and the death counter goes up. Deaths are the score along with the clock, and both persist between visits, so a run is a real run and the game is honest about how many times it has caught you.

What is different about this version

Most trap platformers are procedural: a generator sprinkles the tricks and you learn its vocabulary. These twelve levels are placed by hand, and the placement is the writing. Trust Issues gives you three vanishing platforms in a row, so the first teaches you the rule and the third catches you anyway because by then you are rushing. Two levels have a door that runs away as you approach. One has decoy doors that do nothing at all. One drops an invisible no-entry barrier across the obvious route. Progress is saved, including which levels you have reached — but jumping ahead of where you have genuinely got to flags the run, and a flagged run cannot set a best time. Only a clean pass through all twelve counts.

How to play Custom Devil

Run right and reach the door at the end of the level.
Expect the level to change. Almost every trap is invisible until you commit to it.
Dying costs a death and a restart of that level, nothing more. Use that.
Clear all twelve. Your time and death count are recorded together as one run.

Controls

Desktop	Arrow keys or A and D to move, Space to jump.
Phone or tablet	Left and right buttons on one side, Jump on the other.
Players	One player. Any other characters on screen are run by the game.

Strategy

Death is the information-gathering mechanic, so gather deliberately. On a level you have not seen, walk rather than run. Most traps here fire on proximity, at distances of roughly seventy to a hundred and thirty pixels, and a walking approach sets them off far enough away to survive. Pop-up spikes, proximity-triggered platforms and fleeing doors all work on that same rule. Once you know a level's trick, then run it, because the clock is half the score.

The zones need different handling from the traps. A reversed-controls strip is not something you dodge, it is something you cross, and the technique is to commit to one direction and hold it — what kills people in a reversed zone is correcting. Low-gravity strips change your arc rather than your speed: you go higher and further and land later, so a platform you aim at with normal timing ends up behind you. The fast and slow strips do the obvious thing to your run speed, and the slow one is the more dangerous of the pair, because it keeps you inside a saw's cycle for longer than you planned for.

Mistakes that cost you the game

Sprinting into a level you have not seen. Proximity triggers turn speed into deaths.
Correcting inside a reversed zone. Hold one direction and take the crossing.
Using the level chips to skip something you are stuck on. It works, but the run stops counting for a best time.
Assuming a level is safe once its first trap has fired. Several levels have two, placed so the second lands while you are relieved.

Tips

A conveniently placed platform in an awkward spot is the trap. That is the design language of the whole game.
Springs are the one honest object here. Same force, straight up, every time.
In the low-gravity level, jump earlier and shorter than instinct says.
Take the death rather than the desperate save. A restart is about a second; flailing at a ledge is usually two deaths.
Proximity traps trigger on distance, not on time, so edging forward a step at a time is a legitimate way to scout a level you have not seen.

Questions about Custom Devil

How much is there to get through?

Twelve, each placed by hand. Clearing the last one ends the run.

Is my progress saved?

Yes — the furthest level reached, your death count and your time all carry over between visits.

Can I skip a level?

You can jump to any level you have already reached, but a run containing a skip will not set a best time.

Is there anything chasing me?

No. Every threat is part of the level itself, which is why walking is a real tactic here and not just a slow one.

Does it cost anything?

No. Custom Devil is free to play, runs in your browser, and needs no download, install or account.

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