Can’t Get Back is a strange little top-down escape game played on a tilted, glowing board. You steer a spinning shape across a field of grass that keeps scrolling past, and anything you leave behind is lost. Your job is to find numbered generators and switch them on in the right order while dark squares hunt you down. Kipkat made it for the js13k contest in 2019, and every image and sound is produced by code.
How to Play Can’t Get Back
Press Space on the title screen. A short story scrolls by, and then the game begins. The counter in the top corner shows how many generators are left on this level.
Move with the arrow keys and watch for gray machines marked with a number. Walk up to the one with the next number and press E. The first generator must be 1, then 2, and so on. A generator with the wrong number shows “Can’t activate”. Each successful activation also restores one heart if you are hurt.
Black squares with red outlines appear as you move and slide toward you. Each touch costs a heart and throws you across the board. Fire with W, A, S and D to push them away. When all hearts are gone you see a death screen. Press Space to try again, but the generators on that level must be done over.
Finish every generator and you move up a level. The colors shift, the music speeds up, you gain an extra heart and one more generator joins the sequence. There is no final level, so the goal is to climb as high as you can.
Can't Get Back Controls
| Action | Keyboard |
|---|---|
| Start the game or restart after dying | Space |
| Move | Arrow keys |
| Shoot up, left, down or right | W, A, S, D |
| Use a generator or pickup | E |
| Mute the music (after the current loop) | M |
| Low-detail mode for slow devices | L |
Tips and Strategies
- Read the radar. The small box in the lower corner shows generators in green, squares in red and pickups in blue.
- Do not wander off. Everything that scrolls far enough away is deleted. Stay close when you spot the number you need.
- Save the medkit. The white box with a red cross refills all your hearts, so leave it until you are low.
- Pray when you are swarmed. The dark statue makes you immune for about eight seconds, and squares bounce off you while it lasts.
- Use speed to escape. The blue SPD block gives a short burst of fast movement, which is handy when squares close in.
- Grab the green heart. It adds one heart on top of your current health.
Features
- Tilted 3D board with a shifting color pattern and swaying grass.
- Endless levels that each add one generator and one heart.
- Four kinds of pickups: medkit, statue, speed block and extra heart.
- Built-in demo bot, started with the backtick key, that plays on its own until you reload.
Tested and updated:
