Glimchase: Retro Arcade Maze Chase for macOS
Four pursuers hunt through one maze while you chase the high score.
Four pursuer AIs, each with their own personality, hunt you through a procedurally generated maze. Dash through gaps, grab the energy cores, flip the rules with shields. Mirror-symmetric mazes, continuous Pac-Man-style movement, and rule-twist modifiers that start rewriting the game from level three.
Keyboard, controller, or mouse. Colorblind-safe colors and a reduce motion switch when you want them.
Select your hunters: Pursuer AIs
- Hunter Direct A* chase
- Ambusher Cuts you off
- Sentinel Patrols its turf
- Erratic Does its own thing
Now playing — Gameplay Screens
How it plays — Game Features
Run, dash, survive
Movement stays continuous, with buffered turns and a short dash. Slip past a pursuer mid-corridor, then ride the afterimages to the next collectible.
Four AIs that don't agree
Hunter chases with A*, Ambusher cuts you off, Sentinel patrols its turf, Erratic does its own thing. They argue over you, and you exploit the gaps.
Rule-twist modifiers
Mitosis spawns a fresh pursuer every time you grab a shield. One-way corridors trap the unwary. Dark mazes tighten the fog, swift sentinels outrun you. From level 3 on, every level rolls at least one of them.
Procedural mazes
Prim's algorithm generates mazes across a 41×21 grid. Layouts are mirror-symmetric except for the hunter-house at the center. Dead ends are capped at three tiles, every collectible is reachable, and spawns stay far enough apart to prevent a cornered start.
Vulnerability windows
Grab a shield to flip the script. The pursuers go vulnerable, so you can collide on your terms. The window shrinks 0.5s every two levels, so earn it back fast.
More than cores
A freeze pins every pursuer for four seconds. A key unlocks the door sealing a corridor off. Warp tunnels carry you out one edge and back in the other, and nothing can follow you through. Twice a level a bonus surfaces on the center tile — 100 points early, 1000 once you are deep enough to deserve it.
Scoreboard, locally yours
The table keeps the top 10 entries with initials, level, and date. It stays on your Mac with no account, telemetry, or server round-trips. Your score and the run remain local.
Keyboard, pad, or mouse
Use arrows or WASD to move and Space to dash. Reach for a controller and the prompts switch to A/B on their own. Every menu clicks too — held directions auto-repeat, and buttons fire on release so a slip can still be taken back.
Readable by default
A colorblind-safe Okabe-Ito palette for the pursuers, one switch away. Reduce motion stills the shake, the drift, and the aberration while keeping the feedback that matters. Text clears 4.5:1; every target is at least 44px.
Behaves like a Mac app
Click away mid-run and it pauses and goes quiet on its own. Cmd-Ctrl-F for fullscreen, Cmd-Q asks before it throws the run away, and saves are written atomically so a crash can't cost you the scoreboard.
Insert coin, ask away — Frequently Asked Questions
What versions of macOS are supported?
Glimchase runs on macOS 11 Big Sur and every release since. It ships as a universal binary, so it's native on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs — no Rosetta, no asterisks — and it renders at full Retina resolution on either.
Can I use a controller to play Glimchase?
Plug in or pair any gamepad macOS already knows — PlayStation, Xbox, MFi — and Glimchase picks it up mid-run; the on-screen prompts flip to A/B the moment you press a button on it. Move with the D-pad or the left stick, and keyboard and mouse stay live the whole time, so you can swap mid-maze.
Does the game require an internet connection or account?
The game requires no internet connection or account. It has no sign-in or server; the app is sandboxed without network entitlements and cannot phone home. Your scores, settings, and high-score table stay on your Mac, and the game plays offline.
Are there accessibility features available?
A colorblind-safe Okabe-Ito palette re-tints all four pursuers from one toggle, and Reduce Motion stills the screen shake, drift, and chromatic aberration while keeping the feedback that keeps you alive. Play entirely by keyboard, controller, or mouse; text clears 4.5:1 contrast and every target is at least 44px.
Is this a one-time purchase or a subscription?
Glimchase is a $2.99 one-time purchase. There is no subscription, no ads, no in-app purchases, and no energy timers standing between you and the next run. Every level, modifier, and mode is included.