Paper Conqueror

Paper Conqueror is a free territory game you play in your browser. You are a crayon on a sheet of notebook paper, and the goal is to color in more of the page than anyone else before the round ends.

You draw loops out from your own land and close them to claim everything inside. Five crayon bots are doing the same thing around you, and each of them can erase you by crossing your fresh ink. There is nothing to install, no account and no ads while you play.

This is the rule that makes the game. Fresh ink is wet for two and a half seconds. Wet ink looks pale, with a dashed shine along it, and while it is wet any other crayon that crosses it erases you.

After that the ink dries. Dry ink turns a solid, darker color and works as a wall: other crayons cannot drive through it. So a long trip out is only risky at its fresh end, and a line you drew a few seconds ago can fence a bot in or block its way home.

Your own ink never hurts you, so you can cross your own line freely. Drawing a loop around another crayon's wet ink erases that crayon, and when a crayon is erased its land goes blank and is free for anyone to take.

Dark ink blots appear on the page every few seconds. Drive over one and it works straight away. The card in the top left shows which one you have and how long it has left.

After the first thirty seconds the page crumples inward from every edge, one row at a time, until only the middle is left. The edge flashes red just before the next row goes, and the timer bar turns red while it happens.

Land on a crumpled row is lost, and a crayon caught on it is erased. Land near the middle is worth the most, because it is the last to go.

Five bots share the page with you: Aarav, Priya, Kabir, Ananya, Rohan. Each has its own color and face, from Aarav's frown to Kabir's sleepy eyes, and its name floats above it. They smile when they claim land, wink when they erase someone and look surprised when they grab a blot.

The bots head out on loops of their own size, turn for home when another crayon gets close, and go after any wet ink they can reach. Some are bolder than others. A bot that is erased comes back a few seconds later on a fresh patch, until the last twenty seconds of the round.

Your score is the share of the page you have colored, shown as a percentage. It appears in the card at the top left, in the middle of your land, and in the standings on the right. The small map in the corner shows the whole page and where everyone is.

If you are erased, the round ends and your score is the land you held at that moment. If you last until the page finishes crumpling, you are ranked against the bots and the crayon with the most land wins. Your best score is saved in this browser only.

Nothing is downloaded for the audio. The music is a light, plucky tune calculated in your browser as you play, with a new melody picked note by note so it never repeats exactly.

Once the page starts to crumple, the music speeds up and a low pulse joins in, getting stronger as the page shrinks. It plays only while you are in a round, and the speaker button turns it off.

What kind of game is Paper Conqueror? It is a territory game. You draw loops out from your land to claim the page, while five crayon bots try to do the same and to cut your fresh ink.

Are the other crayons real players? No. They are bots that run entirely in your browser and come back a few seconds after being erased.

How long is a round? Three minutes. The crayon with the most of the page colored when it finishes crumpling wins.

Why was I erased when nobody touched me? Another crayon crossed your line while the ink was still wet, drew a loop around your wet ink, or the page crumpled under you. The end screen says which one it was.

Can I cross my own line? Yes. Your own ink never hurts you, wet or dry. Only other crayons can cut it.

Does it work on a phone? Yes. Drag anywhere on the board and the joystick in the corner steers. It plays best with the phone turned sideways.

Does it work offline? Once the page has loaded, yes. The game, the bots and the music all run in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere while you play.

Can I play full screen? Yes. Pressing Start enters full screen on its own, and the full screen button does the same at any time. Leaving full screen pauses the game.