Escape Mode
The ball breaks out through a stack of rotating rings. Every control in Escape Mode Settings, including Time Trial, the ring counter and break effects.
What Escape Mode Does
Escape mode surrounds the ball with a stack of rings. Each ring has a gap. When the ball slips through the gap of the innermost ring, that ring breaks, and the ball has to find the gap in the next one. The rings rotate, so a gap is never where the ball last saw it. A ring counter tracks progress.
The ball never grows in Escape mode: a ball that swells while squeezing through a gap would get stuck, so size growth is switched off for this mode.
Picking Escape is open on every plan. Escape Mode Settings in the Engine tab unlock on Lite.
How Rings Break
A ring breaks in one of two ways:
1. The ball passes through its gap.
2. Shrink Mode is on and the ring closes in all the way to its floor (Minimum Radius Size). A ring that reaches the floor breaks by itself. This is what guarantees a run always finishes, even if the ball keeps missing the gaps.
With Time Trial on, there is a third outcome: the clock runs out, the run pauses, and it restarts two seconds later.
Settings in Basics
In Basics, the Mode settings tab shows these Escape controls. In Basics the Arena size you set is also the floor the rings shrink to, instead of Minimum Radius Size.
| Setting | Name in Engine | Range / options | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of rings | Number of Rings | 1 to 100 | 20 |
| Gap size | Gap Size | 5 to 100 degrees | 30 |
| Ring thickness | Ring Thickness | 0 to 50 | 4 |
| Gap pattern | Pattern | Aligned, Random, Spiral, Fixed size, One side, Staggered | Random |
| Ring spin speed | Ring Speed | 0 to 20 | 1 |
| Space between rings | Ring Spacing | 10 to 100 | 10 |
| Rings shrink over time | Shrink Mode | On / Off | On |
Core Structure
The rings themselves, and the optional Time Trial.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static Rings | Rings keep their size and never shrink, even with Shrink Mode on. | On / Off | Off |
| Time Trial | Adds a countdown. Breaking a ring adds time. If it reaches 0 the run restarts. Turning it on also turns on the HUD time display. | On / Off | Off |
| Start Time (s) | Time Trial: the starting clock. | 5 to 300 s | 10 |
| Time Addition (s) | Time Trial: seconds added per broken ring. | 0 to 30 s (step 0.1) | 5 |
| Time Addition Step (s) | Time Trial: changes the bonus by this much per ring already broken. Negative means later rings pay less, so the clock tightens. | -5 to +5 s (step 0.05) | -0.1 |
| Show Rings Count | Time Trial: a small rings-remaining line under the countdown. Drawn only when the ring counter is centred. | On / Off | Off |
| Number of Rings | How many rings the ball must break. The main control on run length. | 1 to 100 | 20 |
| Gap Size | Width of the opening in each ring, in degrees. | 5 to 100 | 30 |
| Ring Thickness | Line thickness of the breakable rings. 0 hides them, but they still block the ball. (Arts > Border Thickness is the outer arena line, a different setting.) | 0 to 50 | 4 |
| Solid Outer Ring | Draws the arena boundary as a full, unbreakable ring that blocks the ball like a normal wall. Also found in Arts > Outer Layer & Boundary; it is the same setting. | On / Off | Off |
Movement & Behavior
How the rings move.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stop Rotation on Hit | The first ring break freezes rotation for the rest of the run, so the remaining gaps stay where the viewer last saw them. Escape only. | On / Off | Off |
| Wide Ring Spacing | A shortcut that flips Ring Spacing between 20 and 60. On whenever Ring Spacing is above 30. | On / Off | Off |
| Ring Speed | How fast the rings rotate. | 0 to 20 (step 0.1) | 1 |
| Ring Spacing | Distance between neighbouring rings. Wide spacing gives the ball room to build speed; narrow looks like a dense onion. | 10 to 100 | 10 |
Tip
- In plain Escape mode (not Rhythmic Escape), press S on your keyboard to freeze or unfreeze ring rotation during playback.
Assist Systems
Shrink Mode and its helpers decide whether a run is guaranteed to finish.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shrink Mode | Rings close in over time. A ring that reaches the floor breaks by itself, so every run ends. | On / Off | On |
| Base Shrink Rate | How fast the rings close in. Start low (1 to 3). | 0 to 10 (step 0.1) | 3 |
| Dynamic Scaling | Speeds up the shrink as rings are cleared, up to 4 times the base rate near the end. | On / Off | Off |
| Minimum Radius Size | The floor: the smallest the innermost ring shrinks to. Outer rings stop one Ring Spacing further out each. | 10 to 500 | 200 |
| Side Guards | Adds physical guards on the edges of each gap, so the ball cannot slip around the rim of the gap. | On / Off | Off |
| Gap Support | Keeps each ring at its own original slot instead of letting the whole stack close up, with Support Strength as an extra floor. | On / Off | Off |
| Support Strength | Shown with Gap Support: the extra floor distance. | 10 to 500 | 50 |
Gap Configuration
Where the gaps sit and which way the rings turn.
| Setting | What it does | Options / range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern | ALIGNED: every gap at the same angle. RANDOM: each gap at a random angle. SPIRAL: each gap a little further round than the one inside it. FIXED SIZE: like Aligned, but every gap is the same width in pixels, so outer gaps are narrower in degrees. ONE SIDE: gaps on one side, same as Aligned. STAGGERED: gaps alternate between two opposite sides. | ALIGNED, RANDOM, SPIRAL, FIXED SIZE, ONE SIDE, STAGGERED | RANDOM |
| Spiral Tightness | Shown for SPIRAL: how far each gap turns from the one inside it. Small values give a smooth spiral; large values scatter the gaps. | Default 0.15, slider 1 to 50 | 0.15 |
| Rotation Mode | ALTERNATING: neighbouring rings spin opposite ways. CLOCKWISE / COUNTER CLOCKWISE: all rings one way. NONE: no rotation. | ALTERNATING, CLOCKWISE, COUNTER CLOCKWISE, NONE | CLOCKWISE |
| Opposite Gaps | How many of the innermost rings have their gap flipped to the opposite side. | 0 to 4 | 0 |
| Opposite Size | Gap width, in degrees, for those flipped rings. | 5 to 100 | 30 |
HUD Display: the Ring Counter
The number that shows how many rings are broken (or left).
| Setting | What it does | Range / options | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Where the counter sits. FOLLOW BALL moves with the ball. | CENTER, TOP CENTER, BOTTOM CENTER, FOLLOW BALL, NONE | FOLLOW BALL |
| Count Down (Countdown in Time Trial) | Counts down to 0 instead of up. | On / Off | Off |
| Offset | Vertical nudge in pixels. | -500 to 500 | -40 |
| Text Scale | Size of the number. | 0.1 to 5 | 0.4 |
| Opacity | Transparency of the number. | 0 to 1 | 0.4 |
| Text Color | Number colour (ignored while Use RGB is on). | Colour | White |
| Use RGB | Cycles the number through rainbow colours. | On / Off | On |
| Border Color | Outline colour. | Colour | Black |
| Use RGB Border | Rainbow outline. | On / Off | Off |
| Border Width | Outline thickness. | 0 to 20 | 0 |
| Font Weight | Thin to Black. | Thin, Light, Normal, Medium, Semi-Bold, Bold, Extra-Bold, Black | Black |
| Shadow Color | Drop shadow colour. | Colour | Black |
| Shadow Blur | Drop shadow softness. | 0 to 50 | 0 |
| Font Family | Typeface of the counter. | 22 fonts, from Inter to Impact | Space Grotesk |
Ring Pattern Studio: Ring Colours
How the rings are coloured.
| Setting | What it does | Shown for | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern Mode | RAINBOW, ALTERNATING, GRADIENT, UNIFORM or INDIVIDUAL colouring. | Always | RAINBOW |
| Spectral Density | How quickly the rainbow cycles across the rings (0.1 to 50). | RAINBOW | 1 |
| Prism Start / Prism End | The two colours that alternate or blend across the stack. | ALTERNATING, GRADIENT | Red / White |
| Shell Color | One colour for every ring. | UNIFORM | Blue |
| Layer Profiles | Ten colour slots, one per ring, repeating outward. | INDIVIDUAL | Blue |
Camera & Zoom FX
Zoom FX moves the camera as rings are cleared, so a big stack still fits the frame at the end.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom FX | Turns the ring-progress zoom on. | On / Off | Off |
| Zoom Max | The zoom reached when every ring is gone. Below 1 zooms out (the default 0.5 shows twice the area). Above 1 zooms in. | Default 0.5, slider 1 to 5 | 0.5 |
| Zoom Speed | How quickly the camera eases to the target. | 0.01 to 1 | 0.05 |
| Acceleration | Listed in this group; it does not change the run in the current version. | On / Off | Off |
Destruction & Visual FX
What a ring break looks like.
| Setting | What it does | Range / options | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Break Animation | The effect a ring breaks with. Grouped as Shatter & Pieces, Explosive & Force, Cosmic & Gravity, Energy & Light, Abstract & Grid, and VFX & Particles. | About 50 animations, or NONE | PHYSICS SHATTER |
| Shield Break Animation | Rhythmic Escape only: the effect when the shield ring breaks. | Same list | Supernova |
| Blast Duration | How long break effects stay on screen, in ms. | 200 to 3000 | 1000 |
| Blast Limit | Most break effects on screen at once; the oldest are recycled. The biggest lever on smoothness in break-heavy runs. 100 to 200 is safe. | 5 to 1000 | 200 |
| Shatter Force | How hard broken pieces are thrown. | Slider 1 to 50 | 100 |
| Shatter Gravity | How fast broken pieces fall. The default gives a normal fall; slider values (0 to 2) make pieces float. | Slider 0 to 2 | 500 |
| Blast Color | Colour of the break effect. | Colour | Red |
| Match Ring Color | Break effects take the colour of the ring that broke. | On / Off | Off |
| Cancel Prev Blast | Removes the previous break effect the moment a new ring breaks. Useful for fast runs. | On / Off | Off |
Progressive Break Stages (Sounds)
At the bottom of the panel, Progressive Break Stages lets the ring-break sound change as the run goes on. With it off, every ring uses the global break sound ("Global Sound Only").
Each stage covers the run "Until X % Gone", meaning until that share of all rings is broken. Example: a stage set to 30 plays for the first 30% of the rings. The last stage extends to 100%. A coloured bar previews the stages.
- 1Turn Progressive Break Stages on.
- 2Click Add Sound Stage. Each new stage starts 20% after the last one.
- 3Set "Until ... % Gone" (1 to 100) for the stage.
- 4Choose FX (a sound from the library) or User (one of your uploaded sounds), then pick the sound.
- 5Press the play button on a stage to preview it, or the cross to remove it.
- 6Optional: type a name under Zone Presets and click SAVE to reuse this set of stages later. Click a saved preset to load it (it replaces the current stages).
Recommended Setups
Change one setting at a time: Number of Rings, Gap Size, Ring Speed and Ring Spacing all interact.
| Goal | Settings |
|---|---|
| Quick, satisfying breakout | 10 to 15 rings, Gap Size 40 to 60, Ring Speed 1 to 2, Shrink Mode on. |
| Long, tense run | 30 to 50 rings, Gap Size 15 to 25, Rotation Mode ALTERNATING, Dynamic Scaling on so the end speeds up. |
| Countdown clip | Time Trial on, Start Time 10, Time Addition 3 to 5, Time Addition Step -0.1, ring counter Position CENTER with Show Rings Count on. |
| Hypnotic spiral | Pattern SPIRAL at the default tightness, Rotation Mode CLOCKWISE, Ring Pattern RAINBOW. |
| Big stack that stays framed | Zoom FX on with Zoom Max 0.5. |
Common Problems
The fixes for the problems people hit most.
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The run never ends | Shrink Mode is off (or Static Rings is on) and the ball keeps missing the gaps. | Turn Shrink Mode on and Static Rings off. Rings that reach the floor then break by themselves. Or widen Gap Size. |
| The run ends in a second | Too few rings, gaps too wide, or a fast shrink. | Raise Number of Rings, narrow Gap Size, lower Base Shrink Rate or turn off Dynamic Scaling. |
| The ball stalls or crawls | Low bounciness or speed in the Physics tab. | Set Bounciness near 1 and check the ball speed limits in Physics > Ball. |
| A full ring never breaks | Solid Outer Ring is on: it is an unbreakable arena wall. | Turn Solid Outer Ring off. |
| Rings pile up at the same size | Minimum Radius Size is large compared to your arena. | Lower Minimum Radius Size, or turn on Gap Support. |
| The ball slides round the edge of a gap | The ball skims the rim of the opening. | Turn on Side Guards. |
| Changing Ring Thickness seems to do nothing to the outer line | Arts > Border Thickness is the arena boundary, not the rings. | Use Ring Thickness here for the breakable rings. |
| Playback stutters when many rings break | Too many break effects at once. | Lower Blast Limit to 100 to 200, or turn on Cancel Prev Blast. |
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