ArcadeWhale
ArcadeWhale OriginalMade in-house, playable only here
Papercut
How to play
One button — Space, click or tap anywhere · tap flips the blade · hold spins heavy (cuts card, falls faster) · tap as you touch a staple to bounce · P pause
About Papercut
Papercut is a one-button arcade game set inside a toy paper theatre. You are the blade: a spinning rotary cutter that travels left to right across a lit stage while paper scenery hangs and stands in its way. There is no steering. The only thing you ever decide is your height, and the only control is a single button — Space, a mouse click, or a tap anywhere on the screen. It runs in the browser on desktop and phone with nothing to install, and because there is one input it plays exactly the same with a thumb as it does with a keyboard.
A short press flips the blade upward; gravity brings it back down and the stage boards bounce you gently rather than ending the run, so the rhythm is a series of small corrections rather than a single fatal mistake. Flying through a coral paper flat cuts it and the pieces scatter. Brown corrugated card will not part for a normal spin: hold the button down and the blade turns gold and spins heavy, which cuts through card but also pulls you down noticeably faster. That trade is the game. Every piece of card is the same question asked again — is this cut worth the altitude it costs, or do I keep my line and go over the top?
Seven acts each add one new material, and none of them repeat an existing penalty. Folded pink paper is the mirror of card: a light spin only grazes it, so it never blocks you but it never counts either, which means the cost is a star rather than a second of height. Yellow tape cuts but sticks, killing your climb the moment you touch it. A green paper coil is not an obstacle at all — it launches you upward, so it is a tool you route towards on purpose. An orange shutter only parts along its top half; the framed bottom half stops you, so it dictates where you pass rather than how you spin. Blue-grey staples end the run outright, unless you tap at the exact moment you touch one, which bounces you off it and turns the most dangerous object on the stage into a way to gain height.
The theatre itself interferes, and never twice the same way in a scene. A draft from the wings pulls the blade upward while it lasts. The house lights die and the stage goes dark except for a pool of light around you, so you keep playing but can no longer plan far ahead. Your blade goes dull and the heavy spin simply stops working until it passes — the golden ring turns to a broken grey outline so you can see why the button is doing nothing. The curtain comes down and the ceiling with it. A rival cutter crosses behind you, and the backdrop drops to reveal a different set. Reaching the gold line at the end of a scene is enough to finish it; the stars come from how much of the set you cut on the way, which is why finishing is easy and finishing clean is not. Every scene is checked by a solver before it can be played, so a scene that cannot be completed never reaches you.
One button does everything — Space, a click, or a tap anywhere. A short press flips the blade upward; gravity brings it back down and the stage boards bounce you gently, so the whole game is choosing your height. Fly through a coral paper flat and it is cut. Brown corrugated card will not part for a normal spin: hold the button and the blade turns gold and spins heavy, which cuts the card but drops you faster — that trade is the game.
Folded pink paper is the other half of it: a light spin only grazes it, so you keep your line but lose the cut. Yellow tape cuts but sticks and kills your climb, a green paper coil launches you upward, and an orange shutter only parts along its top half. Blue-grey staples end the run — unless you tap at the exact moment you touch one, which bounces you off it.
Reach the gold line at the end of the scene to finish; stars come from how much of the set you cut on the way. Seven acts add a new material each, and the stage itself interferes: a draft from the wings, the house lights dying, a blade gone dull, the curtain coming down.
The 56 scenes are spread over four painted stages — a morning Village Fair, a Lantern Forest at dusk, a Moonlit Harbour and the Grand Gala — and each stage opens with a new material, announced on a card before the first flat arrives. The Scenes button lists every scene with the stars you earned, so you can go back for a clean cut, and the coins from each scene buy new blades: brass, ruby, jade and starlight. They change how the blade looks, never how it cuts.
Game details
- Developer
- ArcadeWhale
- Genre
- Arcade
- Released
- Updated
- Platforms
- Browser (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Players
- Single player
- Leaderboard
- Weekly, resets every Monday
Frequently asked questions
How many buttons does the game use?
One. Space, a mouse click, or a tap anywhere on the screen all do the same thing, and there is nothing else to learn. A short press flips the blade upward. Holding that same button down makes the blade spin heavy, which is a different action with a different result — so one input covers three verbs, and the third one, bouncing off a staple, is about when you press rather than how long.
What is the difference between tapping and holding?
A tap flips the blade up and lets it spin normally, which cuts paper but bounces off corrugated card. Holding the button makes the blade spin heavy: it turns gold, it cuts card and shutters, and it falls faster while you hold it. Holding is never free, so the useful skill is holding for exactly as long as the cut needs and releasing to get your height back.
What happens if I touch a staple?
It ends the run — unless you press the button at the moment of contact. The window is roughly a quarter of a second, which is about human tap reaction time, and a successful bounce throws you upward. Staples are the only object in the game that can kill you, and they are also the only object that can gain you height, so late acts often route you through them on purpose.
Does the game get harder by getting faster?
Speed rises a little each act, but that is tempo rather than difficulty. The gaps between props are defined in seconds rather than in distance, so a faster act does not squeeze your reading time. What actually gets harder is the set of materials on the stage: each act introduces a behaviour that asks a new question, and the stage events interrupt the rules you have just learned.
How many scenes are there, and can I replay one?
There are 56 scenes: seven acts of eight, spread over four stages. A scene unlocks when you finish the one before it, and the Scenes button at the top shows every unlocked scene with its best star count, so any of them can be replayed for a cleaner cut. Finishing the last scene of the Grand Gala completes the campaign.
How do I get three stars on a scene?
Reaching the gold line finishes a scene, but the stars are counted from how much of the set you cut on the way. Three stars means you cut everything, which usually costs you height and forces heavy spins you would rather skip. Folded paper is the usual reason a run finishes with two stars rather than three: it never blocks you, so it is easy to sail past without noticing you left it uncut.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, on your device. The act and scene you reached, your coins, your stars and the blades you bought are kept locally, so closing the tab and coming back later drops you where you stopped rather than at the beginning. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account to make.
Is Papercut like Slice Master?
Partly. Both are one-button games where a spinning blade flips across a course and cuts what is in its way. It is our own game, not the official Slice Master. Papercut is set in a paper theatre: holding the button spins the blade heavy enough to cut card but pulls you down faster, staples bounce you up only if you tap at the right moment, and there are 56 scenes across four stages. It runs free in the browser.
