Take control of the ship and experience a different kind of vertical arcade action. In ALEXX SkyRider™, the challenge moves downward as you read the route, control your speed and react to obstacles, enemies and changing conditions.
Five distinct Faces, two game modes and a classic arcade spirit built around timing, control and survival.
PLAYABLE DEMOS AVAILABLE
PLAYABLE NOW
Experience two playable versions of ALEXX SkyRider™ directly from the official site.
SNOW FACE · 2 BRIDGES · INFINITE LIVES
Fly through a section of the Main Arcade experience and get familiar with the downward vertical action, enemies, Fuel, TNT and route control.
This demo uses infinite lives.
PLAY MAIN ARCADE DEMONIGHT FACE · 2 BRIDGES · INFINITE LIVES
Practice speed control, braking and route reading in a playable section of Time Attack.
Use this demo to learn how the ship responds before taking on more demanding arcade routes.
This demo uses infinite lives.
PLAY TIME ATTACK DEMO
OFFICIAL PLAYER GUIDE
ALEXX SkyRider™ is an arcade action game built around a different vertical perspective: instead of advancing upward, the route unfolds downward.
The player pilots a ship through changing environments while reading the path ahead, controlling speed, avoiding hazards and reacting to enemies that appear throughout the route.
The game combines classic arcade reflexes with decisions about movement, braking, Fuel, TNT and survival. Learning when to accelerate, slow down or change position is part of mastering the experience.
ALEXX SkyRider™ features five distinct Faces and two different ways to play: Main Arcade and Time Attack.
From the beginning, I wanted a game of my own. I did not want it to be only about shooting. I wanted to bring back some of the excitement I experienced with arcades: precision, reaction, making mistakes, trying again and finally mastering something that once seemed difficult.
My intention is not to copy a game from the past. ALEXX SkyRider™ combines those feelings with its own downward vertical action, its Five Faces and two ways to experience the route. That is what I wanted to share with other gamers.
PLAYER GUIDE
Pilot the ship through the downward route while avoiding enemies, obstacles and terrain hazards.
What I wanted was for the controls to be quick to understand, but for playing to teach you when to accelerate, when to slow down and how to anticipate danger. Learning by playing was also part of that arcade feeling I wanted to bring back.
Guide the ship left and right to find safe openings and position yourself for the next section of the route.
Use your weapons against enemies and destructible threats that block or pressure your path.
Acceleration is useful, but speed is not always the answer. Slow down or brake when you need more time to read the route and react.
Watch what is appearing below the ship. Anticipating enemies, obstacles and narrow passages is more effective than reacting at the last second.
Bridges mark important points along the route. Reaching each one means you have successfully advanced through another section of the Face.
Fuel, TNT, enemy patterns and your own speed all influence how long you can stay in control.
SURVIVAL SYSTEMS
Survival in ALEXX SkyRider™ is not only about avoiding enemies. Along the route, you must also make decisions about Fuel and TNT.
For me, the action should not depend only on shooting. Fuel and TNT also make you decide while everything keeps moving. Sometimes you want to reach something, but first you have to see whether you can do it without losing control.
Your ship continuously consumes energy as you advance.
Collect Fuel to restore energy and keep flying, but choose your approach carefully. Losing control while chasing Fuel can be more dangerous than missing it.
Speed also matters: slowing down can give you more control when approaching a Fuel opportunity.
Not every barrel is safe.
Some opportunities can reveal themselves as TNT as you approach. Touching TNT causes an explosion and costs you a life.
Watch what is ahead, control your speed and be ready to change your route when danger is revealed.
5 FACES · 5 ATMOSPHERES
ALEXX SkyRider™ unfolds across five distinct Faces, each with its own atmosphere, visual identity and gameplay pressure.
As you advance, the environment changes while the core challenge remains the same: read the route, control the ship and survive.
I did not want to change the background five times and leave it at that. I wanted the settings to have their own atmosphere and to feel different when played. The characters, sounds and movements had to be part of that experience.
The journey begins in daylight.
This Face introduces the player to the downward route, basic enemy pressure and the rhythm of moving, firing and controlling speed.
It is the first step toward understanding how ALEXX SkyRider™ is meant to be flown.
The route continues under a darker atmosphere.
The visual change demands greater attention to what is appearing ahead while enemies and obstacles continue to pressure your movement.
Control and anticipation become increasingly important.
The journey moves into a darker and more hostile environment.
The Cemetery Face changes the atmosphere completely while continuing to test route reading, positioning and survival.
By this point, reacting late becomes increasingly costly.
Cold terrain and an Arctic atmosphere define this Face.
The route becomes another test of control as you continue dealing with enemies, obstacles and the need to manage your movement carefully.
A playable section of this Face is available in the Main Arcade Demo.
The final Face takes the action into a rugged canyon environment.
It represents the last stage of the five-Face journey and brings together the skills developed throughout the previous routes.
Speed, positioning and anticipation all matter as the challenge reaches its final stretch.
ROUTE THREATS
Every Face in ALEXX SkyRider™ introduces threats that force you to keep reading the route and adjusting your movement.
Some enemies pressure the player directly. Others occupy important areas of the screen, limit safe movement or force you to change speed and position.
One of the ideas I had to explain was when the enemies should create pressure. It was not enough for them to appear on screen: I had to play and feel how their movements changed the way I reacted. If it did not feel the way I had imagined, I asked for adjustments.
Flying enemies can appear along the route and quickly turn an open path into a dangerous one.
Watch their movement, avoid getting trapped and use your weapons when the situation allows it.
Turrets and other fixed threats can attack from the terrain while you continue moving downward.
Because the route never stops demanding attention, positioning yourself early is often more effective than making a last-second escape.
Asteroids and other major hazards can reduce the amount of safe space available.
These sections test route reading and speed control, especially when more than one threat appears in the same area.
Some Faces introduce larger enemies such as the Yeti and the Stone Man.
These encounters increase the pressure and require you to combine movement, timing and awareness of the surrounding route.
TWO WAYS TO PLAY
ALEXX SkyRider™ offers two different ways to approach the downward vertical action.
In Main Arcade, the journey brings together the Five Faces and survival decisions. In Time Attack, the clock makes you look at how you are flying: where you accelerate, where you brake and what you can do better after a mistake. That difference gives each mode a purpose.
You can currently try a section of Snow in the Main Arcade Demo and a section of Night in the Time Attack Demo. Both have two bridges and infinite lives.
THE FIVE-FACE ARCADE JOURNEY.
Main Arcade takes you through the complete progression of environments, enemies and challenges that define ALEXX SkyRider™.
Your goal is to keep advancing through each Face while managing movement, speed, Fuel, TNT and survival.
As the journey continues, the pressure increases and the skills learned in the earlier routes become increasingly important.
MAIN ARCADE IS WHERE EVERYTHING COMES TOGETHER.
TRAIN THE SKILLS THAT MAKE YOU A BETTER PILOT.
Time Attack focuses on route mastery, braking and speed control.
It gives you a dedicated environment to practice the ship at three different speeds, learn when to accelerate or slow down, and improve how quickly you read what is appearing ahead.
The clock adds pressure, but the real purpose is training: learning to remain in control while moving faster and making better decisions.
Skills developed in Time Attack can help prepare you for the more demanding sections of Main Arcade.
PILOT GUIDE
ALEXX SkyRider™ rewards control more than reckless speed.
These basic habits can help you stay alive longer and understand the route more quickly.
Do not increase speed just because the path looks open.
Watch what is appearing ahead and make sure you have enough space to react.
Slowing down is not a mistake.
Use braking when the route becomes crowded, visibility is reduced or you need more time to choose a safe path.
Avoid placing the ship where enemies or obstacles can trap you.
Whenever possible, leave yourself room to move left or right.
Fuel can be important, but reaching it is not always worth losing control.
If the approach becomes dangerous, protect the ship first.
Do not assume every barrel is safe.
Approach carefully and be ready to change direction if TNT is revealed.
A crash can show you where you entered too fast, reacted too late or chose the wrong position.
Use each attempt to improve your next run.
Time Attack is a useful place to learn how the ship behaves at different speeds and how much reaction time each one gives you.
I have spent more than four decades watching video games, controllers, machines and the way we play change. ALEXX SkyRider™ began as a personal challenge: would it be possible to create a game based on my own ideas?
My contribution was to communicate how each movement should feel, what personality the character should have and what atmosphere I wanted in the settings. That is how I became part of the creative direction of the project.
I learned that having an idea in my mind was not enough. I had to know how to communicate it, because every mind is a different world. More than once, I would see a result that was not what I expected and, well, I would reject it. Other times, I needed to pause, think and find a better way to explain my idea.
Little by little, the characters, sounds, enemies and settings began to appear. But something was still missing: it had to be played. If playing it did not bring out that feeling of the machines of the 80s and 90s that I was looking for, I asked for changes.
There were also times when the result was much better than I expected. That is one of my greatest satisfactions: seeing how an idea could finally take shape as an arcade game that I can now share with other gamers.
TESTED WITH
The currently available ALEXX SkyRider™ playable demos have been tested on multiple systems and control setups to verify gameplay, navigation and input response.
For me, seeing that the game opens is not enough. During testing, I look at how the controller responds, whether the sounds play, how the ship moves, whether it stays stable and what happens with fullscreen and the return to the Gate. That is why I distinguish tested equipment from equipment that still needs to be checked.
Gameplay and navigation tested in a desktop browser environment.
Gameplay tested successfully on Linux Mint.
Gameplay, controls and browser performance tested successfully.
Playable through a compatible browser configuration. Firefox was used successfully during testing.
CONTROLS TESTED
Different controllers can provide a noticeably different arcade feel, but the core gameplay remains the same.
“Tested with” means that the current playable demos have been personally tested on the systems and control types listed below.
It does not mean that every device model, browser version or hardware configuration is guaranteed to behave identically.
For the best experience, use a current compatible browser and a controller that is correctly recognized by your device.
DEVELOPMENT & PILOT JOURNAL
Go beyond the player guide and explore the story behind ALEXX SkyRider™.
The Official Blog is the Development & Pilot Journal of the project: a place for deeper articles, gameplay analysis, development stories, testing experiences, strategy, videos and progress.
I do not want this Journal to be just a list of game features. I want to share the ideas, decisions, tests, mistakes and lessons that made the project possible. I will also share experiences from my decades as a gamer and how they influenced what can be played today.
Follow the decisions, ideas and changes that shape ALEXX SkyRider™.
Explore more detailed approaches to speed control, route reading, survival and improvement.
Read about real gameplay tests using different systems, browsers and controllers.
Explore gameplay videos, development stories and player progress.
The Gate provides the essential player guide.
The Blog goes deeper into the experience behind the game.
PLAYER INFORMATION
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Two playable demos are currently available from the official site: the Main Arcade Demo and the Time Attack Demo.
The current playable demos have been tested with keyboard, Xbox-style gamepads, USB gamepads, USB joysticks and arcade-style joysticks.
The current demos have been tested on Windows PC, Linux Mint, Chromebook and Steam Deck using a compatible browser configuration.
Main Arcade focuses on the five-Face arcade journey. Time Attack focuses on practicing route reading, braking and speed control.
Visit the Official Blog for development stories, gameplay analysis, testing experiences, strategy, videos and progress.
Information about privacy, cookies and site data is available in the official Privacy section.
VIEW PRIVACY INFORMATIONFor questions related to ALEXX SkyRider™, use the official contact information provided by the site.
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