Roddy Universe, Part 1 — One Beat Before Crossing, the Empty Road Between the Cars
RoadMaster UniverseUniverse

Roddy Universe, Part 1 — One Beat Before Crossing, the Empty Road Between the Cars

By HANILAB
HANILAB UNIVERSE · ROADMASTER

One Beat
Before Crossing

The first scene of the Roddy universe. It connects to no other story — it belongs to Roddy alone. A boy in a red hoodie at the grassy edge of a road, cars that never stop running, and something twinkling on the far side.

Roddy, a boy in a red hoodie, squinting as the wind tugs at his hood

This is the first story of the Roddy universe. In this world, the boy in the red hoodie from RoadMaster’s cover image is called Roddy — a name he got from the road. The scenes are all imagined, but the look of the road and the guide texts of the first run are exactly as they are in the real game.

5 stepsFirst-run guide — MOVE · WATCH THE TRAFFIC · CROSS! · COLLECT · KEEP GOING
3 mWidth of one lane strip
9 tilesWidth of the screen
1 stepDistance of a single tap
CHAPTER 01

At the Edge of the Grass

Roddy stood on the grass beside the road. Soft green under his shoes, and right in front of him, gray asphalt and a yellow line stretching on forever. Then, far across the road, out in the meadow, one small yellow star twinkled.

Roddy seen from behind, standing on the green roadside grass and looking across a wide gray road. On the far meadow a small yellow starlight glimmers
One tiny light on the far side — the first “over there” Roddy ever saw

What could it be? He wanted to see it up close. But the road lay in between.

CHAPTER 02

Just the Tip of a Shoe

Whoosh — a red car sped past. A heavy blue truck rumbled after it. Roddy poked the toe of his shoe toward the asphalt, then yanked it back in a panic. Once, twice, three times.

Roddy at the edge of the grass, stretching one foot toward the road and pulling it back, while a red car and a blue truck blur past in a streak of speed
One foot out, one foot back — the cars never stopped

In the real game’s first run, the guide starts the same way. MOVE comes first, and right after it WATCH THE TRAFFIC. Before it teaches you to move, it teaches you to look.

Roddy squinting and holding his hood with one hand as the wind of a passing car lifts it and scatters leaves (vertical picture)
Every passing car shook his hood with its wind
How the game facts connect to the story
  1. Real game: RoadMaster is an endless road seen from above on a vertical screen. One lane strip is 3 m wide, the screen is 9 tiles wide, and a tap above, beside or behind the character moves it one step that way. In the first run the guide appears once, in this order: MOVE → WATCH THE TRAFFIC → CROSS! → COLLECT → KEEP GOING.
  2. Story: the yellow starlight across the road, the wind shaking the hood and Roddy’s hesitation are imagined for this universe. In the game, wind shows up only in pictures and sound — it never pushes the character.
CHAPTER 03

The Empty Road Between Cars

This time Roddy didn’t dash out. He watched. The red car whisked by, and only long after did a blue car show up around the bend. In between — the asphalt lay completely empty.

Roddy at the roadside raising one finger, his eyes sparkling. A red car and a blue car are far apart on the road, and the empty stretch between them is outlined in warm light
The empty road between two cars — the moment Roddy first read a “gap”
Waiting wasn’t stopping. It was watching for the moment to cross.— Roddy universe

He raised a finger and counted under his breath. One, two — now. His eyes lit up.

CHAPTER 04

Along the Yellow Line, a First Step

Roddy left the grass and stepped onto the asphalt. One step along the yellow line, then another. He spread his arms a little for balance and never took his eyes off the starlight at the end of the road.

Four scenes: Roddy takes a step from the grass edge, walks across the road on both feet, and bends down to pick up the glittering starlight
One step, then another — Roddy crosses the road and reaches the starlight
Roddy from behind, arms spread, taking a step on the yellow center line. At the end of the road a big yellow star shines brilliantly
With every step, the starlight at the end of the road grew a little bigger

On the far side, Roddy bent down and picked up the starlight. It was warm. Just like in the game, where COLLECT follows CROSS!. And when he looked up, the road hadn’t ended — it went on and on. That is the story of this universe, and it is the road of this game, too.

In the next story, we meet the moment Roddy falls while crossing.

HaniLab bee logo

A child who waited one beat at the roadside
laid a new road in the hive’s stories.

Play RoadMaster on Google Play RoadMaster complete guide hanilab.app

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