Features
Yes — a jump rope roguelike exists, it is called Scarlet Skips, it costs $4.99, and it is played entirely with one button. “Jump rope roguelike” hit Breakout status on Google Trends in the United States this week and “scarlet skips” rose +450% alongside it, which is an unusually clean signal: people encountered the phrase somewhere and went looking for the game behind it.
What Scarlet Skips is
Scarlet Skips released on 3 September 2026 from Yerk Games, self-published, at $4.99. You help Scarlet skip rope; you press, hold and release a single button; you stack upgrades to jump higher, survive longer and chase absurd scores. There are ten upgrade cards, drawn three at a time, and they combine — including setting the rope on fire.
Why a one-button game can carry a roguelike
The instinct is that this is too thin to be a roguelike. It is not, and the reason is worth stating because it explains a whole category of small Steam hits.
A roguelike needs two things: a run that can end, and choices that compound. It does not need a large moveset. When the input is reduced to press-hold-release, every upgrade has to express itself through timing, height or rope behaviour — so the ten cards are not ten stat increases, they are ten modifications to the only verb in the game. Stacking them changes what a good rhythm feels like, which is the same compounding structure a 200-card deckbuilder is chasing, arrived at from the other direction.
This is the pattern behind a lot of the cheap end of Steam: games under $10 cannot afford breadth, so the ones that work buy depth by constraining the input and putting all the variety into how upgrades interact. One verb, many modifiers, is a cheaper game to build and a better game to replay than five verbs with nothing attached.
The practical details
| Detail | Confirmed |
|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 |
| Released | 3 September 2026 |
| Developer | Yerk Games (self-published) |
| Controls | Single button; keyboard-only and mouse-only options both listed |
| Steam Deck | Verified |
| Languages | English only |
Steam Deck Verified is not incidental here. A one-button score chaser is close to the ideal handheld game, and Valve’s rating confirms the controls and readability hold up on the small screen rather than leaving you to find out.
The honest caveat
Two things a buyer should know.
First, the game has attracted criticism over the sexualisation of its protagonist. Games press covered the discussion in early September 2026, and it is a live disagreement rather than a settled verdict — but if character presentation matters to you, look at the store page screenshots before buying rather than after. We are flagging it because a $4.99 impulse purchase is exactly the kind of thing people buy without looking.
Second, the scope is genuinely small and the game does not pretend otherwise. At 122 concurrent players at the time of writing, this is not a phenomenon; it is a well-made small thing that a trend spike briefly pointed at. Treat the Breakout query as evidence that the concept is memorable, not that the game is enormous.
Frequently asked questions
What is the jump rope roguelike called?
Scarlet Skips, developed and published by Yerk Games, released on Steam on 3 September 2026.
How much does Scarlet Skips cost?
4.99 dollars on Steam at the time of writing.
Is Scarlet Skips really played with one button?
Yes. The entire game uses press, hold and release inputs of a single button, with both keyboard-only and mouse-only options supported.
Does Scarlet Skips work on Steam Deck?
Yes. Valve lists it as Steam Deck Verified.
How long is a run in Scarlet Skips?
Runs are score-chasing and end when Scarlet misses, so length depends on your build and timing rather than on a fixed stage count.
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