In development · iPhone and iPad
A liquid-sorting puzzle, built to be calm
Pour colours between vessels until each one holds a single shade. Easy to pick up, with rather more going on underneath: a duel mode, themes that change the rules rather than the palette, and levels authored one at a time by hand.
What makes it different
Four things we got stubborn about
It has a duel mode
Play a board head to head, against the game or against someone you know. Duel boards are authored from scratch rather than recycled from the solo game, and every one is checked by a solver that knows the exact forced-win distance. A match is short enough to fit in a gap between other things.
Themes that change the rules
Each theme brings its own look, its own audio, and at least one piece of gameplay you have not met before. Wonderland has a teapot, four character-owned level sets, and boards big enough to test everything the earlier levels taught you.
Rules you can see
Every mechanic explains itself on the board. Frozen liquid sits beside a lit brazier, which is how you know it melts. A one-way retort has a shape that only pours when it is full. The picture does the work the tutorial text would otherwise have to.
Finished properly
Complete a Wonderland level and a card is dealt over the board, held for a beat, then spread into a hand as the themed background fades up behind it. Under two and a half seconds, and a tap anywhere skips it, because a celebration that gets in the way stops being one.
Themes
Worlds, not skins
Each theme brings its own look, its own audio and at least one mechanic the others do not have. Levels are hand-authored and checked by a solver, so every board has a real solution and a par worth chasing.
Zen Garden
Where the vocabulary is taught. Small boards, classic sorting, the goal variants arriving late
Bamboo, raked sand, still water
Alice in Wonderland
Four character-owned sets and a teapot. Big, crowded boards that recombine everything Zen taught, at a scale Zen never reached
Card-spread endings, rose petals and gold dust
More packs are in development: Arthurian, Norse, and one built around the scientists.
Where the themes come from
British and European stories
Wonderland is Lewis Carroll, and what follows stays in that territory: the folklore, legend, literature and history of this part of the world. One pack in development is built around the scientists, Newton among them. It is the material we know best, and the material worth spending a year inside.
A theme has to earn its place by bringing a mechanic, not just a palette, which is the main reason there are fewer of them than there might be.
Release
Title to be revealed
Coming to the App Store for iPhone and iPad. The name is being kept back a little longer.
If you would like to know when it lands, or you write about games and want an early build, get in touch.