Ink Bridge

What is Ink Bridge?

Every level is a page with a marble, a cup and some trouble in between: gaps, walls, spikes, seesaws, fans. You draw lines in ink, and when you press Go, real physics takes over. The marble rolls, bounces and drops along whatever you drew. Get it into the cup and the level is solved.

There's rarely one right answer, which is the fun of it. A steep ramp, a gentle slope and a little wall to stop it overshooting can all work. Ink Bridge is free and plays in your browser on phone, tablet or computer, no download needed.

How to play

• Draw with your finger or mouse. Each stroke becomes a solid line. You can draw as many as you like, as long as you have ink.
• The ink bar at the top shows how much ink you have left. Every level has its own supply.
• Tap Go to let the marble roll. Tap Stop to pause the run and go back to drawing.
• Undo removes your last stroke, and Clear wipes them all.
• You can't draw inside solid blocks, right on top of the marble, inside the cup or on a portal.

What ends a run

The run fails if the marble touches spikes, rolls off the page, sits still for more than a second and a half without reaching the cup, or takes longer than 25 seconds. No harm done: you go straight back to editing with your lines still in place, so you can nudge things and try again.

The four inks

New inks unlock as you play. Pick an ink from the swatches before you draw.

Green ink is cheap on ink for the length you end up with, which makes it handy for long bridges. Red ink works like a trapdoor: it holds the marble for one touch, then lets it drop.

Controls (phone and computer)

On a phone or tablet, draw with your finger and use the buttons. With a mouse, click and drag to draw. Keyboard shortcuts:

Stars and goals

Each level has three stars, and you can earn them on different tries. Stars you've earned stay earned.

• Reach the cup. Any solve.
• Grab the gem. Roll the marble through the gem on its way to the cup.
• Use less ink. Finish using no more than the level's target, shown as a little star mark on the ink bar. The target is different on every level, and on a few tight ones it's well under half the bar.

Thirty-six levels at three stars each makes 108 in all. The Hint button is always there, and it starts to glow after three failed runs. A hint shows a dashed ghost of a solution that works for about four seconds, so you can see the idea and draw your own.

Worlds, daily puzzle and collection

The levels come in three worlds of twelve, each on its own kind of paper:

• Notebook (1-1 to 1-12): ramps, gaps, walls, the first bouncy ink and a few long drops.
• Graph Paper (2-1 to 2-12): seesaws that tip toward the marble, moving bars, and green ink.
• Kraft (3-1 to 3-12): fans that blow the marble around, portals that send it across the page, red ink, and levels like Loop the Loop and the Grand Finale.

Solving a level opens the next two, so if one has you stuck, you can skip ahead and come back later.

The Daily Puzzle is a new level every day, the same for everyone, built from a solution our generator checked. Your score is 100 points per star plus a bonus for ink left over (100 minus the percentage you used), so a 3-star solve with very little ink scores best. Play it on consecutive days to build a streak, and compare scores on the daily leaderboard.

Marbles and paper

Open Marbles & Paper to change your look. Marbles unlock with total stars:

Papers unlock by finishing worlds: Graph Paper after the first, Kraft after the second and Blueprint after the third. Chalkboard unlocks after you've solved three daily puzzles.

Tips for draw line physics puzzles

• Solve first, save ink later. Get the marble in the cup with whatever it takes. Once you know the route works, replay and trim your lines for the ink star.
• Gentle slopes are easier to control. A steep ramp builds a lot of speed, and a fast marble overshoots cups and flies off ledges. If it keeps sailing past, flatten the line.
• Add a backstop. A short upright line just past the cup is often the difference between a marble that rattles in and one that bounces out.
• Keep lines smooth. Bumps and kinks in a hand-drawn line can kick the marble into the air. One confident stroke usually rolls better than a lot of little corrections.
• Mind the end of the ramp. The marble leaves your line at the angle of its last bit. Curve the end up slightly to launch it, or down to drop it softly.
• Plan for the gem early. The gem is usually a little off the obvious path. Draw your route through it from the start rather than adding a detour at the end, which costs more ink.
• Let green ink do the reaching. Because it grows by more than half its own length, a short green line can span a gap that would take a long black one.
• Use Stop to learn. Stop a run partway, look where the marble went wrong, and fix just that part. Your lines stay put between tries.

Want another puzzle with a drawing hand? Try Firefly Paths, a connect the dots path puzzle, or roll something different in Pebble Putt.

Questions