Physics games

Which physics game should you play?

• You want to smash things. Clatterfall. Every block has real weight and a breaking point: wood splinters, glass shatters and stone cracks slowly. 200 levels in eight valleys, plus a Daily Topple.
• You want something calm. Moon Jar. Drop moons into a jar, and they roll and bump before two of a kind merge. Zen mode has no game over at all.
• You like to build a solution. Ink Bridge. Draw a ramp or a bridge with your finger, tap Go, and the marble rolls along your lines toward the cup.
• You like aiming. Lamplight Pool is 8-ball and 9-ball where balls slide, then roll, and come off the rails like a real table. Kestrel Kicks curls free kicks with real spin and drag.
• You want a classic. Pocket Pinball has thirteen tables, and Low-G Lander asks you to set a pod down gently on worlds with their own gravity.

How knockdown games work

In a knockdown game you launch something at a tower and try to bring it down on the targets inside. The trick is that a good shot doesn't have to hit the target. It hits the right support and lets gravity do the rest. In Clatterfall the targets are grumpy gray Mopes, and they pop when something hits them hard enough: your shot, a falling beam, a rolling log or a blast.

1. Press on the launcher and drag back. The further you pull, the harder the shot, and a dotted line shows the first stretch of the flight.
2. Let go to fire. Pick your next shot from the tray, in any order.
3. Some shots have a trick. Tap while it's flying to split acorns into three, slam the Iron Bell down or zip a seed forward.
4. Pop every Mope to clear the level. Run out of shots and you just try again. There are no lives and nothing to wait for.

We wrote our own physics for Clatterfall, and it's fully repeatable: the same shot does exactly the same thing on every phone and computer. That's what makes the Daily Topple fair for everyone.

Physics game tips

• Aim for the legs. A thin post near the bottom of a tower is worth more than the roof.
• Watch what will fall, not just the target. A beam dropping from above pops a Mope as well as any shot.
• Glass is a door, not a shield. Save the heavy shots for stone.
• In drop games, keep the biggest piece in a corner. In Moon Jar, that leaves room to build the next size next to it.
• Use the last shot's path. Clatterfall leaves your previous flight as faint dots, so nudge from there instead of starting over.

Questions