swing-stack

A single-mechanic prototype. It is the most economical format for testing a game idea: if it is not fun on its own, no added layer will save it.

The mechanic fits in one sentence. A block hangs from a rope and swings from one edge to the other; you release it, it falls on the stack, and whatever overhangs is sliced off and carried away. The piece that remains becomes the width of the next block, so that every imprecision is paid twice, once in lost surface and once in added difficulty. A near-perfect release keeps the width and chains a combo; below a few pixels of remainder, the game is over. The swing speeds up with each floor.

The rest is acknowledged dressing: colour skins to unlock, a best score kept on the device, and a game packaged for mobile.

The verdict is missing. On this kind of game it is not obtained by playing it yourself, but by watching whether strangers come back the next day, and the prototype was never published. It is a mechanic that works, with no proof it holds for more than two minutes.