Marbles

What Marbles is

Marbles is a pull-back-and-let-go physics game set on a bedroom floor. Two pencils stuck in a pink eraser hold a rubber band, and the band flings marbles across the room. At the other end, dust bunnies have moved into forts built from cardboard, wooden alphabet blocks, bricks and stacks of books. Clear every dust bunny off the floor to win the level.

Everything on the floor is simulated. Blocks stack, slide, tip and topple under their own weight, so a marble that knocks out the bottom of a tower can bring the whole thing down. Each material is tougher than the last: cardboard gives way to almost anything, wooden blocks crack after a couple of solid hits, and bricks need something heavy. Book stacks never move at all, so forts built on top of them have to be hit from the right height.

There are five kinds of marble, and each level hands you a set in a fixed order. The Aggie is the all-rounder. The Pee-wee is small and splits into three mid-flight. The Steelie is heavy, and a tap sends it slamming straight down. The Big Bonker is a huge cat’s-eye that barely slows down when it hits something, and the Bouncy Ball ricochets off everything.

There are 24 levels in two sets of twelve. The second set brings card castles, a plank balanced on a single brick, a leaning tower, dominoes on a staircase of books and a grand finale with seven marbles. Every marble you do not need is worth a bonus, and clearing a level in fewer shots earns more stars. Each level unlocks the next, and your stars and best scores are kept on your device.

Screenshots

How to play

1. Press anywhere on the floor and drag back. The marble pulls back on the band and a dotted line shows where it will fly.
2. Let go to launch. The further you pull, the harder it flies.
3. Tap again while a Pee-wee or Steelie is in the air to use its trick: three Pee-wees for the price of one, or a Steelie slam.
4. Wait for the dust to settle. The next marble loads once everything has stopped moving.
5. Clear every dust bunny before you run out of marbles. Spare marbles are worth 10,000 points each.

Controls

On a phone or tablet: Drag back with a finger anywhere on the game and lift to launch. Tap while the marble is flying to use its trick. Turning the phone sideways gives you a bigger floor.

Tips

• Aim low on tall towers. Knocking out the bottom floor does more than hitting the top.
• Use the dotted line from your last shot. Your previous flight stays on screen as white dots, so you can adjust from it.
• Save heavy marbles for bricks. A Steelie or Big Bonker breaks what an Aggie only dents.
• Split a Pee-wee just before it reaches a fort, so all three pieces land on target.
• A falling block hurts a dust bunny as much as a marble does. Sometimes the best shot hits nothing near the bunny at all.

Questions

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