The wall, and how a level ends
The board is 360×640 units and the bricks are stacked at the top in 8 columns. Their layout comes from the level number and a fixed seed, so every player meets the same wall on the same level — and so does the same player after an app update. A golden test pins the layouts down, which makes changing one a decision rather than an accident.
Rows are built symmetrically around the middle column, so a wall reads as a shape worth aiming at rather than a random scatter.
- Cleared: every brick is broken.
- Failed: you lose the last ball with no lives left, or a living brick reaches the line above the paddle.
- You start each level with 3 lives.
Controls, and how you aim
- Drag to move the paddle; it follows your finger exactly. The left and right arrow keys work too.
- Tap, or press Space, to launch a waiting ball.
- The angle comes from where the ball meets the paddle. Dead centre sends it straight up, and the further out you catch it the steeper it leaves — up to 60° from vertical.
- That is the entire aiming system. There is no aim line, no charge meter and no power-up that aims for you. The paddle is the sight.
While every ball is still waiting on the paddle, nothing on the board moves — not even the wall. Time spent aiming is free.
Hollow bricks, and what a life costs
- A brick drawn as an outline releases an extra ball when you break it. Up to 3 balls can be in play at once.
- Losing a ball is not losing a life. With two balls on the board, letting one go costs you the ball and nothing else.
- Only when the last ball goes does a life go with it, and the next ball is reloaded on the paddle.
- Hollow bricks are placed in the lower half of the wall, so reaching one is a small goal in itself.
Extra balls are free, earned inside the level, capped, and gone when the level ends. They are not sold, they are not behind an ad, and they never will be.
The wall comes down instead of a clock
The whole living wall creeps toward you by a few units every second, faster on higher levels. If a living brick touches the line just above the paddle, the level is lost however many lives you had left.
- That line is the pressure, and it stands in for a timer. No countdown, no flashing number, no warning light — just a hairline with a faint shadow, and the board itself as the clock.
- It also means a board can never be stalled. There is no way to sit safely forever, so there is no rule needed to force you on.
- Because the wall stops while every ball waits on the paddle, that pressure applies to playing, never to thinking.
The 100 levels
Clearing a level unlocks the next one, and any level you have cleared can be replayed. The unlocked frontier never moves backwards.
- Every difficulty lever moves continuously with the level number and nothing saturates before 100. The wall at level 90 is not the wall at level 60 in a different colour.
- Inside a level there is a second slope: the ball speeds up slightly with every brick you break, up to a cap. An emptying board does not become an easier one.
- That acceleration reaches a ball already in flight, immediately.
| What changes with the level | Level 1 | Level 100 |
|---|---|---|
| Rows of bricks | 3 | 7 |
| Squares in a row that carry one | 55% | 100% |
| Bricks holding a spare ball | 1 | 2 |
| Paddle width | 76 | 56 |
| Ball speed at launch | 240 | 330 |
| Top ball speed | 400 | 480 |
| Wall descent per second | 3 | 8 |
Widths and speeds are in the units of the 360×640 board. The paddle narrows as you climb; that number is never displayed, and it is not meant to be noticed — only felt.
The help you get
- Retry is instant, free and unmetered, and it gives you the same wall. What you learned about a layout is worth exactly as much on the next attempt.
- There is no Undo. On a board that moves in real time, "take back one move" does not describe anything that exists.
- There is no Hint. Everything is on screen already; nothing is hidden for a hint to reveal.
- There is no continue to watch an ad for and no extra life to buy. Losing means starting the level again, which costs nothing but the seconds you choose to spend on it.
- There is no mid-level save. Restoring a real-time board would drop a ball on you the moment it loaded, so leaving the game screen discards that attempt — while your statistics and unlocked levels are always kept.
Statistics are attempts, clears and total play time, and play time only counts while the board is moving. There is no score: the achievement here is whether the wall came down, and a number would quietly replace aiming with points-farming.
Questions people ask
Do I lose a life every time a ball drops?
Only if it was the last one. While more than one ball is in play, losing one costs you the ball and nothing else.
How do I aim?
By where the ball meets the paddle. The middle sends it straight up, and the further toward an edge you catch it, the steeper it leaves — up to 60°.
Can I take my time before launching?
Yes. Nothing moves while every ball is waiting on the paddle, so aiming costs you nothing at all.
Is there a time limit?
No clock, but the wall creeps down while you play. Let a living brick reach the line above the paddle and the level ends there.
Is there a score?
No. Attempts, clears and play time are recorded. Whether the wall came down is the achievement.
Is there a daily challenge?
Not yet. The boards are seed-deterministic, so one can be added later in the same shape Water Sort already has.