Merge Cup

Fixed the vertical touch offset at its source. On Android SDL normalises touch by the surface size and then multiplies it by the window size; when those two differ (the window can be shorter than the surface) the touch is compressed vertically, and the lower on the screen you tap, the further off the button it lands. The game now converts touch into the space it actually draws in, so buttons hit on their own — no calibration needed. The calibration from the previous version stays as a fallback and is saved once per device, not on every launch.

Touch calibration. If on your phone you have to tap next to a button to hit it, the SETTINGS now have a CALIBRATION entry: touch four points on the screen and the game works out the correction (offset and scale separately for each axis) and remembers it on the device. Next to it there is a CLEAR button to go back to the defaults. The circle marking the touch point now appears on every screen, so you can see at once where the game thinks your finger is.

Slime level in the settings. The new SLIME row has four steps — from MIN, calm matte balls, up to MAX, full jelly with stretching, gloss and wobble on impact. The choice is remembered on the device. Menu tapping improved too: buttons act on finger release, have 12 pixels of tolerance and highlight under your finger, so you no longer need to hit them pixel-perfectly.

Instead of a pause button, the system Back button (or gesture) now does the job: during a run it returns to the menu and pauses it, on the other screens it goes back to the menu, and in the menu it closes the game. On desktop the Esc key does the same. The pause button is gone from the board, so nothing covers the game.

Menu. A title screen with your best score and three buttons: PLAY, HOW TO PLAY and SETTINGS. In the settings you can turn the sound off and pick the ball style (slime or pencil drawing) — the choice is remembered on the device. In game there is a small pause button in the top-left corner (it sits outside the aiming range, so you cannot hit it while dropping a ball), and the game-over screen now has PLAY AGAIN and MENU buttons. Also fixed: the game did not pause when the app went to the background — the run collapsed if you switched to another app for a moment.

Game over only when a ball falls out to the side. I removed the timer that ended the run when a ball hung above the rim for too long — now the only thing that counts is a ball actually leaving the box. So that the game cannot go on forever (balls used to stack into a stable tower above the box), a ball above the rim gently topples sideways and the pile spills — so the run ends the way it should: by a ball falling out. The box is shaped like a vessel: vertical sides with a gently rounded transition into the bottom — no decorations underneath.

Game over reworked: a run now ends only when a ball actually falls out of the box to the side — the pile spilling over the rim no longer stops the game by itself, because the ball may still fall back in. If a ball stays above the rim for more than 2.5 seconds it counts as lost. Physics fixed too: with a very dense pile a ball could be pushed through the bottom and end the run for no reason.

The ball can no longer overshoot the box. Aiming is clamped to the opening — at the edge the ball touches the wall but always falls inside, so a misplaced drop no longer ends the run. The box now has a clean cylindrical shape: perfectly vertical walls and a flat bottom with no bevelled corners, so balls sit edge to edge.

Fixed aiming on phones. Touch was measured in screen pixels while the world is drawn in a smaller area (with bars at the top and bottom), so aiming drifted sideways — tapping the middle landed to the right and the edges were hard to reach. The mapping now comes from the actual drawing area and matches what you see. The version number is shown on screen, and a dot marks the touch point, so you can see at once whether the aim is under your finger.

The ball drops when you release your finger. Touching the screen only aims — you can slide your finger, and the ball falls exactly where you let go. A quick tap works the same as a drag. Improved aim indicator: the guide runs all the way to where the ball will land on the pile and ends with a mark. The aiming range is the whole screen — if you miss and the ball lands beside the box, the run ends.

Unrestricted aiming and a cylindrical box. The ball drops exactly where you touch the screen — if you miss and it lands beside the box, the run ends. The marks showing drop limits are gone: you see exactly where you are aiming. The box now has perfectly vertical walls and a bottom as wide as the opening, so a ball dropped against a wall stays there (the bevelled bottom used to slide it towards the middle, which looked like broken aiming).

Narrower box: there is less room for error. A ball dropped at a bad angle stays on the pile, and the pile reaches the rim sooner — so you have to aim instead of dropping anywhere. The walls stayed vertical so the sides are still usable, and the marks at the rim show how wide you can drop.

Tap to aim: the ball drops exactly where you touch the screen — no more dragging your finger across the board. The box has a wider opening and straighter walls, so you can aim right next to the sides, and marks at the rim show how wide you can drop. Sound works: a short plop when dropping and merging a ball, and a lower, falling tone when a run ends. The game used to be silent.

New look and sound. The balls are now soft and glassy: they stretch in the direction of travel and wobble like jelly on impact before settling back into a round shape. Sound added — a short plop when dropping and merging a ball. The board is lighter and hand-drawn, with a box instead of a round bowl, plus a progress bar at the bottom showing which ball levels are already unlocked.

First release. Balls drop into the box and two of the same level join into a bigger one — eleven levels and a combo multiplier of up to x8. A run ends when a ball falls out of the box, and your score and best result stay on the phone. No ads, no internet.