The one rule nobody gets at first: aim one tile lower

If you have played a round of Bouncelings, there is a good chance your first jump went wrong. You clicked the Heal and landed on a skull. That is not a bug. It is the one rule of the game, and this devlog is about why it is there and how I am trying to teach it better.

What actually happens

Every turn, all four squishies pick a tile at the same moment and jump. While they are in the air, the whole board slides down one row. So the tile you click is not the tile you get: you get whatever was one row above it.

Want the Heal? Click the tile just below it.

Why it stays

The sliding board comes straight from Jelly Battle, the 2007 Flash game Bouncelings is a homage to. Without it, a turn is mostly "grab the nearest heal". With it, every jump is a small puzzle: you read the row above, guess where the other three are heading, and commit before the timer runs out. That moment of "wait, one lower" is exactly what makes a good jump feel earned.

How I am teaching it now

• A video (above) that explains the rules in one minute: it freezes on the moment of aiming, shows the board sliding down in slow motion, and lands you right on the Heal. After that you watch a full match at 2x speed.
• A 50-second version for phones: https://youtube.com/shorts/-nvMSNweoOM
• The same video now sits on the homepage of bouncelings.com and in the press kit.
• In the game itself the rule stays in view under the board while you play.

Also new this week

• Bouncelings is now on Google Play, next to the App Store and the browser.
• Version 1.3 is in review on both stores. It brings the ghost bench from the last devlog: knocked-out squishies stay next to the arena and can keep sending emotes.

Play free: https://bouncelings.com

If you can explain "aim one tile lower" in fewer words than I just did, tell me in the comments.

c3dr1k