The seesaw that turned into a catapult

Tilt Merge is a fruit merge game with no jar, only a wobbly seesaw. It's out now on Google Play, and its Launch Week on PixelPicked runs Nov 8–14. Before release, two playtests changed how the seesaw behaves.

Too touchy

The first build felt far too hard, and the numbers agreed. Most merges of resting fruit happened on the high side, the one holding the balance, and a merged pair can lose up to 35% of its weight at once. A single pear at the tip could tip the whole board and cost a heart.

Now the pivot pulls back harder near the ground, so losing counterweight in a merge doesn't tip the board by itself. Resting fruit also grips the board and stays put on gentle slopes.

The orange trampoline

Then, playing on a real phone, everything started to break once oranges showed up, and fruit jumped off the board. Each landing changed the board's speed in a single hit, and the orange is the heaviest fruit that drops. The rising side hit the resting fruit like a catapult.

Now that hit has a cap and arrives over several steps. Across 100 test games with a bot:

• Fruit thrown off by a jump: from 1.08 to 0.34 per game
• Top board speed: from 1.27 to 0.55 rad/s
• Jump height (90th percentile): from 29 px to 10 px

You can try it right here with the demo on this page. If the seesaw ever feels unfair, let me know.