Tick Down is a brain game built around one honest pressure: the clock. Letters rounds, numbers rounds and a closing conundrum, every one of them scored against a CPU opponent.
You choose how long you have got. Three rounds for a coffee break, or eleven for a marathon, at easy, normal or hard. A daily challenge of three seeded puzzles runs alongside it, with a streak to keep alive and eighty one trophies behind that.
It plays offline and keeps your progress on the device. There is no account and no sign-up, and the only thing that ever leaves the phone is a display name and a score, if you choose to join the leaderboards. That was a product decision rather than a shortcut, and it is a large part of why the game feels quick to open and quick to trust.
Privacy policyThe player picks the gap
Three rounds fits a coffee break, eleven fills a commute, with the CPU set to easy, normal or hard. The game bends to the time somebody has rather than the other way round.
Familiar, and not
Letters, numbers and conundrums are instantly readable to a mass audience, and the banking and buzzing mechanics give each round a decision worth getting wrong.
Somebody to beat
Every game is scored against a beatable CPU, so a session ends in a result rather than a number. Medals sit on top of that, which is what makes a near miss worth replaying.
A reason to come back tomorrow
A daily challenge of three seeded puzzles, a streak, a clean sweep bonus, eighty one tiered trophies and a rank that climbs. The retention loop is already built and running.
Offline first, social when you want it
Full game with no account and no tracking, so it works on a train. Leaderboards are opt in, and a player can delete their entry from inside the app.
Interested in Tick Down?
It is out there and you can play it now. We are also open to publishing conversations, about this one and about what comes next.
