A calm puzzle about a stream of little robots that keep walking until you step in. They drop, they march, they turn at walls and they fall off edges.
First test build — Android release coming
PlatformAndroid
ControlsTap only
WorldsFour
Levels23
SkillsNine
PriceFree
You never touch a robot directly. You hand one of them a skill, and the whole line behind it follows the path that skill just made — a dug shaft, a built staircase, a body standing in the way.
Bring enough of them home and the next level opens. Bring all of them home, inside par, and the card gives you three flags. Nothing is timed, so the pressure is entirely a number you decided to care about.
Free permanently, like everything else here — no advertising, no in-app purchases, no subscription.
The reel
One recorded session, the first worlds, no cuts.
How it plays
They walk. You decide where.
Three things happen in every level, and the middle one is the whole game.
01
They drop and walk
A hatch opens and they come out one at a time, straight ahead, turning at walls and walking off edges without looking.
02
Give one a skill
Tap a skill, tap a robot. Whatever it does to the level stays there, and every robot behind it follows the new route.
03
Bring them home
Enough of them through the door opens the next level. All of them, inside par, is three flags — and you can play it again for a better one.
Four worlds
Four places, four new problems.
Each world looks like itself and brings one new thing with it — something in the ground, in the air or in the way out.
The Garden
Violet blocks, small trees and open sky. Where you learn what a robot does when nobody stops it.
The Mine
Underground and dark, lit by crystals. The ground is no longer something you can trust to stay there.
The Coast
Pale sand under a low sun, with water you cannot walk across. Build over it or go around it.
The Ruin
Deep blue night, portals and pressure plates. Everything the first three taught you, at once.
Nine skills
You change the level, not the robot.
Every skill except one changes the world rather than the robot you gave it to, which is why the line behind it follows.
01
Dig
Straight down, leaving a shaft everything behind it drops into.
02
Mine
The same, at an angle — a slope down instead of a hole.
03
Bash
Horizontally through a wall, opening a corridor at the height it was walking.
04
Build
A staircase forward and up. It stays there for everything that comes after.
05
Block
Stands still and turns everyone else around. The cheapest way to buy yourself a plan.
06
Turn
One robot about-faces on the spot, without needing a wall or a blocker to do it.
07
Jump
Over a gap or up a ledge that is one too high to walk onto.
08
Float
Survives the drop that would otherwise have been the end of it.
09
Climb
Up a wall instead of turning at it, which is the way out of a level with no floor to spare.
What is in the build
Eight things, and then it is finished.
01
Four worlds
A garden, a mine, a coast and a ruin. Each one looks like itself and brings a new element with it.
02
Twenty-three levels
Hand-made, named, and each with a goal of its own: how many have to come home, and in how few skills.
03
Nine skills
Dig, mine, bash, build, block, turn, jump, float and climb. Each level offers only some of them.
04
Par, and three flags
Getting enough of them home is a pass. Everybody home inside par is the full result, and it is there to be chased.
05
The level obeys you
Pause any time, speed it up once you know the way, and call everyone back when it is clearly going wrong.
06
Play it again
Every level is open once you have passed it, so a scrappy win is never the last word on it.
07
Two languages
English and Dutch, switched on the title screen or in settings, right down to the level names.
08
Yours, offline
No account, no sign-in, no network call. Your progress stays in the app storage on your own phone.
On a tablet
Room to see the whole level.
Tablet layout — still being tested
There is no separate tablet build. LOOP lays itself out for the screen it is on: the level gets the middle with space around it, the read-out collapses into one pill with the game name in it, and the controls sit together along the bottom.
It is the same twenty-three levels and the same nine skills — nothing is cut and nothing is added. What changes is how much of the board you take in before you decide where the line should go. Like Shift's, this side of it is still going through testing.
Shown on a ten-inch tablet. Seven and ten inch both work.
Questions
The things people ask first.
When does LOOP come out?
It is in its first test build, 0.1.0. The Android release is coming and there is no store link yet, because the build is not on Google Play.
What does LOOP cost?
Nothing. It is free permanently, with no advertising, no in-app purchases and no subscription.
How do you play it?
Robots come out of a hatch and walk on their own. You tap a skill and then a robot, and whatever that does to the level changes the route for every robot behind it.
Was this not called Project Lem?
It was. Project Lem was the name of the folder it was built in. The game is called LOOP.
How many levels are there?
Twenty-three in this build, across four worlds, all hand-made. More come with later versions.
Is there a time limit?
No. Nothing counts down. You can pause, speed the level up, restart it, or call every robot back and start the run again.
Does LOOP work on a tablet?
Yes. The same build lays itself out for the screen it is on, so a tablet gets more of the level in view. That layout is still being tested, so expect it to be rougher than the phone one.
Does it work without internet?
Yes. There is no account and no network call. Your progress stays in the app storage on your own phone.
