Teak Tower Pulls

GORILLAS

About this app

Teak Tower Pulls is a quiet game of nerve played on a warm wooden table. Eighteen courses of cream timber, three blocks to a course, each course crossing the one below it. Nothing is dropped and nothing is random: the tower is complete from the first second, and every move you make takes support out of it.

On your turn you drag a block free from anywhere below the top complete course and lay it crosswise on the crown. The tower grows taller and thinner at the same time, and the combined weight of everything above each joint drifts a little further from the middle. It stands while that weight stays over the timber holding it up. The moment it does not, the whole stack goes.

AN HONEST STABILITY MODEL
The tower is solved as a stack of rigid courses. For every joint the game works out the centre of mass of everything carried above it, then measures how far that point sits from the edge of the timber still supporting it. The stability gauge shows the smallest of those margins across the whole tower, so it is telling you about the weakest joint rather than an average. As the margin narrows the tower visibly leans, and it leans the way the weight is really pulling.

SLOW IS SAFE
Every pull shakes the stack, and the shake is scaled by how fast your finger moves. A crawl barely disturbs anything. A snatch can cost more margin than three blocks of drift, and more than half of that rocking is still in the tower on the next turn. The pull speed meter is live while you drag, so you learn the feel of a safe hand instead of guessing at it.

AN OPPONENT THAT PLAYS FAIR
The opponent reads exactly the same numbers you can see. Easy takes anything that looks safe enough. Normal always takes the single safest block on the table. Hard takes a safe block that also leaves you the worst best option, which makes for a genuinely awkward game.

FIVE TABS
Play, Stats, Modes, How and Awards. Three modes: Versus AI, Solo endurance for a personal best on levels added, and Steady hand, which doubles the shake so only a crawl survives. Twelve awards on the shelf, and a full record of levels added, blocks pulled, rounds won and tallest tower, all kept between launches.

WHAT THE COLOURS TELL YOU
Blocks warm towards amber when they are carrying the load, so a glance is enough to see which pulls are cheap and which will leave you with nothing in reserve. Locked blocks in the top complete course stay muted because they are not in play. The How tab draws the whole idea out: where the centre of mass sits, how the support shrinks as timber leaves a course, and what the speed curve actually costs you.

COMPLETELY OFFLINE
No internet connection, no adverts, no analytics, no accounts, no sign-in, no in-app purchases, no gambling and no sound at all. Feedback is visual, with an optional haptic tick you can switch off in Modes. The tower and every block are drawn as vector graphics rather than images, so the download is tiny and the table stays sharp on any screen. Portrait only, and suitable for all ages.