Overview
OrbDrop is a falling-orb puzzle game for Android. Groups of three coloured orbs drop into a well. You move and rotate them so that orbs of the same colour line up. Matching orbs pop, the orbs above them fall into the gaps, and new matches can form in a chain reaction.
The board and the pieces
• The playfield is 10 columns wide and 16 rows tall.
• Every piece is a line of three orbs, each in a random colour: red, yellow, cyan, green, purple, orange, or a blue triangle.
• A NEXT panel shows the two pieces that come after the current one.
• A faint ghost outline marks where the current piece will land.
• When a piece lands, each of its orbs falls independently to the lowest free cell in its column. A piece can split apart as it settles.
Controls
On-screen buttons
Button Action
< / > Move left / right. Hold to keep moving.
ROT Rotate the piece. It shifts sideways or vertically if needed to fit.
DROP Drop the piece straight to the bottom.
II Pause. Resume with <, >, ROT or DROP (see Using pause to plan).
Touch on the board
• Drag left or right to move the piece one column at a time.
• Tap to rotate.
• Swipe down quickly to drop.
Matching and chains
• Orbs pop when three or more of the same colour form a straight line: horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
• A match also pops every same-coloured orb touching the popped orbs, including diagonally, and spreads outward.
• After orbs pop, the orbs above them fall. If this creates new matches, a chain starts. Each extra step in the chain scores more.
Scoring
• Each popped orb is worth 20 points × the chain step. A two-step chain doubles the value of the second group, a three-step chain triples the third, and so on.
• Dropping a piece gives 2 points for every row it falls.
• BEST keeps your highest score across sessions.
Levels and speed
• You go up one level for every 10 orbs popped.
• Pieces fall faster at each level. They start at one step every 0.65 seconds and speed up to one step every 0.12 seconds.
• The game ends when a new piece has no room to appear at the top of the board.
Using pause to plan
Pause is more than a break. It is part of the strategy. Like a chess player thinking over the next move, you can stop the game, study the position calmly and decide exactly where each piece should go.
• The game freezes completely. Pieces stop falling, and there is no time limit and no score penalty for pausing, however long you think.
• Everything you need stays on screen: the board, the ghost outline showing where the current piece would land, and the NEXT panel with the two pieces that follow.
• Plan ahead. Look at the current piece and the next two, and pick the placement that sets up a match or, better, a chain.
• Resume with your move. Press <, >, ROT or DROP: the game continues and that move happens straight away. Pressing II again or touching the board does not resume.
• Pausing matters most at higher levels, where pieces fall too fast to plan in real time. The music keeps playing while you think.
Look and sound
• There are ten background scenes: Coral, Autumn, Storm, Lava, Ice, Night, Jungle, Desert, Space and Toxic. A new scene is picked at random at every level-up, when you start a new game, and when you open the app. The water colour also shifts slightly from level to level.
• A music track loops without gaps in the background. It keeps playing while the game is paused and stops when the app goes into the background. The MUSIC / MUTED button turns it on or off.
• Sound effects play for dropping and rotating pieces and for popping orbs. The pop gets higher in pitch as a chain grows.
Saved settings
The game remembers your best score and your music on/off setting between sessions. If the settings file gets damaged, the game resets it and still starts.
Ads
A 320×100 banner ad runs along the bottom of the screen. The space for it is reserved, so it never covers the playfield or the buttons.