A complete mobile game. Play it right here.
Tropic Tumble is a sticker merge game I designed and built end to end: the rules, the levels, the economy, the interface, the sound and the code. Merge jelly stickers into shiny ones, place them in painted island scenes, and open the chest. Pick a device, play a level, then picture your brand in it.
Made for devices
One build, every screen
Switch devices above and the game re-lays itself out live: the pile gets taller or wider, stickers resize, and the art stays anchored. Nothing is a screenshot. It is the same build your players would get.
Fits what it is given
Small phones, tall phones and tablets share one layout that measures its space and adapts, including while you are playing.
Touch first
Drag, drop and tap are built on pointer input, so it plays the same with a thumb, a stylus or a mouse, with haptic taps on phones that support them.
Light and instant
About 9 MB including eight painted worlds, nine sticker scenes and a campaign map, with no engine download. It starts after loading about a quarter of that and fetches the rest while you play. There are no audio files at all: four music tunes and every sound effect are generated in the browser.
A look inside
From a pile of jelly to a finished island
Thirty seconds of the game, then six of its screens. Everything shown is running in the build at the top of this page.
What is in the build
Small game, finished systems
A mini game only earns its place in an app when the loop is complete. Everything below is wired and working in the build above.
- A physics pile. Stickers fall, stack and settle with a custom solver tuned to feel soft and readable.
- Merge in three stages. Drag a sticker onto its twin. Two jelly stickers make a painted one, two painted ones make a shiny one, and two shiny ones are collected. A wrong drop gets a wobble and a line saying why, not a penalty.
- Sticker scenes. Every sticker collected has a place in a painted scene. Tap it and it flies there. Finishing a scene pays a reward, levels the player up and opens an animated chest.
- Twelve sets that take turns. A level plays with four sets at a time, chosen by what the scene in progress still needs, so there is always a reason for the next level.
- Pressure and blockers. From level 2 a tide keeps dropping new stickers, and the level is lost if the pile rests above the line. Ice locks stickers until you match beside them, and thick ice takes two.
- Levels that ramp. From level 6 the goal rotates: fill the packs, melt the ice, reach a score or outlast a storm. Scores earn up to three stars, and any level can be replayed.
- Bonuses and boosters. Combo, Super Combo, Streak, Chain Bonus and Match Rush reward quick, clean play. Hint, Shuffle and Magnet help when you are stuck.
- A Home hub. Scenes, a levels map, a sticker album with bronze, silver and gold tiers, a player profile, and a daily reward that grows over a seven-day streak.
- Live-game systems. Timed events with their own stickers, short stories to unlock, and an Island Pass: a 28-day season with a free and a premium reward at each of 15 tiers.
- A working economy. Energy and gems each have clear ways to be earned and spent. The shop sells gem packs, a starter pack, ad removal and the premium pass.
- Ads where players choose them. Watch one for energy, a second chance or to double a reward. A short ad between levels disappears for anyone who buys ad removal.
- Real payments and ads. On this page they run in a clearly labelled test mode. In the Android build the same functions call Google Play billing and AdMob.
- A guided tour. The fox introduces Home, scenes, events and the pass the first time a player reaches each, one lit-up button and one sentence at a time.
- Music and sound. Four island tunes that take turns over ocean waves, a match sound that climbs a note with every step of a combo, and their own sounds for chests, rewards and placed stickers.
- Game feel. Sparkle bursts, confetti, a party popper, turning light rays, a chest that hops until you tap it, and a fox that reacts when you poke it.
- Eight worlds and a campaign map. A new painted backdrop every five levels, laid out as a map you can pan around, each with its own life: waterfalls and mist, embers off the lava, fireflies at night, bubbles on the reef.
- Built for slow phones. Only what the first screen needs is loaded before play. A phone that struggles is detected in the first seconds and gets a lighter look automatically.
- Balance checked by bots. Simulated players run each level at three skill levels, so the difficulty curve is tuned on numbers before people play it.
- Testing tools. The gear menu can add energy, finish a level or reset the save. Try it.
Working with your team
How I would build yours
This is the process Tropic Tumble followed. It is designed so your producers, artists and engineers can see and steer the game from the first day.
Start from your reference
A game you admire, a brief, or just a brand. I break the loop down into rules we can agree on before anything is drawn.
Playable on a phone first
You get a link the whole team can open on their own phones. Tropic Tumble had a first playable the same day it started, and every decision after that was made by playing it.
Your art, dropped in
Backgrounds, panels, icons and stickers here were swapped in one piece at a time without touching the game logic. Your artists keep working in their own tools.
Feel, then polish
Micro animations, effects, sound and reward moments go in once the loop is fun, and each one is tested on a phone-sized screen before it stays.
Hand-off that fits your pipeline
A readable, commented codebase with the level curve, prices and rewards in one place, and payments and ads each behind one function. It can ship on the web as is, be wrapped for the app stores (this one is live on Google Play), or serve as the spec for a Unity, Godot or Unreal build. An Android project is already set up around this one.
What I can build for you
Mini games that fit inside your product
Mini games for apps
A daily game inside a shopping, loyalty or media app that gives people a reason to come back.
Branded games
Your characters, products and colours in a loop people already know how to play.
Prototypes for greenlight
A playable build your team can judge on a phone, instead of a deck describing one.
Playable ads
The same light, instant web build, cut down to a thirty-second taste of your game.
UI, UX and motion
Interface design, animation and implementation for a game your team is already making.
Extra hands for your team
I work alongside your designers and engineers in Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot, PlayCanvas or on the web.
Let’s talk
Want a mini game like this for your team?
I’m Remi Couture, a product designer and tool builder with twenty years of shipped credits across games, apps and training products. Tell me what you are making and I will tell you how I would approach it.