KASSBRIKOID

The play area is a hexagon, stretched vertically. The five edges drawn in gold are solid walls: the ceiling and the four diagonals, including the lower ones. The ball bounces off them; but on the two diagonals either side of the paddle, a ball on its way down keeps going down: only the paddle sends it back up. Only the bottom horizontal edge, drawn as a dotted red line, is the void: that is the only way the ball can be lost. The brick wall is a hexagon too, with its top and bottom rows shorter than the middle ones.

Your paddle runs along the bottom edge, and folds to climb halfway up both diagonals. Push it into a corner: its foot stays on the bottom edge while its end folds up along the sloping wall. The rebound is worked out from its tilt at the point of contact, and always heads into the field and upwards. Laid flat, its width never exceeds 35% of the edge, even with the long paddle bonus.

Otherwise KassBrikoId is a brick breaker, but two rules set it apart from what you know.

1. One wall is one level. The wall never moves and never adds a row: what you see when you arrive is exactly what there is to break, no more, no less. You clear it completely, and the next wall appears at ninety degrees. So the game has an end, on each level as well as over the whole route.
2. A brick never dies alone. When a brick explodes, it takes three of its neighbours with it: the ones above, below, left and right, except the one on the side the ball came from. The blast therefore fans out in the direction of your shot, which lets you dig corridors through the wall if you pick your angles well. Bricks swept away by the blast do not explode in turn: no chain reaction. Silver bricks take two hits from the ball, but the blast sweeps them away like the others.

The route turns. The field follows a corridor laid out on a grid, which swings ninety degrees to the right or left at every level and never goes back over a square already crossed. When you have cleared a wall, the far door opens, the view tips a quarter turn and stays turned: the next level is played in that orientation, the void may end up on one side or at the top, and the controls follow. The map on the right shows the whole snake and where you are on it.

Your paddle is not a wall. The point of impact sets the rebound angle, measured from the normal to the edge it runs along, here straight up: in the centre the ball leaves at the narrowest angle, at the tip it leaves at sixty degrees, with every shade in between. A moving paddle adds spin. No rebound is ever exactly perpendicular or flat: the game cannot go round in circles. And if the ball flies around for more than four seconds without breaking anything, the field gently draws it back towards the remaining bricks: it is still up to you to catch it.

The bats. From level 1 onwards, bats wait in cages of barred bricks: one more every two levels at first, then every four, twelve at most. Break the cage: once free, a bat flies around the field, trembles with red eyes, then dives at your paddle. If it touches it, the paddle breaks and you lose a life. You have to hit it twice with the ball, three times for the green ones, which arrive at level 14. They count among what you must destroy to finish the level.

The hives. From level 9, an amber honeycomb brick shelters bats: from time to time, it releases one if its way out is clear. You must hit it five times with the ball (or the shots) to destroy it; it cracks with every hit, and when it bursts it drops an “extra life” package. A second hive arrives at level 18, a third at level 35.

The Galaxian. From level 5, every level hides a midnight-blue brick edged with gold. At the first hit, it breaks away and clings to the wall farthest from your paddle; it sways there and fires missiles straight at your paddle. The missiles are faster than the ball and go through bricks: if one hits the paddle, the paddle is destroyed and you lose a life. You must hit the Galaxian five times in all; it is worth 5 points per hit and 75 when it explodes.

The wall comes down. From level 31, the wall slowly slides towards your paddle while the ball is in play. From one level to the next, the descent and then the ball speed up, each in turn. If a brick reaches the paddle's edge, you lose a life and the wall goes back up to its place.

The route has an end. A hundred levels to cross, and you can see in advance which way the next turn will go.

The levels. Beginner, Intermediate and Expert set the lives, the speed, the paddle size and how aggressive the bats are for you. Master lets you choose each of these settings.

Falling parcels. A brick you hit sometimes drops a parcel, which drifts gently down towards you: just touch it with the paddle to open it, or move aside to let it go by. Glowing gifts are always worth taking: they shine, their ribbon is neat and their bow sits on top. Booby-trapped parcels are dark, tightly tied, with a fuse fizzing above them: let those ones pass. Only bricks the ball itself hits drop a parcel, never the three neighbours swept away by the blast: one hit brick in five drops one. A parcel does not fall straight: it sets off at a slant, up to thirty degrees to either side, and bounces off the edges of the field rather than leaving it. The icon in the middle tells you what is inside.

• Auto fire. Eight balls shoot out of your paddle on their own, one after another: each flies straight and dies on the first brick it meets, which explodes as if hit from below. You have nothing to press, just aim by moving. A second fire parcel extends the magazine, up to sixteen balls.
• Long paddle. Half as wide again for twenty seconds. It turns green, so you can tell at a glance what you are holding.
• Slow ball. The ball loses a good quarter of its speed for three rebounds: enough to regain control when the game runs away with you.
• An extra life. The rare gift, in gold, with a heart: one more life, right away.
• Runaway ball. The opposite of the slow ball: the ball speeds up by a third for three rebounds.
• Short paddle. A third narrower for fifteen seconds. It turns purple.
• Mystery parcel. This one bears a question mark, and its glow wavers between the green of a gift and the red of a trap: its contents are only drawn at random when your paddle catches it, and even the game does not know them beforehand. It can be any of the other seven, gift or booby trap alike. A message then tells you what came out of it.
• Reversed controls. For eight seconds, left goes right and right goes left, on the keyboard as well as by touch. It is short... but long enough to lose a ball.
• Magnetic ball: for 25 s, the ball sticks to the paddle on every contact; you move it with the paddle and send it with a left click or a tap, the angle following its place on the paddle.
• 2 magnetic ephemeral balls (blue): they head fast for the bricks, come back looking for the paddle, stick to it and leave again on a click; after 20 s they fade away. Losing them never costs a life.
• Super bonus (star): the time left on your bonuses is multiplied by 4 and every penalty in progress stops.
• Left click or tap: it launches the stuck ball, releases the ephemeral balls and, with the shot bonus, fires one more shot (the automatic fire goes on).
• Always upright (setting, on by default and in Beginner and Medium): the screen no longer turns at a bend, the paddle stays at the bottom; only the route map shows the quarter turn. In Expert, the field turns a quarter turn at each bend.
• Aim before you shoot: the stuck ball only leaves with a left click, a tap ON the paddle or Space; sliding elsewhere moves the paddle without launching. After 6 s it leaves by itself (small countdown).
• 5 seconds of respite at the start of each board: nothing moves but the paddle, time to aim.
• Gold package (rare, beating golden halo): long paddle, magnet, slow ball or shots PERMANENT until a life is lost. A penalty is never permanent.
• Brass borders: at the ends of the rows they close the corridor along the walls; one hit breaks them, they do not count and score nothing.
• Explanation bubble: each package you catch is explained for 2 s in a transparent window.
• Swallowing brick (fanged mouth, from board 15): it swallows the ball, keeps it 3 s while turning red, then spits it out twice as fast downward, and disappears; after board 50 it swallows up to three times (the dots on the brick).

The streak: how long you last without losing. The counter at the top right of the field goes up as long as you keep your ball, and it is what raises the pressure: the longer your streak, the more often parcels fall, and the bigger the share of booby traps among them. After four minutes without a loss, half as many parcels again rain down and one in two is booby-trapped... Losing a ball resets the streak to zero: the field turns kind again, the only consolation for a missed ball. Ball speed and brick density, on the other hand, depend only on the level number, as before.

Only one effect from each family holds at a time: the last parcel picked up wins and resets its count. So a gift cancels the booby trap of the same family, and vice versa: picking up a long paddle cancels a short paddle, a slow ball cancels a runaway ball. Only fire stacks up. Effects you have gained follow you through the turn and into the next level, but a lost ball wipes the slate clean, and parcels still in the air vanish when the field turns.

Points. A brick is worth 10 points, a silver brick 25 (and 5 for the first hit). A bat earns 5 points per hit and 20 when it is eliminated; a hive, 5 per hit and 50 when it bursts. A gift you catch is worth 15 points, a booby-trapped package you catch 30. Each finished level earns 100 points times its number, plus 50 points per remaining life. A bonus life is given at levels 10, 20, 30 and so on. The leaderboard keeps your best score.

Controls

Mouse or finger: the paddle follows your position along the open edge, and climbs halfway up the two sloping walls on either side of it. When the field has turned and the void is on one side, vertical movement moves it instead. A tap launches the ball.
Keyboard: the arrows parallel to the open edge slide it (← → or ↑ ↓ depending on the orientation), the arrow pointing into the field or Space launches, P to pause.
The point of impact sets the angle: in the centre the ball bounces back almost perpendicular to the edge, at the tip of the paddle it flies off at a steep slant.

Game over

Best score of each player, then level reached. Top thirty.