YahHeard

DropCore

Rotate. Drop. Chain. Break through.

  • Active Development
  • Game
  • Arcade
  • Works offline

An endless-descent arcade game with an inverted control: the falling core cannot be steered, so you rotate the whole tower to line up each opening.

View screenshots (3)Technical details
DropCore gameplay: a cyan ball dropping down a spiral tower of curved platforms, with score, depth and chain counters and the hint drag anywhere to rotate
Rotate the tower so the falling core drops through the openings.

Screenshots

Captured from the Windows desktop build, running in a phone-shaped window. The Android build could not start on this site's test emulator, which has no graphics hardware.

13

  • Rotate the tower so the falling core drops through the openings.
  • Accurate drops build a chain; Core Mode breaks straight through weak layers.
  • The title screen: offline by design, one finger is all it takes.

What DropCore is

DropCore turns the usual arcade control inside out. The core falls continuously and cannot be steered; instead you drag anywhere to rotate the entire tower around it, lining up each opening before the core arrives. Red striped surfaces are hazards. Accurate drops build chains and charge Core Mode, which smashes straight through weak layers. Endless play sits alongside ten preset stages, an offline daily tower generated from the date, Time Attack, Survival, One Life and a Relaxed mode, with chain medals, cosmetics, lifetime challenges, achievements and records kept on the device. Progress is saved in a versioned, checksummed file with atomic replacement and a backup, and runs checkpoint every ten layers. Version 0.2.0 builds and runs on Windows and Android; hardware acceptance on a physical phone is still to do.

What it does

  • Rotate the tower rather than steer the falling core
  • Chains that charge Core Mode, which breaks through weak layers
  • Endless, ten stages, a daily tower, Time Attack, Survival, One Life and Relaxed
  • Chain medals, cosmetics, challenges, achievements and records
  • Checkpoints every ten layers and checksummed saves
  • Offline, one-finger play

Getting DropCore

DropCore is still in development and is not distributed yet. It is roughly 70% of the way to a first public release.

At a glance

Status
Active Development
Version
0.2.0
Runs on
Android, Windows (Android 8.0+)
Offline use
Works offline
Package
com.dropcore.game
Engine
Unity 6000.6.2f1
Last updated

Privacy

No account, cloud service, advertising or analytics. Progress stays on the device.

Full privacy information for DropCore →

Permissions

Vibration
Optional haptic feedback, which can be switched off.

Support

Questions, bugs or ideas for DropCore?

DropCore support →

Technical details

Built with

  • Unity
  • C#
  • IL2CPP
  • Custom surface shader
  • Synthesised audio

How it is put together

  • The tower, interface, sound and effects are created at start-up from bounded generation rules rather than hand-built scenes.
  • Progress uses a versioned checksummed envelope, a flushed temporary file, atomic replacement and a backup; runs checkpoint every ten layers.
  • A desktop smoke mode renders, simulates and verifies the build with its own isolated save directory.

Development workflow

Built through ChatGPT.

Timeline

  1. Skeleton

    Core simulation, progression, tower view, shader and test assembly in place.

  2. Version 0.2.0

    Playable on Windows and Android with seven modes; physical-device acceptance pending.

Accessibility in the app

  • A Relaxed mode without time pressure
  • One-finger control throughout

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