Gumball Pop is a bubble shooter set in a candy shop. Gumballs hang from the awning in a honeycomb of rows, and a gumball machine at the bottom of the counter fires one gumball at a time. Join three or more of the same colour to pop them, cut clusters loose so they drop, and keep the pile from reaching the red line.
How to play
- Aim: move the mouse over the counter, or put your finger on the screen and slide it. A dotted line shows the full path, wall bounces included, and a dashed ring marks the spot where the gumball will stick.
- Shoot: click, or lift your finger. To cancel a touch aim, slide your finger down below the machine and let go there.
- Keyboard: the left and right arrow keys turn the machine (hold Shift for bigger steps), Space, Enter or the up arrow shoots, and the down arrow, S or X swaps.
- Bounces: a gumball bounces off the side walls as many times as it needs. It stops at the first gumball it touches, or at the top of the counter, and settles into the nearest free spot of the honeycomb.
- Pop: if the new gumball touches a group of its own colour and the group now has three or more, the whole group pops.
- Drop: any gumballs that are no longer connected to the top fall off the board.
- Swap: the next gumball waits on the little dish beside the machine. Tap the dish (or the machine) to swap it with the one you are about to shoot. Swapping is free and does not count as a shot.
Every colour has its own symbol, so you can play without telling colours apart: cherry heart, orange star, lemon moon, mint clover, blueberry drop and grape diamond. New gumballs only come in colours that are still on the board.
The falling ceiling
Every few shots the awning pushes a new row of gumballs in from the top, and everything below moves down one row. The pink dots beside the machine count the shots left before the next row; the last dot pulses red. At the start a row drops every 8 shots. Every 8 new rows the gap shrinks by one shot, down to a row every 3 shots. A sixth colour joins after 10 new rows.
Popping does not hold the ceiling back: it drops on schedule whether you pop or not. Your only defence is clearing gumballs faster than they arrive.
If a gumball ends up below the red line, play stops. Once per game you can watch an optional ad to clear every row from the eighth down and reset the row counter. Otherwise the game ends and your score counts. Your best score is kept.
Scoring
- Every gumball that pops scores 10.
- Every gumball that drops scores 30, three times as much as a pop.
- Clearing the whole board scores a 500 bonus and brings in a fresh set of five rows. The row counter starts over too.
Strategy
- Drop, don’t just pop. A pop of three scores 30. Pop the three gumballs holding up a cluster of ten and you score 330. Look for small groups near the top that anchor big hanging clusters.
- Use the walls. A bank shot reaches spots that a straight shot can’t, such as the gap behind a gumball or the far corner under the awning. Follow the dotted line and watch where the ring lands.
- Plan with the swap. Check the dish before every shot. If the next gumball fits better, swap. If neither fits, use the current one where it does the least harm, for example stuck to its own colour so it makes a pair.
- Keep the middle low. The machine shoots from the centre, and a tall column in the middle blocks the paths to both sides. Clear the centre first.
- Count the dots. Right before a row drops, use the shot to cut a cluster loose rather than build a pair. The whole board moves down one row afterwards.
We tested the game with a computer player that tries every direction and both gumballs. In half of its games it lasted more than about 500 shots, and its shortest game was about 300. Shooting at random fills the counter in about 35. Most people land somewhere in between.
If you enjoy Gumball Pop, try Hidato or Island Sea next.
