Stackyard

Stackyard is a one-button stacking game set in small 3D building yards. A slab slides back and forth over the top of your tower, and you tap to drop it. Whatever hangs over the edge is sliced off and tumbles into the yard, so the next slab is only as big as the part that landed. Line a drop up almost exactly and it snaps into place as a perfect drop; string perfect drops together and the slab grows back a little, which gives you room to recover.

The campaign has 128 goals across eight building sites, sixteen per site, each with its own building material and one new idea. Garden Shed teaches the basics. Brick Cottage adds perfect-drop goals and golden slabs that pay extra coins when landed perfectly. At Windmill Hill the wind pushes slabs as they fall, and a glowing outline shows where yours will land. At Harbor Cranes the slab swings from a hook, fast through the middle and slow at the ends. The Clock Tower sets a changing pace, and a fuse drops the slab for you if you wait too long. Glass Greenhouse slabs shatter if you slice off more than half, and at the Cliff Lighthouse a lean meter shows how far the tower tilts before it tips over. Sky Castle mixes all of it.

Goals ask you to stack a number of slabs, to land a set number of perfect drops on the way, or to keep the top of the tower wide enough. One miss, a shattered glass slab, a toppled tower or a top that gets too narrow ends the attempt. Stars are earned for clearing the goal and for extra perfect drops. The eighth goal of each site is a challenge and the sixteenth is a big build.

A few tips: perfect drops are worth chasing early, because the slab only grows back after a streak. In wind, watch the outline rather than the slab itself. With the clock, drop before the slab starts glowing orange. On the lighthouse, if the tower leans one way, slice from the other side to pull it back toward the centre.

Coins from perfect drops, golden slabs and stars buy eight slab styles in the Workshop, such as pastel clay, terracotta and moon marble. The Endless yard is the classic mode: the slabs speed up as the tower rises and the sky moves from morning to night, and your best result is saved.

Each attempt is a single tower, so the game fits short breaks. Click, tap or press Space to drop, in portrait or landscape.

Your goal is to build the tower as high as you can and beat your best score. Tap when the slab is right over the tower. The better you line it up, the wider the next slab stays, and every piece you miss makes the tower a little narrower. Miss the tower completely and the run ends.

The first floors are slow and easy. As the tower rises, the slabs speed up and timing matters more. That is when perfect drops save you, because a string of them grows the slab back a little.