Domino — draw a line, tap, watch them fall

Domino is a domino effect simulator: the domino effect without the hours of careful setup. On a dark mahogany table, drag your finger and the dominoes set themselves up along your path, one every few millimeters, each dropping into place with a little bounce and a wooden knock. Curves, loops, zigzags and spirals all work. Start a new stroke from an existing line and it branches, so one push can split the cascade into two, three, ten waves running at once.

How to play

Drag to lay out a path of dominoes. Tap anywhere: the nearest line gets pushed from its closest free end, no need to aim. Each domino tips over in perspective, lands on the next one with a sharp clack and passes the push along, faster and faster, every fall a note higher than the last. When a whole line has fallen, it waits a moment and then stands back up by itself in a reverse wave, ready for the next push.

S, M, L and XL set the size of the next dominoes, and sizes mix freely on one line: a big one knocks a small one flying, a small one can topple a giant. The big ones land with a deep, heavy thud that shakes the table. Grow makes every domino a little bigger than the last, the famous exponential domino effect. Shapes builds a pattern for you: spiral, concentric circles, heart, star, wave, a tree whose cascade fans out branch by branch, a fan that opens into a full triangle, stairs, zigzag, flower, the word Alcy, or Growth, a line that swells from tiny to huge. Turn on Stamp to drop the chosen shape wherever you tap, and Link to join each new shape to your lines so one push runs through everything. Go pushes every line at once. Clear sweeps the table with a gust. The color button repaints the dominoes (ivory, ebony, rainbow along the path, neon or pastel) and switches the table between wood, green felt and polished concrete. PNG saves the picture.

Why it's satisfying

It is the oldest chain reaction there is, and it still works: a single tap, then you just watch the fall travel along the curve you drew, the shadows stretching, the rhythm speeding up, the melody climbing, the branches splitting off. Then the line rises again on its own, and you can do it all over.

About

Domino is part of Alcy, forty free contemplative micro-games in your browser. For more motion to watch: Wave, Carom, Zen Rake.