Domino Designer

Domino Designer is a building game about the best ten seconds of any domino run: the moment it all goes. Drag across the table and dominoes stand up along your path at exactly the right spacing, so curves, loops and spirals just work. Tap to stand a single one, drag the round handle to turn a piece, and the tray adds the clever parts: a splitter that sends the chain down two paths at once, stair ramps that climb onto a stack of books, a bridge that carries one line over another or across a gap in the table, a marble on a ramp that rolls off and knocks over a domino far away, a spinner that whirls round and topples everything between its arms, bells to ring and flags that pop up when they are hit.

The toppling is a real simulation, worked out the same way on every device. Each domino tips past its balance point, leans on the next one and hands its swing along, so a gap that is a little too wide really does stop the chain, and a domino hit edge-on stays standing. Press Test, flick the starter and watch; Back puts every piece exactly where it was so you can nudge one domino and try again. Undo and redo go fifty steps back, and there is an eraser, a colour picker and zoom buttons for the fiddly bits.

Forty challenges spread over five tables, from the kitchen table to the playroom, are little brain teasers: ring the bell, raise every flag, topple every domino or bridge a gap to reach the far line, with a mug, a potted plant and piles of books in the way. A third star waits for a chain that uses no more dominoes than the budget and leaves none standing. Free build is the place to relax: a big table, unlimited dominoes in twelve colours, twenty save slots in your browser and a Photo button that downloads a picture of your creation.