Balance Beam

Balance Beam is a quick physics puzzle about weight and leverage. Each level shows a beam on a pivot, a seesaw, a pallet hanging from a crane hook or a striped pole on a circus pedestal, and a short queue of things to put on it: crates and barrels, slippery teapots, stacks of books, a beach ball that wants to roll, a feather-light rubber duck and a sleepy cat in a basket who must stay level and is always set down gently. Drag an object over the structure, watch the ghost outline show where it will land and the tilt meter show where the beam will settle, then let go. When the queue is empty, everything has to stay balanced for three seconds without anything sliding off.

Forty hand-built levels run through four worlds: the Attic, the Workshop, the Harbour Crane and the Circus. Later levels bring springs under the beam, magnets that tug at anything made of tin, pulleys with counterweights, fans that blow light things about, a crane hook that slowly drifts along its rail, two-tier mobiles and objects that change weight when you tap them: a balloon that inflates and a sponge that soaks up water. Every level has three stars: one for balancing it, one for doing it within par moves, and a bonus star that you only reach by stacking high enough to touch it. Retry is instant and undo takes back your last placement, so it is a good brain teaser to relax with.

When the levels are done, Tower of Wobble is the endless mode: one beam and a seeded, never-ending queue of objects to stack ever higher until something topples. Your high score is the height of your tallest tower, saved in your browser along with your stars. The physics is written for the game and runs the same way on every device, with a slow-motion beat when the beam settles or starts to tip, squashy landings and creaky, chiming sounds you can mute.