BlockCastle (playtest)

Playtest build. I'm looking for first-impression feedback from people who have never seen this game.

■ One rule

Enemies march down an 8×8 board toward your castle at the bottom. You have exactly one weapon: fill a row or a column, and it clears — taking every enemy standing on that line with it. So placing a piece is a puzzle move and a defense move at the same time.

■ Controls — there are two

- Drag a piece from the tray onto the board. Pieces do not rotate: you find the spot that fits the shape you were given.

- Every three pieces you place, all enemies step down one tile. Placing a piece IS the

  clock, so there is no free move. Take as long as you like — but you can't take it back.

- The one exception: paper planes. Clear the line one is sitting on and it goes to your

  tray. Tap once to aim, once to fire. That's the entire control scheme.

■ Two modes

Adventure — 20 hand-authored stages. Each one introduces a new enemy or a new goal, and the later ones mix them. Your progress is a castle that gets built one brick per stage. Lose three times and the stage quietly eases up, so you don't get walled in.

Endless — no goal. Enemies keep coming and get faster the deeper you go. The difficulty tracks your own best, so the last minute is the tense one whether you're good at this or not.

Seven enemy types, and there's no codex screen — each one introduces itself the first time you meet it.

■ Before you start

- Runs in your browser. No install, no login, no account.

- It's a portrait game and launches fullscreen. Mouse drag behaves exactly like touch, so desktop works fine.

- Sound is worth turning on.

- Your very first launch drops you straight into Stage 1 — the menu appears after that.

- One run takes about 90 seconds. Two minutes is enough to know whether this is for you.

■ What I'm asking

This is a playtest, not a release. What I most want to know is what the first minute felt

like — where you hesitated, what you expected to happen and didn't, and the moment you either got it or gave up.

Feedback: https://forms.gle/KqWrHM5iUU7YUtHc6