Tip the Scales

Tip the Scales is a free balance scale game set in a Victorian chemist's shop. On the counter stands a brass beam balance with notches from 1 to 7 on either side of the pivot, and every puzzle hands you a drawer of odd things to weigh: an anvil, a rubber duck, a watermelon, a bowling pin, a stack of books, a feather pillow, a wheel of cheese. Each one has its weight on a brass label. Drag them onto the beam, press WEIGH, and the arrest drops: the beam wobbles, swings, and the pointer creeps across the dial. You get one weighing per puzzle: if the beam comes to rest level with nothing fallen off, the stamp says BALANCED and you score the full 1,000 points. It is a small physics balance puzzle with honest physics, and one of our favourite physics games.

The trick is the old rule of the lever: weight times distance must match on both sides. Two apples balance at the same notch on either side; a 5 lb weight four notches out needs 20 on the other side, so a 4 lb stack of books five notches out, or a 12 lb anvil near the pivot plus something light far away. A day is five puzzles that ramp gently. The first is a pair of the same weight anyone can balance at once. The next counters a pre-placed brass weight with one object. Then comes the anvil, too heavy to sit far out. Then a watermelon or a bowling ball, which rolls the moment the beam tips. The last has a fruit crate or a cheese board already on the beam, so the right notch is under something and things have to sit on other things. It is a quick torque puzzle and a proper little brain game.

The physics is real, so mistakes are honest. A load one pound-notch off tips the beam about a degree and stops; a melon on a beam that tips rolls away and takes the puzzle with it; a bowling pin set half on the edge of a crate topples. There is no second try: whatever the beam says when it comes to rest is final, and the next puzzle comes. So do the sum before you press WEIGH, and take your time over it: there is no clock. Nothing counts down while you think, and if you step away the game simply waits. Most days still take only a minute or two, which puts it among our quick games.

Scoring is about one thing: how level the beam rests. A level beam (within half a degree) scores 1,000 points. Off level, every degree costs 100, counted to the tenth: a beam resting 2.1° off scores 790, one on the stops at about 8° still scores around 200, and the stamp shows the sum, "2.1° off level → 1,000 − 210 = 790 points". If anything falls off, the puzzle scores nothing. Time never costs a puzzle any points: the only nod to speed is a pace tiebreak of up to 9 points for the day, less than a tenth of a degree on a single weighing, so it can only separate two days that were equally level. Top scores are re-simulated on our servers move for move, so the leaderboards are fair and it sits with our competitive games.

Everyone gets the same five puzzles each day, so after each verdict you see how today's chemists did with the same load, like "62% balanced it · most used the anvil", and the end card is the day's prescription label with your five weighings. The share button sends your day as "Tip the Scales · 4/5 level · day 12" with how level each weighing came to rest ("level · level · 2.1° · level · fell") and your points. There is also a Quick mode with fresh puzzles every time and leaderboards of its own: it is the version Swipe mode, the three-game Daily and gauntlets play, and like every game there it fits inside two minutes, so the shop shuts at about 1:45, with a warning ten seconds before. It shows no clock either.

It plays the same on every screen. On a phone, press an object in the drawer and drag it up: it rises above your finger, a dashed ghost shows where it will land and the notch lights up; let go to set it down, tap an object to turn it, and press the big brass WEIGH plate. With a mouse it is click and drag, with Space or Enter to weigh. Weight times distance is pure deduction, so it also sits with our logic puzzles, and you will find it among our casual games for adults, mobile games and PC games.