Streamline Merge
Clear a path. Swim for home.
A salmon is swimming upstream toward its spawning grounds, and the river keeps sending rocks, logs and branches down to meet it. You cannot steer the salmon. You can only drag matching obstacles together so that they merge and clear its way. How far upstream can you get?
Coming soon to Android. Streamline Merge is in testing. This page will link to the store listing when it is ready.
How it plays
The salmon swims on its own, in one channel of the river at a time. Obstacles drift down the river toward it. Drag one obstacle onto an identical neighbour and the two become a single, larger piece. Bigger pieces score more when they are finally cleared, but they also hurt more if they reach the salmon, so every merge is a decision: what to join, and which way to join it.
The distance the salmon covers upstream is your score. Every run has a reason to exist, and every mistake has a cost you can see.
Currents
Some merges make something different: a current. A current pushes the salmon when it touches it. Depending on how you build it, a current can send the salmon into another channel, speed it up or slow it down. Currents are not free help. They act the moment the salmon reaches them, so a current you leave alone is as dangerous as any rock, and a Slow Down you built yourself is a tool you have to keep alive. Calm pools restore the salmon's stamina when it reaches them.
Play it your way
- Set up your run. Choose three to five channels, how fast the river starts and how quickly it speeds up, and how many colours of obstacle there are.
- Hard mode asks for faster decisions. Hardcore gives the salmon one point of stamina, so there are no second chances.
- Daily run. Everyone gets the same river each day, with no accounts or downloads needed.
- Your own records. Best runs and statistics are kept for each kind of run.
Fair, and kind to your attention
- Always solvable. The river is built so that a careful player can always find a way through at the speed it is set to.
- Skill, not spending. Nothing in the game will sell you a better board. Any extras will stay in the lane of convenience and cosmetics.
- Plays offline. The game needs no account and no connection to play. Your progress stays on your device.
- Readable by everyone. Obstacle colours also carry a distinct symbol, which you can switch on or off. Text size can be increased, and animations can be reduced or switched off.
- Phone first. Played with one finger in portrait or landscape, and made for short sessions.