Marble and drums — Little Play Square
What's on the screen
Near the top are 2 small trays, near the bottom are 2 drums, one green and one purple, and between them stand shelves for ramps, 3 rows × 2 columns. A blue marble sits in one of the trays, and when the game opens, 3 ramps are already set on the shelves in a zigzag.
How to play
Each press on a shelf changes it: empty → ramp sloping down to the right → ramp sloping down to the left → empty. Press the marble and it rolls out, turning at each row on that shelf's ramp as it drops, then hits one of the drums, which rings. Even while it is rolling, changing the shelf in a row it has not reached yet makes it turn on that ramp. The path it took stays as a faint line, and the marble goes back to the tray it started from. Press the empty tray and the marble moves over there. Whichever drum it reaches, the response is the same, and there is no score and no right answer. Pressing a drum directly also makes it ring.
This game sits in Games for ages 3 and 4. The age is only a guide, so children older than that and children younger than that are just as welcome to play it.
What this game doesn't have
- Time limits and scoresThere is no countdown, no score and no run of days in a row.
- Game overThere is no state that stops a child from going on. You can stop the moment interest runs out.
- Ads and purchasesNothing can be pressed by mistake that carries a child off to another site.
- Text fieldsNo name and no email address is ever asked for. There is no sign-up either.
How to start
Just open Little Play Square and pick the Marble and drums picture on the home screen. Once it has finished loading, it starts up the same way in places with no signal. Sound is switched with the speaker mark on the home screen (it steps through normal, off and quiet, so the first press turns it off).
More from Games for ages 3 and 4
- Make a tune — Press a square to choose a note and it sounds right away, so you can check it. Playback runs once at a time and never loops on.
- Which has more? — Two plates sit side by side: one has a few apples, the other has more. Tap the plate with more and its apples bounce one after another with a cheerful sound, then a new pair of plates appears. Tap the plate with fewer and its apples bounce with a soft sound; there is no buzzer and no cross. No numbers appear.
- Counting — Press the chicks one at a time and the sound climbs with every press (1 to 5).