# Inkfalls — Letters fall. Words rise.

> Letters fall. Words rise. (iPhone/iPad app by Robert Corbin.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/inkfalls/id6771494634 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Robert Corbin](https://appshunter.io/developer/1890247992)
- Category: Games, Education
- Price: $0.99
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 6 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-05-20
- Data updated: 2026-08-23
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/inkfalls/id6771494634/reviews.md

## What is Inkfalls?

Letters fall. Words rise. The rarer the etymology, the higher the score.

Inkfalls is a quiet, parchment-styled word puzzle. Single letters drop down an 8 by 14 grid. Form a valid English word along a row or column and it clears in gold ink. Form a word made of letters borrowed from a rare ancestor tongue and the score multiplier climbs.

Inkfalls ships with eight game modes:

- Marathon: an endless run that ramps up with your score.
- Daily Folio: one worldwide letter sequence per day, one attempt, resets at UTC midnight.
- Lexicon: a 30 level handcrafted campaign that introduces a new constraint and a small history note at each level.
- Sprint: ninety seconds against the clock.
- Zen: no clock and no game over, a calm session.
- Master: the letter bag is biased toward J, Q, X, and Z for etymology hunters.
- Crossword: letters that clear in both directions score double.
- Polyglot: the etymology multiplier table is reshuffled each Monday so yesterday's rare may be today's common.

Every word is scored by its real etymological tier, hand curated across ten ancestor groups: Old English, Norman French, Latin, Old Norse, Greek, Celtic, Arabic, Sanskrit, East Asian, and Indigenous. The Etymology Reference inside the app lays out each tier with example words and the multiplier it grants.

The soundtrack is generated procedurally as you play. Three voices, a sine piano, a sawtooth cello, and a triangle reed, weave a slow line that brightens as the grid fills. There is no licensed music and no third party SDK in the binary.

Inkfalls includes a 25 achievement set and local progress saved with SwiftData.


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.6 — 2026-08-21

Expands Inkfalls with eight distinct play modes, etymology-based scoring across ten ancestor groups, an in-app reference, local achievements, and a procedurally generated original soundtrack.

### 1.5 — 2026-08-01

ExpeditionAtlas: Root-family trails, recall evidence, and deterministic word expeditions.

- Choose a deterministic expedition seed and target language family
- Trace roots, borrowings, sound changes, and related word clusters
- Play a bounded falling-letter run without changing the shared seed
- Review misses by root family, letter pressure, and recall delay
- Save a private mastery trail and share only the result card

### 1.4.1 — 2026-06-24

This update sharpens the interface: the iPad layout now uses a centered, comfortable reading width instead of stretching edge to edge, plus small display fixes. iPhone is unchanged.

### 1.4 — 2026-06-23

What's New in Inkfalls 1.4

Swipe & Tap Gesture Controls - You can now play with natural touch gestures on the game board. Swipe left or right to move your letter one column at a time. Swipe down gently for a soft drop; flick down fast for a hard drop. Swipe up or tap anywhere on the board to rotate a pair piece. The on-screen button row stays as a fallback. Toggle gestures on or off in Settings.

Vocabulary Journal Export - Tap the share icon in your Vocabulary Journal to export your entire word list. Choose from three formats: words-only (alphabetical), words with their language of origin annotated, or a CSV file you can open in a spreadsheet or import into a flashcard app. All processing is on-device.

Score Trend Chart - The Stats screen now shows a sparkline of your last 20 sessions, with peak score and session average highlighted. See at a glance whether your play is improving across any mode.

Settings version label updated to 1.4.

### 1.3 — 2026-06-15

What's New in Inkfalls 1.3

Ghost Piece — A translucent landing preview now shows exactly where your falling letter will land. Plan intersecting words, set up chain clears, and never drop into the wrong column again. Toggle it off in Settings if you prefer the original feel.

Word Definitions — Tap any word in the Vocabulary Journal to open its detail view. See a short definition, its etymology tier, scoring multiplier, and a list of related words from the same language family. Definitions are stored on-device for over 200 loanwords across all ten tiers.

Word of the Session — After completing a Daily Folio puzzle, the app now highlights your longest word and shows its definition and etymology context. Learn something new every day.

Two New Achievements — Week in Ink (complete 7 Daily Folio puzzles) and Month in Ink (complete 30).

Bug fix: Settings version label now shows 1.3.

## More apps by Robert Corbin

- [Daily Word Journey](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/daily-word-journey/id6761548266)
- [Hush Secret Text](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hush-secret-text/id6761658175)
- [Renew Guard](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/renew-guard/id6761755447)
- [Receipt to PDF](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/receipt-to-pdf/id6761782025)
- [Route Your Pay](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/route-your-pay/id6761783719)
- [Tip Arbiter](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tip-arbiter/id6761786879)

All apps by Robert Corbin: https://appshunter.io/developer/1890247992

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-23.*