Linelight vs Recursive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Linelight
This minimalist puzzle game offers a relaxing and immersive experience with over 200 unique challenges across six worlds. Its intuitive gameplay is accessible to all, while its captivating soundtrack and story foster a sense of calm and discovery.
- Minimalist 1D puzzles
- Over 200 unique levels
- 6 distinct worlds
- Soothing soundtrack
- Immersive narrative
- Intuitive controls
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~~~ More free puzzles!! Update to play Bonus World B! :D ~~~ Linelight is an elegant, minimalist puzzle game set in a universe of lines. Its puzzles will awake your mind as the music flows through your body, gifting you a soft, relaxing euphoria. Linelight is for players of any age or level of experience. ANYONE CAN PLAY Movement is your only interaction. Whether you’ve played hundreds of games or this is your first, Linelight will provide you an intuitive and rewarding experience. RICH CONTENT Traverse through 6 worlds and over 200 unique puzzles, each new world loaded with variety and depth, a curious series of discoveries and surprise. A feast awaits any players looking for secrets and greater challenges. SOOTHING MUSIC Prepare to be soothed and energized, wrapped in a blanket of calm and focus, whisked away by a soundtrack that will open your eyes and relax your entire body. IMMERSIVE STORY You’ll make long-term friends along your journey. You’ll learn how to cooperate and overcome obstacles together. You will develop a relationship with bars of light without exchanging a word. -------------------------------- QUOTES “Finding a game like Linelight feels like a blessing.” - GameSpot “Linelight is nothing short of a stroke of genius.” - Hardcore Gamer (9/10) “Bursting with design smarts… For a chilled puzzling time, they don’t get much better than this.” - Rock Paper Shotgun “Pure, unadulterated gameplay.” - Polygon “A crowning achievement in the puzzle genre… An unforgettably unique gaming experience.” - OPNoobs (9/10) “Ingenious… The amount of times I said to myself ‘Ooh, that’s clever!’ was too numerous to count.” - God is a Geek (9/10) “It’s difficult to fully explain the feelings Linelight’s soundtrack evokes… For me, it was a mixture of peaceful relaxation and the inspirational desire to go out into the world and succeed in life.” - OPNoobs “My Dog Zorro has knocked it out of the park with this deceptively simple and deep puzzler… Linelight is not to be missed.” - PlayStation Universe (10/10) “Linelight left me stunned by its sights and sounds.” - Video Chums (8.2/10) “One of the most addictive puzzle experiences that I've ever played… [and] one of the best indie puzzlers ever made.” - Video Chums (8.2/10) “Through intuitive level design and a steady difficulty ramp, Linelight is able to punch far above its weight class.” - DualShockers (9/10) “One of the freshest puzzle experiences to grace the genre in recent years.” - The Sixth Axis (8/10) “Within about eight seconds, it’s clear what you have to do, and there’s one word for it: lovely.” - Video Gamer ACCOLADES Game of the Year - Winner - Gameacon 2016 Rising Pixel - Winner - Bit Awards 2016 Best Style - Nominee - Bit Awards 2016 Best PC/Console Game - Nominee - Bit Awards 2016 IndieCade @ E3 2016 - Official Selection PAX East Indie Minibooth 2016 - Official Selection Different Games Conference 2016 - Official Selection Sheep’s Meow 2016 - Official Selection IndieCade 2016 - Game Tasting Spotlight Selection
Recursive
A challenging puzzle game where you guide robots to collect gems by creating simple programs. Master recursion and logic with a minimalistic, easy-to-learn language and diverse level elements.
- Learn a simple programming language
- Solve puzzles with robots and gems
- Master recursion concepts
- Explore diverse level elements
- Challenging, hard puzzles
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Simple to learn. Hard to master. Little robots, a board of gems, and one tiny program to collect them all. Drag three moves into four colored functions, let a function call itself, and watch a handful of instructions sweep the whole board. That’s recursion. Nobody has to explain it: you feel it click. Recursive has 70 handmade levels. The first takes ten seconds. Some of the last will keep you busy for days. HOW IT WORKS Every robot runs the same program, starting in the function of its own color: blue, green, red or yellow. Three moves (forward, left, right) and four function calls are all you get. Put a function inside itself and it repeats. The shortest solutions are built on that. EVERY INSTRUCTION COUNTS Each level has an instruction budget. Reaching every gem is the first puzzle. Doing it within the budget is the real one. FIVE CHAPTERS, ONE TWIST EACH After the basics, each chapter changes the rules once. • Bugs: a robot that touches one is destroyed. Your one program has to steer every robot around them, all at once. • Chips: roll over a chip and the robot takes its color, restarting in that color’s function. • Teleportation gates: step into one, step out of its twin. • Sleeping robots: touch one and it wakes up, running your program too. A crowd of robots, one program. NO CODE TO READ Nothing to type, nothing to know beforehand, only arrows and colors. Six short tutorials teach everything, one idea at a time. Puzzle fans get a deep, fair challenge. Learners meet functions, loops and recursion the way they should be met: by playing. STUCK? SPEND A STAR Every level you solve earns a star. Spend stars to watch a solution run without seeing its program, or to reveal it. Optional star packs are sold in the app, and nothing else is. ONE PURCHASE, EVERY SCREEN iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a single purchase. On Mac, Recursive is a native app with menus and keyboard shortcuts. On iPhone Duo, unfold it: the board takes one side, your program the other. MADE WITH CARE • 70 handmade levels: 6 tutorials and 5 chapters • No ads, no subscription, no account • No data collected, and it plays offline • In English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Chinese Try the first six levels in your browser at kidori.com/games/recursive.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Linelight at none against Recursive's 3. Linelight also leads on review sentiment (94% vs 71%) and ratings volume (999 vs 28). Recursive's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months). On rating, ads, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Linelight costs $1.99 and Recursive $2.99 up front. Recursive sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Linelight asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Linelight against 4.9 for Recursive. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Linelight has 999 ratings behind it against 28, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 94% of Linelight's written reviews are positive against 71% of Recursive's.
Linelight ships an update every 2 months, Recursive every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 11, 2026.
| Parameter | Linelight | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (999 ratings) | 4.9 (28 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 93.7% of reviews — better | 71.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 999 — better | 28 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 101 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | BT Productions | Kidori |
Customer experience
Linelight
Recursive
Bugs and requests
Linelight
Reported bugs
3 issues- Softlocks after completing levels
- Tail growing issue in World 3
- Incompatibility with certain devices
Requested features
3 requests- More levels and content
- Customizable controls
- Difficulty options
Recursive
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Linelight
No in-app purchases
Recursive
- 10 stars$0.99
- 20 stars$1.99
- 40 stars$2.99









