Sprouts+ vs Tessera

Sprouts is a mathematical game invented in 1967 by John H. Conway and Michael S. Paterson. The rules are simple. Two players start with a certain number of Dots. They take turns drawing a Line connecting any two Dots or connecting a Dot back onto itself. After each Line is drawn an additional Dot is added along the newly drawn Line. No Line can cross another Line. A Dot can have up to three Lines connected to it. The players take turns drawing a Line until no additional Lines can be drawn. The player who drew the last Line wins the game. The app color codes each Dot to indicate if it has three lines connected to it, is reachable by another Dot or is blocked by lines and cannot be reached. The strategy of the game is to divide the Dots into M groups by encircling Dots so that Lines cannot be connected to them from Dots in the other groups. M starts at 1 and increases as the players draw Lines that encircle Dots to form additional groups. Note that each time a Line is drawn, it fills two connections on preexisting Dots and it creates a new Dot that has one additional connection so the total number of connections is decreased by one (i.e. -2 + 1 = -1) for each new Line drawn. Note also that the last Line drawn in each encircled group will always generate a new Dot with one unfilled connection. If the game starts with N Dots that represents 3*N unfilled connections and there can therefore be 3*N Lines drawn minus one Line for each of the M groups formed during the game. This number will be even if N-M is even (2*N is always even) and odd if N-M is odd. To be the last player to draw a Line, the player who plays first will want to form M groups such that N-M is odd while the player who plays second will want to form M' groups such that N-M' is even. The app allows you to play with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 Dots. Two Dot games are unlimited. Other games require a Token. The game comes with 20 Tokens. Additional Tokens can be purchased through an IAP: 25 Tokens for $1, 100 Tokens for $2 (approximately). The game can be played on one device or on two connected devices connected through local WiFi or the Game Center. Using the Game Center you can invite friends and use SharePlay to incorporate a FaceTime window and voice communication. Alternatively you can play with a random player at a matching skill level.

Tessera is a puzzle game about stillness and sequence. Each level is a small hex board. Slide a tile until it hits another; match three of a color to clear them. One hundred hand-curated levels across ten worlds — every one solved by the game's own solver before it shipped. No guessing. No luck. No timers. Just a puzzle and a quiet place to think. Thirty levels are free. The rest unlock with one purchase. FEATURES • 100 hand-curated levels across 10 worlds • Every level provably solvable — verified by an IDA* solver • Sliding hex tiles with cascading chain merges • Pre-charged tiles and chain annihilation • Rewarding bonus puzzles for clean clears • Dark mode (paper by candlelight) • Offline play · cloud sync across devices • Keyboard shortcuts for desktop play QUIET PAPER Tessera is designed around a "Quiet Paper" aesthetic — near-monochrome ivory and charcoal, one muted accent per world, humanist typography, no drop shadows, no particles, no clutter. Ten worlds, ten colour moods. NO DARK PATTERNS • One-time purchase. No ads, no subscriptions, no loot boxes. • No stamina systems, no "wait 4 hours" timers, no energy meters. • No tracking, no third-party analytics. • Your progress is yours. Delete it any time in Settings. THE WORLDS W1 Threshold — Learn the slide. Learn the chain. W2 Ember — Three colours. Richer chains. W3 Tide — Four colours. Deeper reads. W4 Ashwood — Think before you slide. W5 Helix — Five colours. Wider grid. The climb begins. W6 Prism — Dense lattices. Longer chains. W7 Aurora — Long chains. Rolling clears. W8 Halcyon — Denser boards. No escape. W9 Quartz — Six colours. Every cluster counts. W10 Obsidian — The wall. Everything learned. Designed for short sessions. Built for quiet.