Comparison

Polychoron Explorer vs Tidegate

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Polychoron Explorer

Features
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Introducing Magic Manycell - a puzzle game inspired by Magic Cube but in 4D. Rotate 4D slices of a Tesseract or 16-Cell to match colors. Comprehend and feel 4D space by watching 4D objects projected into 3D by brand new 4D projection-based rendering engine. Magic Manycell puzzle can be played on 3 different 4D figures -- Tesseract with its Cells divided into 8 cubes 2*2*2, tesseract with cells divided into 3*3*3=27 smaller cubes each, and a 16-cell, which is a regular polychoron with 16 tetrahedral cells, where you have to match colors in 4 cells aligned together. If Magic Manycell puzzle seems too hard at first, you can adjust difficulty by selecting amount of moves (called shuffles) that game creates from the state with all colors perfectly aligned. So as you master elementary 1, 2 and 3 shuffles, you can move on to more challenging puzzles. In addition to starting with less shuffles, with Tesseract based figures players can select to utilize rotations that affects less cells that actual rotation would which makes this puzzle playable to even most casual players (this is the default mode - for only "realistic" rotations select "IRON AN" mode). In addition to Magic Manycell, this game contains Explorer mode without game goal where you can take your time to explore all 6 regular 4D polytopes (called polychorons). You can also customize how polychoron looks by selecting colors for each Cell of it. In Premium version, you can even create your own polychorons by scanning and splitting existing ones into 2 parts. Even though right now there're only 2 modes, more fun games on the same engine are planned to be added in the future into this same app. Game uses Freemium model where free (Demo) functionality is limited. Full functionality is unlockable with one-time purchases, only one for each mode. Demo mode is indicated by watermark so you know that there are some limitations to be expected. However in each mode there is a fully unlocked free functionality - for Magic Manycell, this is 2*2*2 tesseract board, for Explorer it's the 5-cell and Tesseract.

About

Tidegate

Explore a hand-painted island mystery where the tide is your only control. Manipulate water levels to uncover hidden paths, solve environmental puzzles, and piece together the story of vanished island keepers. Enjoy a no-pressure, offline experience with a unique cross-scene reasoning mechanic.

Highlights
  • Tidal control mechanic
  • Hand-painted 2.5D dioramas
  • Environmental puzzles
  • No combat or timers
  • In-game hint journal
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

Tidegate is a quiet, hand-painted island mystery you play with one strange control: the tide. You wash ashore on Brenn Hollow, a tidal island whose keepers vanished mid-ritual. The moon no longer moves the water — a great brass orrery in the lighthouse does, and it is jammed between phases. Turn it, and the whole island re-floods or drains at once. Low tide and high tide are two different islands sharing one map. A TIDE YOU CONTROL Five tide stops reshape every scene at the same time. Dead low bares the causeway and the mud flat; spring high floats rafts and barrels along the old channels and drowns the paths you knew. Some clues read only at exactly the middle stop. You stop thinking scene-by-scene and start reading the island as one great machine — that cross-scene reasoning is the whole feeling this game is built around. HAND-PAINTED 2.5D DIORAMAS Each scene is a set of painted planes at real depth in front of a moving camera, so the world has parallax and weight. The water is a true plane that slides into the scene as the tide rises, swallowing the deeper ground first — the signature mechanic is legible at a glance. POINT-AND-CLICK, NO PRESSURE No combat. No death. No timers. Just observation, memory and a handful of genuinely clever puzzles: a drowned carillon whose bells only sing at the waterline, a message walked into the mud years ago that you read by lantern-light at the right tide, a barrel-post you route by setting four sluice gates along the water-road, and a cove that runs backwards. In the tradition of classic point-and-click and Myst-like island mysteries. THE KEEPER'S ALMANAC A journal that quietly collects the letters and tide-charts you find, and writes gentle, in-fiction hints in its margins once you have been stuck a while — never spoilers before then. FREE, AND HONEST ABOUT IT - Play all of District 1 (Harrow Reach) free, including lighting its beacon. - Invite a friend from the title screen and you both get promo credits toward unlocking the island. - Plays in English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, 日本語, Nederlands, Polski and Português. - 100% offline. No account, no sign-up, no cloud, no ads, no tracking. The whole island lives on your device. UNLOCK TIDEGATE (OPTIONAL) One unlock opens the rest of Brenn Hollow: Cannery Rows, the drowned Chapel Shoals, Lighthouse Point, the Tidegate finale, and the Almanac's plain-spoken hint tier. It is one-time and permanent — no subscription, nothing renews — and restores on a new device. The free reach stays free, forever. Terms of Service: https://adelyons.com/apps/tidegate/terms.html EULA: https://adelyons.com/apps/tidegate/eula.html Privacy Policy: https://adelyons.com/apps/tidegate/privacy.html Wash ashore, and set the tide right. Questions or ideas? dev@adelyons.com

Screenshots

Polychoron Explorer4 screens
Tidegate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Tidegate at every 10 days against Polychoron Explorer's every 3 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Polychoron Explorer sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Tidegate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Polychoron Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Tidegate every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Polychoron Explorer versus Tidegate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPolychoron ExplorerTidegate
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOLEG LESHCHEVAdelyons Software LLC

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Polychoron Explorer

One-time3
  • Unlock Explorer$4.99
  • Unlock Magic Manycell$4.99
  • Full Lifetime Unlock$14.99
1 purchases

Tidegate

One-time1
  • Unlock Tidegate$9.99

Questions

Is Polychoron Explorer free?
Polychoron Explorer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tidegate free?
Tidegate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Polychoron Explorer or Tidegate have ads?
Neither Polychoron Explorer nor Tidegate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Polychoron Explorer or Tidegate?
Polychoron Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Tidegate every 10 days. Most recently, Polychoron Explorer was updated on October 22, 2026 and Tidegate on October 25, 2026.

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