Nova – Gravity Well Puzzle

Nova is a small, calm puzzle about feeding a newborn star. Turn the circular gravity well and drop small cosmic bodies from the top. They fall inward toward the glowing core, not straight down. When two bodies of the same kind touch, they fuse into the next kind: dust, pebble, asteroid, comet, moon, planet, gas giant, dwarf star, star, and finally a nova. Fusing two novas ends them both, in a screen-wide finale. A run ends when the pile presses against the rim for too long. The whole rim is the danger line, so there is no corner to hide in — where you turn the well before each drop is the decision that matters. One way to play: every run is a new random sequence. Three small goals each day are the same for everyone and change at midnight UTC, so "how far did you get today?" is a real comparison with a friend — no account and no server of the game's own. A collection screen keeps track of which of the ten kinds you have discovered so far. Nova is fully offline by default. It works exactly the same with no internet connection, and needs none for the game itself — there is nothing to download after installation and nothing to check in with. It does not use accounts, ads, in-app purchases, analytics, or tracking, and sends no push notifications. Your best scores, your discovered kinds, your settings and one unfinished run are saved only on this device, so you can pick a run back up after closing the app. Game Center is on if your device is signed in; you can switch it off in Settings. When it's on, Apple's own framework compares your best scores and achievements online — the game plays identically either way. Play with one thumb: drag anywhere on the well to aim, and tap anywhere on the well to drop it (or use the Drop button, selectable in Settings). On iPad, the well and controls adapt to the size of your screen and to rotation. The whole app is in English and German, switchable at any time from Settings. Optional settings: reduce motion, adjust volume or mute, and (on iPhone) turn haptics on or off. Nova is a small, complete game — not the beginning of a larger one waiting for updates.