Beadline

Sort beads, make bracelets. A puzzle for iPhone, in a world made of felt and thread.

Coming soon to the App Store Press kit
  • Free
  • No account
  • No timers
  • 300 levels

The game

Beads on cords, with a little room to spare.

Slide a run of one colour off either end of a cord onto a cord whose end bead matches, or onto an empty cord. A cord that fills with one colour closes into a bracelet and goes to the shelf. Close every colour and the level is done.

Room is the whole game. An empty cord is where a colour can wait, so spend it on the colour that unblocks the most — and remember a run can come off the other end. When nothing slides, undo a move, or add a cord.

How it plays

1

Slide from either end

A run is the beads of one colour at a cord's end. It leaves from the left or the right — which end is the whole puzzle.

2

A full cord closes

Fill a cord with one colour and it closes into a bracelet, lifts to the shelf, and its cord opens up again — room you did not have a moment ago.

3

Room is the whole game

Every level starts with a little slack. Spend it on the colour that unblocks the most. When nothing slides, undo — or add a cord.

A bead from every place

They say magpies steal shiny things. This one is giving them back.

A girl saved her from a tangle of thread; every morning after, she brought a bead to the windowsill. Now she is threading the world — one bead from every place, five to a bracelet, a thread all the way back to the window.

Ten regions of felt and embroidery, each with a landmark at its end, and a cord stitched through all of them.

Garden: a felt path between rose bushes and sunflowers, a shed at the turn.
Garden
Tide: striped beach huts on a sandy path by a felt sea.
Tide
Ember: a kiln town of felt, orange ground and a bridge.
Ember
Frost: an igloo of white felt beside a frozen lake.
Frost
Bazaar: striped awnings, bowls of beads and a felt camel.
Bazaar
Midnight: plum rooftops and chimneys under a night sky.
Midnight
Harvest: an orchard of felt apple trees along a path.
Harvest
Dusk: a canyon of layered felt with a cactus.
Dusk
Coral: a reef of pink and orange felt with a treasure chest.
Coral
Aurora: snow, pines and a cabin under the northern lights.
Aurora

Made by hand

Every piece is something you could pick up off a craft table.

Linen under everything. Felt for every panel and tag. Glass beads on a cotton cord between brass hooks. A running stitch on every edge that would otherwise be a hairline.

The materials were photographed once and the geometry is drawn — so a bead sits on the cord the way a bead sits on a cord, and a sheet lies on the table the way felt lies on linen. One light, from the top left, for the whole game.

The table: felt swatches with a running stitch, a spool, a needle, brass hooks and a clasp, wooden tags, a scatter of glass beads, a finished bracelet of six ruby beads, and embroidery scissors on linen.
A wooden spool of cream thread
the spool
A brass needle
the needle
A brass coin
the coin
A brass hook
a hook
A brass clasp
the clasp
A wooden tag on a thread
a tag
A felt piggy bank
the pig
An enamel pin of a lightbulb
a pin

The facts

Short levels. Every one built to be solved.

300 levelsNo reshuffles, no luckNo timersSaves mid-levelNo account

New cords as you go: one with a pinned bead, one knotted at an end, cords of different lengths, a cord that asks for a pattern, a pouch that deals beads in order. Five levels make a bracelet, six bracelets make a set, and nine charms wait on each set's hooks for the player who wins a certain way.

Every bead is readable by its shape alone, not only its colour; there are no timers; the text follows your size setting.

Your guide

Pica.

A magpie who collects shiny things and threads them rather than hoards them. She is on the map, on the current bead, with a needle in her beak; she looks where a bead belongs; she is proud of the shine, tidy about the cord, easily delighted, and never disappointed in you.

Pica, at rest
at rest
Pica, hopeful
hopeful
Pica, happy
happy
Pica, celebrating
a bracelet
Pica, surprised
surprised
Pica, thinking
thinking
Pica, a wing over one eye
that one was hard

In six frames

The map: Pica on a felt path through a garden, a bead from every place. Level 1: slide from either end. A full cord closes into a bracelet. Five beads make a bracelet: the map's beads in the colours of each level's last close. The pre-level sheet: built to be solved, a streak, a free cord. A win: Perfect, a bracelet coming along. No timer, no account.