Ziggy Road

A zigzag runner that presents itself as almost nothing. A thin path, a rolling ball, one input to change direction — and the first impression is that it looks too simple to hold anybody's attention, which is a deliberate setup for how quickly it stops being easy. The mechanic is commitment. A tap turns the ball ninety degrees and it keeps going until you tap again, so every input has to be placed exactly where the path turns; too early and you leave the path, too late and the same. There is no correction available, which means the game is a sequence of precise moments rather than a continuous control problem. What makes long runs possible is reading ahead. The path's turns are visible well in advance, and players who watch the corner two ahead rather than the one approaching get considerably further — the instinct to watch the ball is the main thing to unlearn. Speed rises steadily, shortening the interval between turns without changing their nature. Runs last under a minute and restarting is one press. There is nothing else in it. It plays with one finger on a phone or one key on a desktop, runs on anything, and is a very efficient test of sustained attention disguised as a toy.