What goes wrong?
The soft serve keeps pouring and the cone holder keeps turning, so you tilt the cone to swing the stream into wide loops: fill the cone first, then coil it up loop by loop. Once it rises past the rim, these three things cause the most trouble:
Off target
The stream lands outside the top ring, can't stick, and slides off the edge. Spill a few ml and it costs you a life. Leave it off target and you'll keep losing lives every few seconds.
Too much
The taller the tower, the more it leans: every new loop slides a little to the side, so the more you stack, the further the top drifts off center. If the Wobble meter at the bottom turns red and you keep going, the whole thing comes down.
Too shaky
Swing the phone too fast and the cone jerks to a stop, flinging the top right off. Soft serve is soft, and the taller it gets the more it leans. If the whole tower falls, the round is over with no score. Small, slow corrections are the steadiest.
Career ladder
How to play
The soft serve machine sits right above the cone, and soft serve pours down nonstop. The tip of the cone sits in a clamp ring that sticks out from the machine behind it, and the ring slowly turns on its own. Hold your phone straight and the soft serve lands dead center, piling up into one skinny column: it climbs fast, but the base is so narrow that the slightest lean topples it. Tilt the cone so the stream lands off to the side, and the soft serve coils around it in wide loops. The wider the loop, the more goes into each one, and the thicker and steadier the base.
At first the soft serve flows into the cone, and nothing can spill during this part no matter how you tilt. The bottom of the screen shows how full it is. Once it rises past the rim, you start coiling it up, loop by loop. The machine never stops and never runs out, and there's no time limit. When you've had enough, press Done at the bottom of the screen (Space on a computer): the machine stops, the cone locks in place, and the tower has to stand on its own for 2 more seconds before it's in the bag.
Tilt your phone left or right and the cone tilts the same way around the clamp ring, by exactly the same angle, and the whole tower leans with it. That is how you control where the soft serve lands. The cone also drifts a degree or two on its own, so keep nudging it back.
The soft serve is truly soft: the lower loops slowly sag under the weight above and stick together. Every new loop slides slightly to one side, so the taller the tower, the further its heavy top drifts off center. You can watch it lean, and the Wobble meter at the bottom goes from green to yellow to red. Once the top section drifts past the loop beneath it, the whole section falls and the round is lost.
Tilt just right and each new loop lands on the top ring and stacks neatly. Tilt too far and it lands outside the tower, can't stick, and slides off the edge, costing you a life. The taller the tower, the more a small tilt moves the landing spot, so tilt less and less as you go. Losing a chunk off the side also costs a life. If the whole tower falls, the round fails: no score, no record. You get three lives per round. Lose all three and the game presses Done for you.
Score = volume (ml) + height (cm) × 20, measured the moment you press Done (if the tower sags a lot during the 2-second hold, the sagged version counts). Wide loops give you more volume and a steadier base but sit closer to spilling. Tight loops are skinnier and softer, and lean more easily. The taller you stack, the more points, and the more likely it falls: knowing when to stop is the hardest call in the game.
You can play on a computer too: tilt slowly with ← → (or A D), or move your mouse toward the left or right side of the screen. Space (or Enter, ↓, S) is Done.
Tips
- 1Watch where the stream lands, not the cone.
- 2When "About to spill!" pops up, tilt the phone a little the way the arrow points to pull the landing spot back onto the ring.
- 3Pressing Done while the Wobble meter is still green is the safest. Yellow is a gamble. Red means press it now, or it's too late.
- 4Hold your phone steady before you start: the game treats its angle at the end of the countdown as level.
- 5Nothing can spill while you fill the cone, so tilt all the way and let the soft serve hug the inside wall. It fills faster and fuller.
- 6At the same height, a tower that is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top is steadier than a straight column: tilt more for the base, then less and less as you go up.
- 7When "Stop now for a record!" appears, press Done. If the tower holds for 2 seconds without sagging below your best, that's your new record.
FAQ
Why doesn't tilting work on my iPhone?
When you tap Start swirling, Safari asks whether the page can access Motion & Orientation. Tap Allow. If you tapped Cancel by accident, close this tab and open the page again to get the prompt back. No permission? You can still play by dragging your finger left and right on the screen.
How long does a round take?
There's no time limit and the soft serve never runs out: you keep going until you press Done. The taller the tower, the more it leans, so you'll usually need to call it within 20 to 30 seconds.
Where is my best score saved?
Only in the browser on this phone or computer. It is never uploaded. If you clear your browsing data or use a private window, it will not be kept.
Where do shared screenshots go?
The share image is drawn on your device on the spot. Tapping Share to… hands it to your phone's built-in share sheet, and you decide who gets it.