Calm or competitive: 48 ways to play seven games, on one rulebook each

There is a streak counter in The Week, and the comment above it in the code says "a missed day costs nothing but the number". It counts the days in a row you have played Today's week. It shows up on the end card, and only once the count is past one. It never sends a notification, never appears anywhere outside the game, and if you skip a Tuesday it quietly goes back to 1.

That morning, the counter would have broken the rules. The first break room law banned lives, fail states, clocks that punish and streaks, on the theory that a break should be a break. On 27 September the founder reversed it:

"I think streaks, lives, and timers, etc., can also be good to make it a little bit more competitive. It will depend on the mood, so it depends on what the user wants to play. Don't just restrict them to one type of play."

So now there are two moods. Every game has at least one calm way to play (no clock, no way to lose) and at least one competitive way (lives, a clock, a streak, sudden death, an opponent), and the person chooses. A second revision the same day listed particular modes for each game and asked for every one of them.

That comes to 48, each with its own best score and one sentence on the picker. Some of those sentences are the whole design. Mystery guest is "One guest keeps their wish to themselves. Watch their face and work it out." In the dark is "Crossings only show when you let go of a pin." Three knocks is "Three hard knocks and the plane crumples. Fly clean to fly far." Volley has eight, from a Rally to an Official match refereed like a beach final.

Switches, never forks#

We did not want 48 small games. Each mode is a set of rule toggles on its game's one engine, which matters for a boring reason: everything the solvers prove about a game stays proven in every mode. Every Table for Six mode starts from an ordinary generated table, so it inherits a complete solution set, an exact par and wishes that each do something. Then each mode proves its own extra thing. The wish Mystery guest hides has to be one the table can't do without, or hiding it would be pointless. The table the late guest walks into has to be solvable, and has to need at least one swap however you left the first half, or the arrival would be a formality. Loose Ends' Few moves scrambles only a few pins and proves the move budget it gives you.

The last mode you played in each mood is saved on your account with the game's progress. On any device, the shelf can offer to carry on where you left off, calm or not.

Catch the Tasks has a Today mode too, the same day for everybody, and its line on the picker is "Compare notes, not streaks."

On the picker itself, no game says "competitive". The two moods are called Calm and A challenge, because a word like competitive is a lot to press on somebody who opened the break room to unwind.