Dominex Tiles

There is a corner table in every café where the same people have been playing dominoes since before the menu had oat milk on it. Dominex Tiles gives you a seat at it. The game is Block dominoes with a double-six set. Everyone gets seven tiles, nobody draws, and if nothing in your hand fits either end you knock and pass. Empty your hand first and you collect the pips still sitting in everyone else's. If the whole table grinds to a halt, the lightest hand takes the round, less its own pips, which is only fair. — The trump number Each round turns over a trump number, blank to six, shown on a mustard medallion above the table. Play a tile that leaves both open ends showing it and you pocket five points on the spot. The computer players know this too, and the sharper ones will lay a trap for it. — Who you play against One, two or three computer rivals, at one of three levels: Easy lays whatever fits. Steady unloads its heaviest tiles, doubles first. Sharp weighs each move properly: trump chances, keeping a spread of numbers, and leaving ends it has seen you pass on. Matches run to 61, 101 or 151 points. A "Show playable" option lifts the tiles you can legally lay, for evenings when counting pips feels like a chore. — The ladder Eight café regulars, from Mrs Okafor to The Major, each a little harder than the last. Beat one and the next agrees to a game. Your record against each of them is kept, along with a list of recent matches and your best score. — How it feels Tiles are dealt in with a rattle, lift when you pick them, arc across the table and clack into place. The line of play snakes back on itself at the edges so it always fits a phone held upright. Round totals are counted up pip by pip, and a win earns a small flurry of confetti in domino form. Coffee steams quietly in the corner. Sound, haptics and a Reduce motion switch are in the settings. Reduce motion removes the confetti, steam and wobbles while keeping the clack. Every rival is a computer regular living inside the app, so the café stays open without a signal and nothing you do at the table leaves your phone, including the rounds you would rather forget.