Marbletide

Marbletide is a portrait 2D marbling puzzle set inside a canal-side bindery. Begin at the Bindery Desk, open the Pattern Folio, and choose a damaged leaf to restore. At the Marbling Tray, read the colored ink lanes, the target skeleton, the marked start and finish edges, and the illuminated comb route. Drag the current wooden comb along that route. Every committed pass immediately reshapes the ink, closes or breaks visible contours, plays a tactile sound, and produces a clear animated response. A correct pass lights the result in green. A missed lane, broken band, unwanted blend, mask collision, or seam error is marked where it happened instead of being hidden behind a score. The launch campaign contains eight distinct levels that grow from simple to demanding. Straight Feather teaches one clean linear pull. Chevron Mirror introduces reflected direction. Stone Vein adds a protected mask. Guild Sample coordinates several color lanes. Raked Shell bends the path into a curve. Book Edge checks continuity across a binding seam. Two Bath asks you to preserve one design across separate trays. Master Folio combines four phases with feather, chevron, shell, masking, and overprint decisions. These are not palette swaps or shuffled seeds: each level introduces a visible rule, a new spatial problem, or a more demanding sequence. The first session uses a playable three-step guide: touch the glowing start, drag through the live route, and lift the sheet when the target closes. Pattern redundancy adds stripes, dots, and outlines so color is never the only signal. Reduce Motion keeps static routes, closed contours, diagnostic marks, and the finished paper while limiting large transitions. Tool Choice explains each benefit and cost before confirmation. Sizing Drops support tool decisions, Binder Seals track restoration progress, and completed Pattern Leaves enter the archive with ratings and best match records. English and Simplified Chinese are selectable from the startup home screen and the choice is saved. Advertising remains optional assistance. Rewarded ads can restore a failed phase, reroll a tool, add a small number of Sizing Drops, or accelerate a settlement reward. They never draw the pattern, reveal the correct route, or impose an energy gate. Interstitial requests occur only at suitable flow boundaries, with a visible waiting state, timeout handling, and a desktop fallback for testing. All shown graphics come from the actual Godot mobile compatibility renderer and its deterministic 2D ink-band simulation. Marbletide does not promise real-time fluid physics, unrestricted free painting, network multiplayer, automatic pattern generation, or offline retouched results.