Wave Back
Tap to say hello. They wave back.
What it is
Wave Back is a tapping game for small children. A hedgehog, a bunny and a frog come up out of holes in a sunny garden. Tap one while it is up and it pops up tall, waves back, giggles, and drops its treat into your basket: an apple, a carrot or a strawberry.
A round lasts a minute, shown by the sun crossing the sky. At sunset the basket comes out full of everything you caught, the friends cheer round it, and a big round arrow means again. Until someone touches it, the garden plays by itself, and the first tap starts a round.
A miss never costs anything
It starts slow. Three catches in a row bring the creatures a little quicker, and each one that gets away brings them a little slower, so the game settles at the child’s own pace. A creature nobody catches stays up at least 3.2 seconds at the start of a round, and never less than 1.6 seconds however quick the child gets. A tap is judged at the moment the finger landed, so one that lands just before a creature ducks still catches it.
A miss never takes anything away: there is no score to beat, no miss is counted, and there are no sad sounds.
Two or four at once
Two children can play side by side, or four round a tablet, each in their own part of the garden, and the far two can be turned round to face the children sitting opposite.
How to play
- Catch a creatureTap it while it’s up
- Play againTap the round arrow at sunset
- One, two or four gardensThe button at the top right, between rounds
- SoundThe speaker, top right
Two players need a big enough screen, and four a 10-inch tablet played full screen; a phone keeps to one garden. Between rounds, tap the small button at the top right, beside the speaker. Each tap shows the next choice the screen can hold: two gardens side by side, then four corners, then four with the far two turned round for children sitting across a tablet lying flat, then back to one. Each child plays in their own garden, and a garden nobody is touching keeps playing itself.
On a desktop, a click is a tap. Space catches whichever creature is up, so a child who can’t aim yet can still play with one big key, and holding it down catches one, not all. With two gardens, Space is the left one and Enter the right. At sunset, Space or Enter plays again. M turns sound on and off, and 1 or 2 picks one or two gardens between rounds.
What isn’t settled yet
The timings are a starting point: how slowly a round starts, the shortest time a creature stays up, and how many catches in a row speed it up have not yet been measured with children playing. Four round one tablet gives each child a corner of a 10-inch screen, and whether that is room enough for four small arms is still to be seen. There is one kind of round, with no settings for its length or speed, and no other creatures or seasons yet.
Build Log
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Build 3
Every creature was given a floor before it may duck: 3.2 seconds at the start of a round, and never under 1.6 seconds however quick the child gets. Taps were judged at the moment the finger landed rather than when the screen next drew, so a tap just before a creature ducks still catches it, even on a slow tablet.
Credits and licences
No third-party engine and no embedded typefaces — it uses whichever fonts your device already has. Cover drawn from the game’s own garden and creature code.
Wave Back is original work by Launchway Games.