Tilt Maze · Complete guide
Tilt Maze: roll the ball home, and beat your own time
Tip the board and let gravity do the moving. The hard part is not finding the route — it is stopping.
Tilt Maze is a game of indirect control. You never move the ball — you tip the board, and gravity does the rest. Roll it into the green hole to finish; drop it into a pit and you start again with the clock still running.
The ball has weight. It builds speed downhill and does not stop when you level the board, so solving the maze is only half the problem; the other half is controlling speed. Straighten up before a corner rather than at it, tap rather than hold, and brake by tilting briefly against the direction of travel.
This is a genuinely interesting control problem, not just a game: tilting sets acceleration rather than position, which is the same kind of system as driving on ice or flying a drone. Humans are famously bad at it until they have built an internal model of the delay — which is precisely the learning curve you feel over the first few mazes.
Twelve mazes, each with its own best time saved. The route knowledge plateaus quickly; the control keeps improving for a long time, which is what makes the timer worth watching.
How to play
Tip the board and let gravity move the ball. The controls, why momentum is the real opponent, what the pits do to your time, and how the twelve mazes are scored.
Where it comes from
A Victorian dexterity craze, a Swedish wooden labyrinth with two knobs, an accelerometer in a Game Boy cartridge, and then a sensor in every phone.
- Dexterity mazes are Victorian: Pigs in Clover was a craze in 1889.
- The classic wooden labyrinth with two knobs has been made in Sweden since the 1940s.
- Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble (2000) put an accelerometer inside a Game Boy cartridge.
- Smartphone accelerometers from 2007 made tilt control universal.
How to win
Why tapping beats holding, how to brake a rolling ball, taking corners on the inside, and the routing choices that separate a good time from a great one.
- Tap the controls rather than holding them — momentum builds faster than you expect.
- Brake by tilting against the direction of travel, and start levelling before the corner.
- Run along walls rather than across open space; drift accumulates in the open.
- Route for momentum, not distance: fewer full stops beats a shorter path.
Common questions
How do I control the ball?
By tipping the board. On a phone, tap "Use tilt", hold the device however you like — that position becomes level — and tilt. On a computer, use the arrow keys, WASD, or press and drag.
What happens if I fall in a pit?
The ball returns to the start, and the clock does not stop — so a fall costs everything you had gained on that run.
Why do I keep overshooting corners?
Because you are braking at the corner instead of before it. Start levelling a ball's width early and take the turn from the inside.
Is the shortest route the fastest?
Usually not. A slightly longer route with long straights and gentle bends beats a short one that needs several full stops.
How many mazes are there?
Twelve, growing in size and complexity, with your best time kept separately for each.
Guides
Play Tilt Maze free, right now
No sign-up, no download — it runs in your browser against the computer, a friend on the same device, or a friend online.