Ice Fishing

Ice Fishing is a matching puzzle built on connections instead of gravity. The pond is a field of fish tiles eight across and seven down. Tap one ice fish, then tap another of the same kind, and if a clear line can run between them the pair is lifted out of the water. The line may run along empty ice and around the outside edge of the pond, but it is allowed to bend at most twice. That single limit is the whole puzzle, because two fish sitting in plain sight are often unreachable while two on opposite corners are one clean sweep apart.

Nothing falls in to replace what you take, so the pond opens up as you work. Every pair you lift creates fresh lanes for the pairs behind it, and a careful player clears from the middle outward to keep the routes short. A careless one strips the edges first and leaves a solid block in the centre that nothing can reach.

Patience is the cost of guessing. Picking two matching fish with no legal line spends one point of it, and each pond gives you a fixed amount. Choosing two different fish costs nothing at all and simply moves your selection, so looking around is free and only wrong connections hurt.

Two tools sit under the pond. The hint draws a live line across a pair that can be joined right now, three times per pond, and the shuffle stirs every remaining fish into new places while guaranteeing that a legal pair exists afterwards, twice per pond. Leftover patience, hints and shuffles are turned into bonus points when the last pair comes out.

Ten ponds run from the shallow edge to the silver pond, adding more kinds of fish and less patience as you go. Eight badges follow the milestones and the rivals board ranks your best pond.

Ice Fishing is played in portrait on mobile and needs no connection — an offline ice fishing game app with no account, no advertising, nothing to buy and no timer. Ponds, scores and badges live on your device, and the settings screen carries a single clear data button that removes all of them.