Android game
Marble Maze
A fully offline marble maze. Lay your phone flat, tilt it gently and roll the marble through a wooden maze from the green start ring into the golden hole — the more you tilt, the faster it rolls.
The game
The whole screen is a wooden maze. The marble starts in a shallow green ring; the finish is a dark hole with a golden rim and a pulsing ring around it. Tilt your device and the marble rolls, bounces softly off the walls and drops into the hole when you get it there.
Every maze is a "perfect" maze: there is exactly one route between any two spots, so it can always be solved. Start and finish are placed at the two ends of the longest route, and the computer rolls through every maze itself before you get it, to prove the marble fits through every corridor and around every corner.
Three ways to play
📱 Tilt
The default. Lay the device flat and tilt it a little: the marble speeds up the more you tilt. Choose a Low, Normal or High sensitivity, and use Set level if you play holding the device at an angle.
👆 Swipe or buttons
Swipe over the maze, or use four floating arrow buttons. The marble rolls that way, follows the corridor around corners and stops at a junction, a dead end or the hole. Handy in bed or on the train.
Highlights
- Four levels plus Custom, from big winding corridors to tiny mazes full of dead ends
- The maze adapts to your screen: a tablet gets a bigger maze than a phone
- A realistic rolling marble with a glass swirl, a fixed light and a shadow on the board
- Score on time and moves, each compared with the par of that maze, plus one to three stars
- Hints that light up the way ahead for a few seconds
- Top 10 per level and per control type (Tilt, Swipe, Buttons)
- Buttons fade when the marble rolls underneath them, so you can always see it
- Optional trail of dots where the marble has been
- Pause and auto-save when you switch apps; dark mode with dark wood
Download
Why Marble Maze isn't on the Google Play Store
Google currently enforces highly demanding and complex requirements to publish new apps (such as mandatory closed testing phases with at least 20 people for 14 days, rigorous identity verification, and heavy administrative overhead). Because we build apps purely for our own enjoyment and want to keep it simple, we prefer to share the app with you directly.
How to Install the App
- Directly on your phone: Open the downloaded file. If prompted, allow your browser or file manager to "Install unknown apps" from outside the Google Play Store. Google started blocking this way of installing APK files.
- Via your computer: Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable and install the app using Android Debug Bridge (ADB).
By downloading you agree to the Privacy Statement & Disclaimer. Use is entirely at your own risk.
How to install an APK directly on your phone
- Tap the download button above and wait for marblemaze.apk to finish downloading.
- Open the file (via your notification shade or the Files app).
- Android will ask permission to install unknown apps. Tap Settings and enable "Allow from this source" for your browser or file manager.
- Go back and tap Install.
- Open Marble Maze when installation completes.
Installing apps from outside the Play Store is a normal Android feature. You can turn the "unknown sources" permission back off afterwards if you prefer.
How to install an APK via your computer
The cleanest, safest, and most secure way to install an APK file—without modifying your phone's mobile security settings or enabling "Unknown Sources"—is via ADB (Android Debug Bridge) from your computer. This is an official command-line utility supplied by Google for Android developers.
Step 1: Download ADB on your computer (The fastest way)
You do not need to install the massive Android Studio suite. Google provides a lightweight, standalone package called Platform-Tools.
- Windows: Download the official Android SDK Platform-Tools for Windows.
- Mac / Linux: Download the zip package above or install it instantly via your terminal line:
- Mac (via Homebrew): Run
brew install android-platform-tools - Linux (Ubuntu/Debian): Run
sudo apt install adb
- Mac (via Homebrew): Run
Note: If you downloaded the ZIP file (Windows/Mac), extract it into an easy-to-reach directory, such as C:\platform-tools or your Desktop.
Step 2: Prepare your Android phone
- Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Go to About phone (or System > About).
- Tap Build number 7 times rapidly until a notification pop-up says: "You are now a developer!".
- Return to the main Settings menu, open the new Developer options panel, and turn on USB debugging.
Step 3: Install the APK file
- Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable.
- Look at your phone's screen: a prompt will ask "Allow USB debugging?". Check the option for “Always allow from this computer” and tap Allow.
- Move your downloaded APK file directly into the folder where you extracted the platform-tools files.
- Open Command Prompt (CMD) on Windows or Terminal on Mac/Linux, and change directories to that folder (e.g., on Windows, type:
cd C:\platform-tools). - Run this command to verify your computer properly detects your device:
(If you see a serial number followed by the word 'device', you are connected successfully!)adb devices - Run the installation script command:
adb install marblemaze.apk
When the terminal returns a Success message, the app is fully installed on your device and ready to launch!
How to play
1. Choose a level
On the main menu, tap New maze and pick a level. Continue picks up a saved maze. Choose your controls under Settings › Controls.
2. Roll the marble into the hole
With Tilt, lay the device flat and tilt it gently in the direction you want to roll. Flat means still: a small dead zone keeps the marble from creeping on a table. With Swipe or Buttons, each swipe or tap rolls the marble to the next junction. A swipe during a roll is remembered and carried out when the marble stops; a swipe against a wall does nothing and doesn't count.
3. Use the floating buttons
At the top you see the time, your moves and the par. ✕ leaves the maze (it is saved), ⌖ Set level (bottom left, Tilt only) takes the way you hold the device now as "flat", 💡 shows a hint and ☰ opens the game menu and pauses the clock.
Difficulty levels & scoring
| Level | Cells | Style | Maze on a phone | Hints | Points × |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | Large | Winding: long corridors | 6 × 13 | 3 | 1 |
| Medium | Medium | Mixed | 8 × 18 | 3 | 2 |
| Hard | Small | Mixed | 11 × 24 | 2 | 3 |
| Expert | Very small | Branchy: many short dead ends | 14 × 31 | 1 | 4 |
| Custom | Your own choice | — | 2 | 1 to 4 | |
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Time at or under par | 1000 |
| Time over par | 1000 × par ÷ your time (twice the par = 500) |
| Moves at or under par | 1000 |
| More moves than par | 1000 × par ÷ your moves |
| Hint | −150 |
| Total | (time + moves − hints) × level (1 to 4) |
Moves, par and stars
- A move with Tilt is every time the marble starts rolling in a new direction because you tilt that way; bouncing off a wall doesn't count. With Swipe or Buttons, every swipe or tap that makes the marble roll is a move.
- Par with Tilt is the time and number of moves the computer needed to roll through the maze (it knows the way), plus 3 seconds to look. With Swipe or Buttons, it is the exact smallest number of swipes, plus a little time per swipe and 3 seconds to look.
- Stars: ★★★ from 1700 points (before the level multiplier), ★★ from 1200, and ★ for every maze you finish.
- The clock starts when the maze appears and stops when the marble drops into the hole, when you pause and when the app goes to the background.
High scores
Menu → High scores keeps a top 10 for every level and control type: most points, fastest and fewest moves. Custom mazes have their own list for each setting.
Tips
- Small tilts win. A gentle tilt keeps the marble under control in narrow corridors; tilting hard makes it bounce.
- Look before you roll. The clock is already running, but a wrong turn into a long dead end costs more time than a few seconds of studying the maze.
- Expert is about choices, not distance: the route isn't longer than on Hard, but there are many more side branches.
Permissions this app requests
Privacy & cost — in plain terms
- No usage data collected. No analytics, crash reporting or advertising SDKs, and no Google Play services or Firebase.
- No personal data requested. There are no accounts, no sign-up, no login.
- No cookies. The app is not a web app and stores no cookies; this website sets none either.
- No internet connection. The game works fully offline.
- Nothing runs in the background. No services, jobs, alarms or receivers; sensor, clock and marble stop as soon as you leave the game.
- No payment, ever. The game is completely free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.
Your settings, saved maze and high scores are stored only in a private file on your device. Cloud backup and device transfer are disabled. For the full statement, see Privacy & Disclaimer.
Provided as is
Marble Maze is a hobby project, shared for learning and fun. It is provided "as is", without any warranty. Please read the full Privacy Statement & Disclaimer before use — by installing or using the app you accept those terms.
Images
