Why it exists
Reef Rescue is our widest audience and our strictest brief: no lives, no energy meter, no countdown pressuring a purchase. Progress comes from restoring a reef, and the reef does not care how long you took.
Removing the timer meant the economy had to earn its keep elsewhere. Boards are hand-authored rather than generated, difficulty adapts within a single session instead of across a week, and the hint system teaches a pattern rather than solving the board for you.
Spec sheet
- Released
- June 2023
- Installs
- 5.1M
- Play rating
- 4.5 / 5 · 240K ratings
- Built with
- Unity 6 · 2D
- Team
- 8 people
- Schedule
- 14 months, live since launch
- Monetisation
- Boosters, cosmetic reef decor, no ads in story mode
- Android 7.0+
- 64-bit ARM
- 96 MB
- Cloud save via Play Games
Portrait, one-handed, Android 7.0+
What makes it work
No lives, ever
Play as long as you like. Retention comes from the reef you are rebuilding, not from a gate you have to wait out.
900 hand-built boards
Every level is authored and playtested. Procedural filler was cut in the first month and never came back.
Session-level difficulty
The curve responds to the last ten minutes of play, so a bad day does not turn into a wall.
Accessible by default
Shape-coded tiles, an 18pt minimum type scale and one-handed portrait play throughout.
