Orcacovearcade is a misty little harbour of games we wrote ourselves. Raft thirteen pieces of dock life together, pop clusters of glass floats, stack falling pontoon shapes, dash down the boardwalk, hunt words through the fog, or reason out pictures hidden in grid charts. Nothing to install, and every best score waits for you on the cleat.
Raft-Up Merge is the one we open with the first coffee of the morning. Push the whole board, let twin pieces bump together, and watch a sea star from a wet stone grow, tier by tier, into the orca crest at the top of the cove.
On a calm board it feels like tidying a dock. Then you notice that every push moves every piece at once, and that one hasty shove can drag your best tile out of the corner you guarded for twenty turns. After each move a new sea star washes up, now and then a sword fern instead, and space slowly runs out. Merges score, and higher tiers score far more. A strip of all thirteen icons sits below the board, dark until you reach each one. Prefer elbow room? Tick the 5x5 board before you start.
Each of these started as a scribble on the back of a tide table and ended up as something the studio squabbles over at lunch. A couple want quick hands, a couple want a patient head, and the rest drift happily between. Read the cards, glance at the feel bars, and cast off.
Start here01Push the whole board, let matching pieces bump together, and raft them up through thirteen tiers of cove life, from a sea star on a wet stone to the brass orca crest. A strip beneath the board lights each tier as you reach it, and one Undo per game rescues a single bad shove.
Family favourite02Marlo the dock cat sits by the launcher while a ceiling of glass floats, sea stars, otters and puffins hangs overhead. Aim, bank shots off the side walls, and connect three or more of a kind to pop them. Knock out an anchor point and every loose cluster below drops away.
Steady thrill03Seven four-square shapes, each stamped with a cove icon, fall into a deep well ten squares wide. Move, rotate and drop them into full lines that clear away. A ghost shows where each piece will land, a hold box saves one for later, and the pace lifts every ten lines.
Quickest round04Race along the float-home boardwalk at dusk as coiled mooring lines and glass floats block the planks and puffins swoop in low. Tap to hop, hold for a longer leap, and keep one jump spare for mid-air. Scoop up sea stars for bonus points while the dock speeds up beneath you.
For word lovers05Twelve packs of ten words each, from tide pools and seabirds to float homes, knots and a dock kitchen. Words run in eight directions; drag across them to wrap each in a coloured capsule. Three hints flash a first letter, and a Morning fog pack changes with the date.
Pure logic06Number clues along each row and column tell you which squares to fill. Reason them out and a hidden picture appears: a puffin, a floatplane, a propeller, a sea otter and eight more cove motifs. Play at 10x10 or 15x15, mark empty squares with crosses, and see it in full colour at the end.
Tell the old dock-master what kind of evening it is, how much time you have before the next ferry, and what makes you grin. He’ll point you at a single game to start with.
We are a handful of people who make games, and all six here are our own code, drawn and tuned by hand. Three rules travel with every build from the first sketch onward. They explain why the cove feels unhurried, why your scores mean something, and why nothing tugs at your sleeve.
Every number on the board comes from your own play: a merge you planned, a float you banked off the wall, a line you cleared, a grid you reasoned through. Chance only ever lays out the board, like which piece arrives next or where a word hides. Points, stars and personal bests are the whole reward, and each one is honestly earned.
Personal bests, finished grids and chosen settings are stored quietly in the browser you play in. There is no account and no password to forget. Come back on the same laptop or phone a week later and Oakum still has your numbers coiled on the cleat, along with the board size you picked and the packs you have already cleared.
Challenge rises in clear steps you can see coming. The dock dash spaces its obstacles so every one can be cleared, falling shapes only quicken after you clear ten lines, and the word grid shrinks to a friendlier size on a narrow screen. We play every game for weeks, sanding down anything that feels unfair before it reaches you.
Orcacovearcade exists because our small team likes building cheerful things and seeing people enjoy them. The pages are uncluttered, each game sits right on the page ready to start, and nothing interrupts you between rounds. We would rather spend an extra week polishing how a glass float sounds when it pops than add anything that pulls your eyes off the board.
Some nights you want to reason, some nights you want to react. This is how the cove sorts itself by feel.
You like a board that rewards a plan and punishes a shove. Raft-Up Merge gives you a corner to guard, thirteen tiers to climb and exactly one Undo for the moment a push goes badly wrong.
Raft-Up Merge →anglerGlass Float Pop is all about aim. Line up a shot, bounce it off the side wall if the straight path is blocked, pop three or more of a kind and watch whole hanging clusters tumble loose.
Glass Float Pop →stackerSeven shapes fall into a deep well and you fit them together before the next arrives. Pontoon Drop keeps a ghost of where each piece will land and lets you hold one back for later.
Pontoon Drop →dasherOne button and a boardwalk that keeps on going. Dockline Dash asks for nothing but timing: short hops over coiled rope, longer leaps over floats, and a spare mid-air jump for puffins that swoop in low.
Dockline Dash →lexiconTwelve packs of coastal and everyday words hide in a grid, running in eight directions. Fogbank Words gives you three hints, a Morning fog pack that changes daily, and stars for a swift finish.
Fogbank Words →reasonerNumber clues along every row and column tell you which squares to fill. Chart Room Grids turns twelve cove objects into picture puzzles at two sizes, then reveals each one in full colour when you finish.
Chart Room Grids →GuideOut here the rain can settle in for days. This is how the studio arranges the cove’s six games into an afternoon that warms you up, holds your attention and lets you down gently.
GuideEvery game in the cove rewards what you notice, not what you hope for. These are the habits our strongest players share, and how to grow them a few minutes at a time.
We do. Orcacovearcade is a small studio and every one of the six games is our own JavaScript, built and tuned in house. The icons, scenes and characters belong to the cove as well, so the same glass floats, puffins and float homes turn up across several games, from the bubbles you pop to the shapes you stack.
No. Each game loads straight into the page and plays in an up-to-date browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Press Play on the start screen and you are on your way. A fullscreen button and a restart button sit just above the playing area whenever you need them, and closing the tab is all it takes to stop.
They stay in your browser, on the device you are playing on. We ask for no account and keep no profile. That does mean clearing your browsing data, or moving to another phone or computer, starts the cove afresh. Many players simply treat each device as its own logbook, with a different best on the family tablet and the work laptop.
Of course. A sound toggle sits above every game. With it on you will hear short, soft synthesized tones for pops, merges, cleared lines and jumps. With it off, every game behaves exactly the same, which is how a good number of us play on the bus or late at night after the house has gone quiet.
We built the cove for the whole family. Fogbank Words uses friendly everyday vocabulary, the characters are cheerful animals, and nothing in any game is scary. Younger players tend to love Glass Float Pop and the smaller 10x10 picture grids, and they often end up beating their parents at Dockline Dash within a week.
All six adapt to a narrow screen. Raft-Up Merge and Dockline Dash feel made for a thumb, Pontoon Drop adds on-screen buttons and swipes, and Fogbank Words switches to a 9x9 grid with fewer, shorter words. The 15x15 picture grids are happiest on a tablet or a laptop, where each square has room to breathe.
We always have sketches on the go. For now we would rather keep polishing these six than rush a seventh out the door, so expect small improvements first. If you have an idea for a harbour game or a word pack you would love to see, the contact page comes straight to our inbox and we read every note.
Six games, nothing to install, and every best kept on your own device. Choose one, press Play, and let the fog lift for a while.