You never touch the ball.

You draw threads — glowing lines that bend its path — and the ball obeys physics from there. Your first thread launches it. After that you are drawing live, mid-flight, improvising.

And every thread dissolves in seconds. The line you drew a moment ago will not be there when the ball comes back around. Every basket is a small plan that falls apart, and the fun is in keeping it alive.

HOW IT WORKS

• Drag anywhere on the court to draw a thread - try a line under the ball first

• Release it and the ball launches

• Threads are trampolines — bounce, bank and lob the ball into the rim

• Graze a thread at an angle and the ball picks up spin, then keeps bending after the thread is gone — draw a bend to curl one around a keeper

• Ink is limited and refills on its own, so quick taps beat one huge ramp

• Touch the floor and the shot is over

SCORING

A basket is 2 points. Swishes, bank shots off the glass, dunks, buzzer beaters and long-way-round shots all score extra, and so does a shot that turned on spin. Chain baskets and the multiplier climbs — up to x5.

Three in a row and the court catches fire. In Arcade, every basket buys you three more seconds, and the clock never cuts a shot off mid-flight. You are not really trying to score. You are trying not to stop.

ONE SHOT AT A TIME 

Miss and the course stays exactly as it was — the layout, and the timing of anything moving in it, only changes when the ball actually goes in. You get to learn a shot before you are asked to move on, and a near miss is an invitation to try again rather than the loss of the shot you had almost solved.

SHOTS COME IN DIFFERENT SHAPES

• Sometimes the hoop is on the left, and the whole court is mirrored

• Sometimes there are two balls, and the shot counts only when both are in, so you are threading one lane that serves the pair

• Sometimes the ball is already moving when the course appears. No planning stroke, just read and react

• Sometimes the tee drifts, so when you release is a decision Only one at a time. Two at once is not twice the variety, it is an unreadable course.

SOMEONE IS TRYING TO STOP YOU

From the last free level onwards, a keeper shadows the rim. It is slower than the ball, so it cannot be overpowered — only wrong-footed. Change height late and it cannot follow.

MEDALS AND COLOURS

Eighteen medals for specific things — five in a row, a swish, a dunk, a score on spin, sinking a two-ball course, clearing a level in three threads. 

They unlock four thread colours as you earn them, and a set of goals to chase that is not a score.

BEAT MY SHOT 

Every run has a seed, and a seed is the whole run:

.../threadball#s=48213 play my exact run

.../threadball#s=48213&t=42 ...and I scored 42

There is a box on the menu to play a friend's seed directly. No account, no server, no leaderboard to sign up to. The result screen makes a shareable shot card — your score, the seed, and a drawing of the best shot you made — and there is a Share button and a Save image button under it.

SO MANY LEVELS

Sixteen fixed levels — hand-made, learnable designs:

First Thread, Higher Ground, Off the Glass, Low Post, Crosswind, The Pillar, Windmill, The Keeper (free) · Narrow, Twin Pillars, Weather, Double Blade, Corkscrew, Needle, Quick Hands, The Gauntlet (supporter).

They introduce one idea at a time, and each is a fixed layout you can memorise and master.

Everything else is generated — Arcade, Zen, Hard, Chaos, Daily, Championship, Challenge. There's no fixed count, because the layout is drawn from a seed. Spawn and hoop alone give about 283 million combinations, before obstacles; the seed space caps it at roughly 2.1 billion runs.

THE SUPPORTER EDITION ($5)

• Championship — fifteen courses across five escalating rounds on five lives. No clock: a run with an ending, and a medal if you reach it

• Chaos mode — arcade, but the court rolls a new rule every few seconds

• Daily Challenge — twelve seeded shots, the same for everybody, every day

• 8 more levels, including The Gauntlet

• Three more courts — Meadow, Retro and Daylight

• The ball lab — heavy, floaty and bouncy balls

The free version is the complete game, not a demo: every mechanic, every shot shape, all the sharing. The Supporter Edition never makes you better at scoring — it is more game, and more ways to play.

Runs in any modern browser. Nothing to install, and it works offline.

	Free	Supporter · $5
Modes
Arcade — 45 seconds, every basket buys three more	✅	✅
Zen — no clock at all	✅	✅
Hard — four lines a shot, 190px each	✅	✅
Levels 1–8 — one new idea at a time	✅	✅
Levels 9–16, including The Gauntlet	—	✅
Championship — 15 courses, 5 rounds, 5 lives, no clock	—	✅
Chaos — the court rolls a new rule every few seconds	—	✅
Daily Challenge — twelve seeded shots, the same for everyone	—	✅
The game itself
Every mechanic: threads, curve, keeper, all four shot shapes	✅	✅
18 medals, and the thread colours they unlock	✅	✅
Challenge links, the shot card, Share and Save image	✅	✅
A ghost of your own best run	✅	✅
Dusk court · settings · lifetime stats · works offline	✅	✅
Extras
Three more courts — Meadow, Retro and Daylight	—	✅
The ball lab — heavy, floaty and bouncy balls	—	✅