Monsoon Sail: Paper Boat

It is raining in Chennai. The street has turned into a little river, and you have just folded a paper boat out of a notebook page. Let it go, and see how far it sails.

Monsoon Sail is a gentle one-thumb game about the boat every child once launched in the rain. Drag to steer it down the stream, tap to hop, and keep it afloat for as long as you can.

THE STREET IN THE RAIN Sail past compound walls and green gates, kolams washing away on the doorsteps, scooters parked under the trees, neighbours watching from the verandah and a dog that has seen it all before. Then into the market lane: vegetable heaps, flower stalls with jasmine and marigold garlands, steel vessel shops, fruit carts under faded umbrellas and blue tarpaulins sagging with rain. Then out along the main road, where the buses and autos come splashing past.

PLACES TO REMEMBER Sail under a footbridge where people cross with their umbrellas, past the tea stall with its boiler steaming, past the little Pillaiyar temple as its bell rings, and through the market's marigold welcome arch.

THE WEATHER TURNS Drizzle builds to a downpour, then a thunderstorm. Then the power goes: the street lights flicker out, candles glow in the windows, and your paper boat is the brightest thing on the street. Then the rain eases, just for a while.

THINGS IN THE WAY A floating slipper. An open drain that pulls you in. A roof pipe pouring onto the street. A plastic bag that wraps round the boat. A tarpaulin dripping from above, a vegetable crate drifting by. A pothole swirling on the main road, and the bus that throws a wave of water at you. Each one is a different kind of trouble.

STAY DRY Paper soaks. The rain wets your boat a little all the time, and every bump wets it more. When it gets soggy it starts to sag, and if it soaks right through it sinks. Shelter under the shop awnings to dry off, then sail on.

CLOSE SHAVES AND COMBOS Slip past a hazard by a hair, or hop clean over it, for a close shave. Clean sailing builds a combo up to x4, and every jasmine flower counts for more while it lasts. One bump and it is gone.

JASMINE, COINS AND POWER-UPS Collect trails of jasmine flowers and the odd coin floating down the stream. Pick up a wax coat to keep the water out, a little umbrella to keep off the rain, or a banana leaf to ride straight over the drains.

THREE BOATS, FOUR UPGRADES Start with the notebook boat. Earn the newspaper boat, faster but quicker to soak, or the stiff chart-paper boat that holds out longest. Spend your jasmine on soak resistance, sharper steering, an extra hop and a jasmine magnet.

MISSIONS Three missions at a time: sail a distance, catch a combo, collect jasmine, scrape past a few close shaves. Finish one for coins, and a new one takes its place.

MADE FOR ONE THUMB Portrait, one hand, short runs. Play on the bus, in the queue, or while the real rain falls outside. No account, no sign-up, and it plays without a network.

FAIR WITH ADS There are no ads while you sail. After your first few runs, a short ad may appear now and then when you tap Sail again, never more than one every other run.

MONSOON SAIL PRO One payment, no subscription. Pro takes the ads away for good and adds two festival boats: one in gold foil, one with a kolam drawn on kaavi red. They sail just like the notebook boat. Nothing in Pro makes the game easier, and everything else stays free.

Every boat, street, person and raindrop in Monsoon Sail is drawn in code, by a small studio in India.