Spoon Launcher
A spoon balanced on a fulcrum, a sugar cube in the bowl, and three cups that must be filled in order. One button aims it. The same button launches it. The rim decides the rest.
About This Game
You have done this in a kitchen. Cube on the spoon, thump the handle, and the cube goes somewhere you did not intend at a speed you did not expect. Spoon Launcher is that, with three cups to land in, in order, and a scoreboard that remembers.
The trick is that a single button has to do two completely different jobs. The spoon sweeps left and right on its own; pressing freezes that sweep, and that is your aim, locked, no take-backs. Then a power meter starts running up and down, and releasing picks your distance. Press for direction, release for range — and the two decisions are only about a second apart.
Nothing is fudged in your favour. The cube is a real body with spin, the cups have rims with actual thickness, and a cube clipping a rim is deflected along the true surface normal at the point it touched. That is why the same near-miss sometimes rattles in and sometimes fires across the table: the difference is a couple of millimetres, not a hidden dice roll.
How To Play
- Watch the spoon sweep. Press (tap, click, or Space) at the moment it points at the glowing cup.
- Hold. The power meter runs up and down. Nearer cups need less.
- Release. The handle gets whacked and the cube flies.
- Fill cup 1, then 2, then 3. Finishing all three clears the round and moves the cups further out.
- Miss every cup and you lose a sugar cube. Clear a whole round without dropping one and you get a cube back, up to five. Run out and it is over.
The dotted arc shows where the cube will actually land, and it fades away after round two. Use those first rounds to learn what each power level looks like, because you will not have it later.
Scoring
| Event | Points |
|---|---|
| Correct cup | 150, times the cup number, times the round |
| Wrong cup | 40 — and it does not advance you |
| Clean drop | +100 for going in without touching the rim |
| Rim and in | +120, because you deserve something for the anxiety |
| Streak | +25 per consecutive success, up to +250 |
| Round cleared | +500, times the round number — plus a cube back if it was flawless |
The interesting consequence is that a rim-rattle scores slightly more than a clean drop. It should — you earned it by suffering.
What Gets Harder
- Distance. The far cup drifts outward each round, which tightens the power window because range grows with the square of launch speed.
- Offset. Cups move off the centre line, so the aim sweep matters as much as the power.
- Wind, from round three. A constant crosswind pushes the cube for the entire flight, so you have to aim upwind rather than at the cup.
- Sliding cups, from round four. They drift side to side and you have to lead them, which means committing your aim to where the cup is going to be.
Tips
- Lock the aim on the sweep's edges where it is moving slowest, not through the middle where it is fastest — if the geometry lets you.
- Power error costs more at distance than aim error does. When the far cup is the target, worry about the meter.
- In wind, the cube is exposed for the whole flight, so a high slow shot drifts much further than a flat fast one.
- Against sliding cups, launch when the cup is heading toward your aim line, never away from it.
- If you are one cube from the end, take the near cup carefully rather than gambling on the far one. The round bonus is worth more than the risk.
Why This Exists
Almost every skill game separates aiming from committing. You line the shot up, and then, when you are happy, you take it. Real physical skills rarely work like that — a dart, a basketball, a spoon full of sugar all require you to choose direction and force in essentially the same motion, and being right about one while wrong about the other still misses.
This is a very small argument for how much harder that is. One button, two decisions, about a second apart, and a rim that is entirely indifferent to how close you came.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Spoon Launcher?
Spoon Launcher is a free one-button browser game. A spoon sits on a fulcrum like a seesaw with a sugar cube in the bowl. You press once to lock the aim, hold to build power, and let go to whack the handle and fling the cube. Three cups have to be filled in order, and they get further away every round.
How does one button control both aim and power?
The spoon sweeps left and right on its own until you press. The moment you press, the aim freezes exactly where it was, and a power meter starts sliding up and down. When you let go, it launches at whatever power the meter was showing. So pressing chooses the direction and releasing chooses the distance.
Why did my cube bounce out of the cup?
Because it hit the rim rather than the opening. The rim is treated as a real ring with thickness, so a cube clipping it gets deflected along the true surface normal at the point of contact. Sometimes that flips it in and sometimes it throws it clear across the table, and neither outcome is decided by a dice roll.
Do I have to hit the cups in order?
Yes. The glowing cup is the one that counts. Landing in a different cup is not a failure, but it scores much less and does not advance you, so the cube is returned and you try the correct cup again. Missing every cup costs you one of your three sugar cubes.
What makes later rounds harder?
The cups move further out and sit further off to the side, which tightens both the aim and the power window. From round three a crosswind pushes the cube during the whole flight, and from round four the cups slide sideways so you have to lead a moving target.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. It works on modern mobile browsers including Chrome, Safari and Firefox, and it is built for one thumb. Tap and hold anywhere on the screen, then lift your thumb to launch. Landscape gives you a better view of the far cups.
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