Get in touch
One person reads this mailbox, so please allow a couple of days for a reply. Telling me which phone you use and what happened gets a useful answer far faster than a bug report that says the game is broken.
Jingle Drop has no account system and makes no network connections, which means I cannot see your high scores, restore them, or see what went wrong on your phone unless you tell me. Everything below is something you can check or fix yourself.
- How do I play?
- How do streaks work?
- What are the lanterns?
- My high scores are gone
- The game paused by itself
- Privacy policy
How to play
Santa is flying over a snowy village, and every chimney is waiting for a gift.
- Fly. Put a thumb on the left half of the screen and drag up or down. Santa follows your thumb.
- Drop a gift. Tap anywhere on the right half of the screen. Santa throws the gift forward, and it falls toward the houses.
- Aim for the glow. When a chimney glows, a gift dropped right now lands in it.
- Dodge the shooting stars. A small twinkle at the right edge of the screen shows where the next star will fly in. Move up or down out of its way.
There are no shooting stars during the first few seconds of a run, so there is time to warm up. The village slowly speeds up the longer you fly.
Playing with a keyboard
On a phone with a keyboard attached, the arrow keys (or W and S) fly, and Space drops a gift.
Scoring
- A gift down a chimney scores 100 points, times your streak multiplier.
- Flying further adds a few points over time.
How do streaks work?
- Each gift down a chimney in a row raises your multiplier: ×2, ×3, ×4, and at most ×5. The badge at the top of the screen shows it.
- A gift that misses bounces off the roof. Your streak starts again at ×1, and nothing else is lost.
- Each chimney takes one gift. A second gift into the same chimney bounces off.
What are the lanterns?
Santa has three lanterns, shown at the top of the screen. A shooting star that touches the sleigh or a reindeer costs one lantern. The team then blinks for a moment, and no star can hurt it while it blinks.
When the last lantern goes out, the sleigh tips and the run is over.
High scores
Your ten best runs are kept on your phone, with the gifts you delivered and your best streak. If a run makes the top ten, the game-over screen shows which place it took. Open High scores from the main menu to see the whole list.
Everything else
My high scores are gone after reinstalling
Your scores are stored on your phone, and uninstalling deletes them. If Android's device backup was on, a reinstall may bring them back.
The game paused by itself
Jingle Drop pauses whenever you switch to another app, get a call, or press the back button, so a run is never lost by accident. Tap Resume to carry on.
Can I turn the sound off?
Yes. Tap the speaker button in the top-right corner of the main menu.
How do I see the how-to cards again?
Tap How to play on the main menu, or Help in the pause menu.
Does Jingle Drop need the internet?
No. It makes no network connections at all, so it plays anywhere.
Does Jingle Drop collect my data, or my child's?
No. It has no ads, no analytics, no accounts and no purchases, and it makes no network connections. The privacy policy sets out exactly what is stored on your phone and where it can go.
Which devices are supported?
Jingle Drop is for Android phones running Android 8.0 or newer, and is in a closed test on Google Play. There is no iPhone version yet.
Something is wrong that isn't listed here
Email jingledrop@nilbytestudio.com. Please say which phone you use and what happened; a screenshot helps too.