A proving ground for the mind.
PhantomBrain is brain training against real people. Three games, a rating for each, and the same puzzle for both players at the same moment.
The idea
Brain training, head to head
Brain training with an opponent.
Training alone, you only ever beat your own score. Against a person, every game tells you something, and the ones you lose tell you the most.
Two players get the same puzzle, or the same falling pieces, at the same moment. There are no lucky draws and nothing to buy that helps. The only difference is what’s going on in their heads, and a rating keeps score.
Same game, same moment
Both players get the identical puzzle, piece sequence or wave of problems. Luck has no say in who wins.
Scored on the server
Every puzzle is made on the server, and every score is worked out there again from the player’s own inputs. The only edge is skill.
Always a match
A live opponent when one is online, a real player’s recorded game when not, or a solo game settled against the next five players. Nobody waits.
Phantom Grid
Memory · Attention · Visualization
Phantom Grid: See it once.
A few shapes sit on a board. Take a good look, because then they’re gone. Moves play out one at a time, some of them decoys, and you put every shape back where it ended.
- 01
Observe
The shapes start in the corners. Memorize them, then hide them.
- 02
Track
Moves appear one at a time, from cell to cell, while nothing visibly moves. Only the last two stay on screen.
- 03
Place
Drag each shape to the cell where it ended, against the clock.
- Levels
- 24, from one shape on a 3×3 board to four shapes on a 5×5, with decoy moves from level 5
- Match
- Up to five rounds on the same puzzles, over as soon as the lead can’t be caught
- Trains
- Visual memory, attention, visualization
Phantom Stack
Memory · Processing · Visualization
Phantom Stack: It’s all in your head.
Falling blocks, except each piece turns invisible as it lands. The stack is still there; you have to remember it, picture it and build on it, fast.
- Pieces never rotate. Flip and Mirror are the only turns.
- Easy hides the last piece to land, Hard the last two, Insanity the last three.
- Landing snug against a hidden block scores Perfect Recall. Clearing a row through hidden blocks scores a Blind Clear, or a Phantom Clear with five or more.
- Game
- Five minutes and the exact same pieces for both players. Highest score wins
- Ratings
- One for each level: Easy, Hard and Insanity
- Trains
- Working memory, pattern recognition, processing speed, visualization
Phantom Math
Processing · Memory · Reasoning
Phantom Math: Solve it before it lands.
Problems fall toward a base of three panels. Type the answer and fire before each one lands. A wrong answer or a landing costs a panel, and the panels have to last the whole match.
- Fire hits the most urgent problem the answer solves. 0.5 and 1/2 count as the same answer.
- Whole numbers, decimals, fractions and percentages, from 4 + 3 at level 1 to 7/9 + 9/8 at level 24.
- Faster hits score more, and a wave with no mistakes earns a bonus.
- Levels
- 24, in four tiers: Foundation, Build, Expert and Elite
- Match
- Up to five rounds with the same wave for both players. Lose the third panel and the base falls, and the match with it
- Trains
- Numerical fluency, processing speed, working memory, quantitative reasoning
From the iPhone app
Three games, one app
The real screens.
The animations above recreate each game’s rules. These are the games as they run on iPhone.
Head to head
Same puzzle. Real opponent.
Matches start in seconds at any hour, even while the player base is small. Every game is one of three kinds, picked in this order.
Live comes first. If nobody is searching at the same time, you get a real player’s recorded game. If there isn’t one yet, you play solo and the result is settled later against real players.
Both at once
Both players play the same content at the same moment and see each other’s progress as it happens.
A real player’s game
You play against another player’s recorded game, on the same puzzles, replayed against your clock.
Play once. Face five.
A solo game is settled against the next five players who get the same rounds.
Business model
Free to play, optional Premium
Free to play. Premium to play on.
Everyone plays every game for free. A free account can lose three games a day across all three games, and wins never count. Premium removes the limit.
- All three games, ranked and casual, live and async
- Three losses a day across every game. Wins and draws never count
- A loss in a challenge from a Premium member doesn’t count either
- No daily limit in any game
- A Premium star next to your name
- Challenges and live rematches a member starts never cost the other player a loss
Members bring friends in free
A challenge or rematch from a Premium member never costs the other player a loss, so paying players pull free players into games.
Creators bring audiences
When a creator shares PhantomBrain, more people get to stretch their minds, and we thank them for every player they bring.
Nothing in the way
No ads and no tracking. The games are the product, and Premium is the only thing for sale.
We thank the partners who bring new minds to the game.
Platform
iPhone and Android
Two native apps. One server.
PhantomBrain is built natively for each phone. One server makes every puzzle, runs matchmaking and ratings, and scores every game, so both apps play by one set of rules.
iPhone
Launching soonSwift, SwiftUI and SpriteKit. All three games, live and async play, friends and Game Center, notifications and subscriptions.
Android
Launching soonKotlin and Jetpack Compose. All three games, on the same server and under the same rules, with Google sign-in.
One server
Shared by bothRust and PostgreSQL. Matchmaking, ratings, every puzzle and piece sequence, scoring from each player’s inputs, notifications and subscriptions.
Why it matters
From the app’s Welcome screen
“In this respect the brain is like a muscle. When we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”
A proving ground for the mind. Launching soon on iPhone and Android.