Flux Sort
Drag falling data shards into the matching channel before the core overflows.
How to Play Flux Sort
- Grab a shard from the core with your finger or the mouse.
- Drag it out to the channel that matches its colour and shape — up, right, down or left.
- Each correct sort buys time. Let the core overflow and the run ends.
Controls
| Keyboard | Not required |
|---|---|
| Touch | Drag a shard from the core into one of the four channels |
Tips
- Clear the shard nearest a full channel first — the core overflows before the clock runs out.
About Flux Sort
Shards pile up in a spinning core. Drag each one out to the channel matching its colour and shape. Every sort buys time, and the core fills faster the longer you last. It runs directly in your browser with no download or sign-up, on desktop and mobile alike.
Design notes: how Flux Sort was built
The drop target is the whole quadrant of background, not a box. On a phone, a small target under your own finger is a target you cannot see, so dragging a shard anywhere into the lower-left region sorts it into that channel. The visible channel marker is a label for a region rather than the region itself.
The four channels use shapes with different vertex counts — triangle, pentagon, square, hexagon — and that spread is deliberate. Shapes drift and rotate, and a rotating square is a diamond; pick two shapes with similar counts and there is an angle at which they become the same silhouette. Colour is the fast cue and shape is the reliable one, and the reliable one has to survive rotation.
The run does not end on a countdown. An early version used a literal timer and every real session ended in seven to ten seconds, which scored 9 out of 20 in review — a game that is over before it is understood. What ends a run now is the core overflowing: shards accumulate faster than you sort them, and the live count exceeding its cap is the failure. The clock still exists, but it is a resource you top up by playing well rather than a fuse.
More of these in the dev notes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Flux Sort on a phone?
Drag a shard out of the core with one finger and release it over the matching channel. No keyboard is needed.
What ends a run?
The core overflowing, or the clock reaching zero. Overflow is what usually gets you, so keep the core clear.
What happens if I drop a shard in the wrong channel?
It bounces back into the core and you lose a little time, so a wrong guess costs less than a slow one.
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