recess, any year

Before phones,
there was pad paper.

Two corners of a page. A few soldiers drawn in each. One ballpen, and a rule everybody knew: hold the pen upright, press, and flick. Pitikan is that game, kept exactly the way it felt.

Coming soon on the App Store

"Pitikan" is Filipino for flicking — the schoolyard game some called Lead Wars.

A Pitikan board mid-game: blue and red ink lines across ruled paper, soldiers in each corner

The rules you remember

The whole class knew this game, and nobody remembers who taught it to them.

Hold

Touch and hold. Pressure builds, the way it did when you pressed the pen tip into the paper and waited for the right moment.

Aim

Pull back like a slingshot. A dashed line shows where you mean to go. A long, hard hold goes far but bends and scatters.

Flick

Let go. The pen slides, the line stays on the page, and your soldier stands wherever it stopped. Cross an enemy and he's down.

Same game, no detention

Everything the paper version had, and a few things we hid in the margins.

🖊️

A real flick

Quick and light goes short and true. Long and hard goes far and wild, skidding sideways like a real ballpoint on a desk. You feel the difference.

🧱

Ink is a wall

Every line stays on the page. Your pen stops short of the enemy's fresh ink, so where you draw matters as much as where you land.

Caught in the open

A soldier outside his base is fair game. Cross him and he goes down with an X, and the next one steps out. Win by reaching the enemy corner or taking every soldier they have.

🛡️

The base wakes up

When an enemy comes close, every soldier still at home can take the shot without leaving. Nobody rushes a corner for free.

💣

Two mines and a sniper

Hide them anywhere on the page. Your opponent can't see them. A line that crosses a mine stops right there, and a soldier who lands near a sniper doesn't get up.

🏆

Play anyone, keep score

Play the computer offline. Send a friend a six-letter code, or find a stranger, and pass turns all day with a nudge when it's your move. Every online game counts on the leaderboard.

Before phones,there was pad paper.