The pitches
Each person pitched alone, in the voice of their craft, without seeing anyone else's idea.
Inverted Voltage
Pitch 1 · Nikola Tesla (the lead)
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a game worthy of alternating current itself!
The entire screen is flipped — you hold your telephone upside down, like a fool, like a genius.
Neon bolts of electricity pulse downward — or is it upward? — toward a copper coil.
You tap the rhythm to charge the coil, each perfect tap sends pigeons flying across the wires.
Miss the beat and the current reverses — your pigeons scatter, the lights of the city dim.
The signs painted along the wire poles flip and spin like juggled torches when you chain combos.
Paper cranes unfold from the corners of the screen each time you hit a perfect streak of ten.
The music is a wobbling theremin waltz that speeds up as Tesla's tower charges to full capacity.
When the tower fires, every folded crane ignites with light, the whole screen crackles, magnificent.
You either blackout the city or illuminate it — two minutes, one thumb, pure alternating glory.
Upside Down Lettering
Pitch 2 · the sign painter
You're painting a shop sign, but some joker hung the scaffold upside down.
Letters drop from the bottom of the screen, rising up like they're falling wrong.
You tap to the beat of a steady brush-stroke rhythm, catching each letter on your bristles.
Miss the beat and the paint drips — ugly streaks running the wrong direction entirely.
Nail the timing and each letter lands crisp, gold leaf shining, perfectly backwards.
You're spelling out real shop names — BAKERY, FLORIST, TAVERN — one beat per letter.
The rhythm speeds up like you're racing daylight before the grand opening.
Your thumb is the brush hand, tapping where the letter needs to sit on the sign.
Finish three signs clean and the town throws a parade — all the banners upside down, naturally.
Run out of paint from too many drips and the shopkeeper sends you packing.
★ the one we built
Upside-Down Toss
Pitch 3 · the circus juggler
Picture this: you're juggling, but gravity's flipped — everything falls toward the top of the screen.
Three balls drop upward like they've lost their minds, and you're catching them at the bottom.
Your thumb taps a rhythm beat — tap on the pulse and the ball bounces back up into the pattern.
Miss the beat, the ball flies off the top edge, gone, like a bad throw in a windstorm.
Tesla's electric crackle zaps across the screen each time you nail a perfect catch.
The tempo speeds up, just like when the ringmaster shouts "faster!" and the crowd goes nuts.
You start with three clubs, earn a fourth, then a fifth — classic cascade building.
When you drop all your props, the screen flips right-side-up and everything crashes down. Show's over.
Your score is how many clean catches you strung together — longest streak wins.
Tap restart, flip the world again, and try to keep more in the air this time.
Inverted Crane
Pitch 4 · the origami folder
You hold the paper upside down, like Tesla holds his ideas — against gravity.
Notes fall upward, rising like creases climbing a reverse fold.
Your thumb taps the fold lines as they float past, timing each crease.
Hit the beat right and the paper folds itself, one pleat at a time.
Miss and the crease tears — you hear that little rip, you know the one.
The whole screen is flipped, so your thumb reaches up to catch what falls down.
A crane takes shape fold by fold, beak last, like it's unfolding in reverse.
Tesla's AC current pulses the rhythm — the paper hums with alternating folds.
Finish the crane before the song ends or it stays a sad flat square.
Nail every fold and the crane flaps once, then the paper goes blank for another round.
The write-up
Written by the team, then fact-checked against their own files.
Upside-Down Toss — 2026-W44
This week's Game Friday team was led by guest Nikola Tesla, joined by three crafts: a sign painter, a circus juggler, and an origami folder.
The rules they rolled were rhythm for the genre and the screen is upside down for the constraint.
Each person pitched a game. Nikola Tesla pitched "Inverted Voltage," the sign painter pitched "Upside Down Lettering," the circus juggler pitched "Upside-Down Toss," and the origami folder pitched "Inverted Crane."
The vote went strongly in one direction. Nikola Tesla, the sign painter, and the origami folder all voted for "Upside-Down Toss," while the circus juggler voted for "Inverted Voltage." That gave "Upside-Down Toss" 3 of 4 votes, winning by majority vote.
The circus juggler's game got built: a rhythm game where you tap to keep juggling balls in the air while gravity pulls everything toward the top of the screen. It came in at 15 KB, well under the 100 KB limit, and passed all its checks with zero failures.
