MaMills

From the Devs

MaMills is four-in-a-row in 3D: drop pieces onto vertical sticks, let gravity stack them, and line up four in any direction, even straight through the cube. Outsmart the Machine across five difficulties, solve 40 one-solution puzzles, or challenge a friend on the couch, over LAN or with Steam Remote Play Together.

This game is a tribute to my late Grandmother (aka Mami), who I used to play this game with. I loved it then, and I love it now; I hope you find some joy in it too! ❤️

Four-in-a-row, but the board goes up too

MaMills is a calm, controller-first board game. You drop coloured cylinders onto a 4×4 grid of vertical sticks, gravity stacks them, and the first player to line up four wins.

Because the pieces stack, every stick is also a column, every row of sticks is also a plane, and a line can run corner to corner straight through the cube. Sixteen sticks, sixty-four places, seventy-six ways to win.

I learned it from my grandmother, Mami. It is an old rule set that people have played for generations. This is that game, made digital, with a clear layout to be comfortable to play.

How a match goes

• Pick a stick, drop a cylinder. A beam and a ghost piece show exactly where it will land. Four pieces fill a stick.

• Four in a row wins. Rows, columns, vertical stacks, plane diagonals and the four cube diagonals all count, on every level. 76 lines in total.

• Rotate the board, or lock the angle. Orbit freely to read a position from any side, or freeze the camera and play from the view you like.

• Hint shows every live threat. Against the Machine, one press rims the opponent's three-in-a-rows and marks the stick that blocks each one. Block it, or race it.

• Pause any time. The match holds still while you step away.

Four ways to play

• The Machine – five levels from Beginner to Expert. Beginner leaves room to learn; Expert does not.

• Hotseat – two players on one device. Pass the controller or the Steam Deck back and forth.

• LAN – two devices on the same network, each with its own screen. One hosts, the other joins. Each device needs its own copy of the game.

• Steam Remote Play Together – invite a Steam friend to join your game from their own device. They do not need to own the game.

There is no chat of any kind, text or voice. You can only play it with people you already know.

Learn it in a few minutes

A short story-driven tutorial teaches the rules inside a real setup, one control at a time, and ends on a card of the four winning shapes.

Puzzles

A mode of its own. Forty positions in five levels, eight each, from a win in one move to a double threat that wins in two. Every puzzle has exactly one answer, so you know when you have found it.

Accessibility

A board game is for everyone at the table, so MaMills tries to make room for everyone.

• Never colour alone. Patterned cylinders, stripes on one side and dots on the other, and a colour-blind-safe blue and orange palette. Here every theme wears its patterns, Halloween included.

• Text size from 85% to 130%, applied to every label and button.

• Reduce motion, opaque backgrounds behind every dialog, mono audio, adjustable drop speed, and an optional X, Y, Z readout of the highlighted stick.

• Your system settings, respected. On Windows and macOS, the first time you start MaMills it picks up reduce motion, mono audio, reduce transparency and differentiate without colour. Change them any time in Settings.

• Always show threats keeps Hint on for your whole turn against the Machine.

• No time pressure. Turns are never timed, you can pause any time, and the Steam Deck can suspend mid-match.

• English and Hungarian interface. There is no speech, so nothing to dub, and no screen reader.

Every action wears its button

Full keyboard and gamepad rebinding. Every action shows its button on screen in its own colour, and the glyph follows whatever you are holding: Steam Deck, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch or keyboard.

Make it yours

• Four palettes – Classic red and blue, Violet, a colour-blind-safe blue and orange, and Gold & Silver, which unlocks when you beat Expert.

• Eight drop sounds – pick the one you like, from a soft bop to glass and cherry. A background track you can turn down or off.

• Two loading screens – a tumbling cube of cylinders, or the windmill with cylinder sails.

Our first theme: Halloween

Halloween debuts in the Steam Next Fest demo and comes with the game at release. The whole game turns to night: spiders against pumpkins on a moonlit board, with candles at the corners.

Cobwebs hang in the corners of every screen, and a little spider walks the title of the main menu.

Prefer the familiar pieces? Cylinders in every theme keeps cylinders inside the night scene. More seasonal themes to come.

Built for Steam Deck

Designed and tested on the Deck from the first day: controller-first, readable at the Deck's native resolution, and safe to suspend mid-match. It plays just as well on the desktop with a keyboard and mouse or any gamepad.

On Steam

• 21 achievements – 15 you can see coming and 6 hidden ones for the sneaky lines.

• Lifetime statistics and three leaderboards: longest win streak, total wins against the Machine, and fewest placements to beat Expert.

• Steam Cloud keeps your settings and progress with you between machines.

One price, the whole game, no microtransactions.