nil studio

Out now on iPhone and iPad

Acequia

Pour in the right order.

Download on the App Store
  1. Tip a pot, and all its water runs out along the carved channel, a drop from each cup.
  2. A pot with room drinks what it can.
  3. A full pot lets the water pass.
  4. A rocker turns the water, then swings the other way.
  5. A plant drinks a drop for each bud, and each bud opens.
  6. The garden blooms when every plant does.
  7. The order of pours is the puzzle.

Scroll to pour

Acequia on an iPhone: garden twelve with its first pour in flight. Water runs from a tipped pot of three cups along carved channels, past a small pot and a wooden rocker, toward a plant, on pale stone standing in a dark pool.

Every drop goes somewhere.

Each garden is a court of pale stone standing in a still pool, and the water is the only thing in it that glows. Tip a pot and its water runs along the channels carved in the stone. A full pot lets it pass. A pot with room drinks it. A wooden rocker turns it, then swings, so the next pour turns the other way.

Pour in the wrong order and the water is spent before it reaches the plant that needed it. Pour in the right one and the whole garden blooms.

Seventy-four gardens, from one pot and one plant to deep courts that need a plan.

Garden twelve on an iPhone held on its side, its first pour in flight: a pot of three cups has tipped, and its water crosses a small pot and a wooden rocker toward a plant at the top of the court.

Acequia

ah-SEH-kya · a channel for water

A channel that carries water to a garden. Spanish took the word from the Arabic as-sāqiya, the water-bringer, and in Granada one still waters the gardens of the Alhambra. The game keeps the name in all forty-five of its languages.

Each piece keeps one rule.

Nothing is hidden and nothing is random. Once you know what a piece does, the garden tells you everything, if you read it before you pour.

The first two chapters

  • Four pots side by side, holding one, two, three and four cups: a round pot, a pair, a trefoil and a quatrefoil, each on its own stone with a channel beside it.
    The potTip a pot and all its water runs out along the groove, a drop from each cup. A pot holds from one cup to four.
  • A plant that needs three drops, shown with none, one, two and three flowers open among pink buds and green pads.
    The plantA plant drinks a drop for each bud. The garden blooms when every plant does.
  • A garden as it looks while a pot is held: the way its water would run drawn as a line of white squares, four arrows round the pot, a wooden rocker where the line turns, a stone in a channel and a plant whose buds have drooped.
    The rocker and the stoneA rocker turns the water, then swings, so its next turn goes the other way. Water that runs off the board or meets a stone is lost, and you see it lost.

Eight more chapters bring six more pieces, and time, counted in pours

  • A fallen leaf lying on a pot of two cups and on a pot of three, and a leaf washing off a pot of four.
    The fallen leafA fallen leaf keeps a full pot shut until water running past washes it off.
  • A sluice gate shut across its channel while its pot is empty, and the same gate open while its pot is full.
    The sluice gateA sluice gate lets water cross while the little pot that holds it open is full.
  • The thirsty plant on dry, cracked earth with eight leaves, five, three with one falling, one, and none.
    The thirsty plantA thirsty plant loses a leaf after every pour that leaves it short, and withers on its last.
  • A bulb in dark soil, asleep for five more pours, then three, then one, and then awake and open as a plant.
    The bulbA bulb sleeps for some pours, and water runs over it until it wakes.
  • The water-clock gate beside its small clock of cups: open with two pours left and with six, shut with three left, and a gate that changes with every pour.
    The water-clock gateA water-clock gate opens and shuts with the pours, as its clock keeps time.
  • The cracked jar of clay holding four drops, two drops, one drop and none, a drop leaking from its crack each time.
    The cracked jarA cracked jar loses a drop after every pour.

  • Nothing in Acequia is timed in seconds. A leaf, a gate, a bulb and a jar all count in pours, and Undo takes a pour back, and its water with it.

Look, pour, bloom.

Hold a pot and the garden shows where its water will run before you let it go. Tap or drag to pour. There is no timer and nothing to rush. Undo is always there, and Hint says whether the garden can still bloom and, once in each garden, points the way.

Hint rings a pot in gold and draws the way its water would run: a line of gold squares along the channel, turning at the rocker and reaching the plant.
Look. Hold a pot and see where the water will go. Hint draws the same line, in gold, from the pot to pour.
Pots tipped over their carved channels, each pouring its water the way it was tipped, across a court of pale stone.
Pour. A pot tips toward the channel you choose, and the water runs just as you saw it would.
Garden twelve in bloom on an iPhone held on its side: every plant open, the channels alight, petals and sparks drifting over the pool, and lotus flowers on the water all round.
Bloom. When the last plant has drunk, the whole court lights and the garden blooms. Every garden ends with the idea it taught you.

The light turns with the chapters.

The pieces never change, only the light: the first four chapters are played by day, the next three at dusk and the last three by moonlight, with the moon lying in the pool and fireflies over it. Play with the phone upright or on its side.

Garden twenty-two by day: pale stone in a bright blue-green pool, a sluice gate across a channel, two pots with water and a plant waiting for it.
By day. Chapters one to four.
Garden forty-three at dusk: the stone gone rose, a fallen leaf on a pot, thirsty plants and pots of three and four cups.
At dusk. Chapters five to seven.
Garden fifty-one by moonlight: the moon lying in a dark pool, fireflies over grey stone, pots with their water glowing and plants waiting.
By moonlight. Chapters eight to ten.

Take your time.

  • Seventy-four gardensin ten chapters, from gentle to deep.
  • Two chapters freethirteen gardens, and one of the hard gardens after them, to try before you buy.
  • One purchaseopens the rest, on iPhone and iPad.
  • No ads, no subscriptionno account and no timers. Your progress follows you through iCloud.

Your gardens come with you

Your progress follows you through iCloud. On every iPhone and iPad signed in to the same Apple Account, the gardens you have brought into bloom are in bloom, and two devices that played apart are put together. It comes back after a reinstall, too.

Forty-five languages

From English, Spanish and Japanese to Hindi, Ukrainian, Chinese in both scripts, and Arabic. Every word of the game, each garden’s line and idea included, is in all forty-five. In Arabic the words and the buttons read from the right, and the courtyard itself stays just as it is.

Twenty achievements in Game Center

One for each chapter in bloom, one for each new piece you meet, and a few for the whole courtyard. None for speed, none for fewer pours, and the game never asks you to sign in.

Garden twelve on an iPad held on its side, its first pour crossing the court toward a plant that has just opened, on pale stone in a dark pool.

Out now on iPhone and iPad.

Acequia is made by one person at Nil Studio, with care for every garden.

Download on the App Store
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