TITLE
Torre di Gelato

PROMPT
A one-button stacking game: scoops of gelato swing in on a server's spade above a cone; tap to drop each scoop; build the tallest tower you can before it topples. The scoops are soft: they squash on landing, sag, stick slightly, wobble as a stack, and begin to melt and drip if the viewer dawdles. Canvas 2D with simple but convincing physics. Concept: an original, sweet-natured arcade game whose charm is in the material behaviour and the flavours.

Mood: playful, sunny, seaside holiday. Palette: cream sky/page #FFF1E6, strawberry pink #F7A8B8, pistachio mint #B5E2C4, lemon custard #FFE29A, chocolate/cone brown #8B5E3C (with waffle tan #D9A566), sky blue #7BB7E0 for the awning stripes, shadows and UI type. Pastel, light, flat with soft shading; no outlines except thin brown ones on the cone and awning.

Scene: a striped gelateria awning across the top (blue and cream scallops that sway), a marble counter at the bottom, and the waffle cone standing in a holder at centre (crosshatch pattern drawn procedurally). Behind: a simple seaside backdrop in two or three flat tones (promenade railing, a sliver of sea, a gull). As the tower grows, the camera pans up smoothly: the awning is left below and the backdrop changes with height: past balconies with washing lines, rooftops with cats and aerials, a church bell tower, gulls, a kite, a hot-air balloon, thin clouds, an aeroplane towing a banner, and finally stars and a small satellite at absurd heights, each a designed surprise with a height marker ("12 scoops: higher than the awning", "40: bell tower").

Mechanics: a scoop swings left-right above the tower on the spade (pendulum motion whose speed and amplitude increase with height, plus wind gusts indicated by a little flag); tap/click/Space releases it; it falls with gravity. Each scoop is a soft circle body (a ring of ~14 points with pressure and spring constraints, or a simpler squash-and-stretch circle with a spring-driven squash factor and contact patches) that lands on the scoop below. Landing accuracy matters: a well-centred scoop settles; an off-centre one makes the tower lean; the stack is a chain of bodies connected by sticky contact constraints with angular spring-back, so the whole tower sways like a real over-ambitious cone and overcorrects; lean beyond a threshold and the top scoops slide off and splat onto the counter (splat shapes with spreading puddles), ending the round after three dropped scoops (three little spoons as lives). A perfectly centred drop gives a "perfetto" bonus: a sprinkle burst and a short stabilising effect; three in a row adds a wafer or cherry topper.

Material rendering: each scoop has the classic ruffled "skirt" at its base (a scalloped edge), a soft highlight, texture flecks per flavour (pistachio pieces, chocolate chips, vanilla seeds, strawberry bits), and squashes to about 80% height on impact, bulging sideways, then recovers with a damped wobble; where two scoops touch, a slight merge fillet. Melting: as time passes, drips form on the lower scoops and run down the cone (teardrop shapes that grow, detach, slide and pool on the counter), faster when the sun (a simple disc in the sky with a face-less warm glow) is out from behind a cloud; melted scoops become slipperier, so speed matters as well as accuracy. Flavours: at least ten with Italian names shown on a small ticket as each arrives: fragola, pistacchio, limone, cioccolato, stracciatella, nocciola, fior di latte, amarena (with cherry swirl), menta, zabaione; plus rare special scoops: a heavy "doppio" double-size scoop, a slippery sorbetto, and a waffle disc that acts as a stabilising platform.

Signature moment: the sway. A tower of ten or more soft scoops leaning, wobbling, each scoop jiggling slightly out of phase with the one beneath, drips running, while the next scoop swings overhead: tension and comedy; and the topple, when it comes, is a slow, inevitable, gloriously messy cascade.

UI and typography: score as a handwritten gelateria price-board in the corner: scoops stacked, best today (kept in memory for the session), height in "metri di gelato"; titles in a jaunty italic script-like display stack ("Brush Script MT", "Segoe Script", "Snell Roundhand", cursive) paired with a round sans for small text ("Arial Rounded MT Bold"/"Trebuchet MS"); title screen: "Torre di Gelato" lettered across the awning valance, with a three-scoop cone drawn large, and the designed instruction "tap to drop · don't let it lean"; game-over card as a paper receipt listing every flavour stacked in order with a total and a verdict from the invented proprietor, Signora Belmonte ("Fourteen. My nephew does twenty, but he cheats."). Controls: one input everywhere: tap, click, Space or Enter; P pauses; a designed sound toggle (off by default) for soft plops, a bell on perfetto, a sad trombone-less "splat". On load, an attract loop shows scoops being stacked automatically so the first three seconds already have the swaying tower. Reduced motion: no camera sway or jiggle (scoops settle immediately); melting shown as static drips. Responsive: portrait-first; on wide screens the play column is centred with backdrop extending.

DESCRIPTION
A sunny one-button arcade game set at the counter of the invented Gelateria Belmonte. A waffle cone stands in a mint holder on a marble counter beneath a blue-and-cream striped awning whose valance is lettered "Torre di Gelato"; between two pastel seaside houses lies a sliver of sea with a sailboat, a promenade railing and a gull. A server's striped sleeve swings a spade overhead, and each tap drops a soft scoop that squashes, ruffles, sticks and makes the whole tower lean, sway and overcorrect, every scoop jiggling a beat behind the one below. Dawdle and the sun melts the lower scoops into drips that run down the cone and pool on the marble. As the tower climbs, the camera leaves the awning behind and rises past washing lines, rooftop cats and aerials, a bell tower whose clock shows the viewer's own time, gulls, a kite, a hot-air balloon, thin clouds, a banner plane, a crescent moon, stars and a small satellite, each with a dashed height marker. Three dropped scoops end the round with a slow, messy cascade onto the counter and a paper receipt listing every flavour in order, with a total and a dry verdict from Signora Belmonte.

VISUAL TECHNIQUES
- Canvas 2D scene drawn entirely procedurally, with a world camera that pans vertically and sways gently with the tower's lean
- Tower physics as a chain of angular-spring joints: gravity torque from the centre of mass above each joint, sticky spring-back, light damping and inertial lag so upper scoops wobble out of phase
- Per-scoop spring-driven squash factor (about 80% on impact, bulging sideways), shear jiggle, and a compression wave passed down the stack on every landing
- Scoops rendered with a scalloped ruffled skirt, radial soft shading, highlight, contact shadow and per-flavour flecks (chips, nut pieces, shards, zest, seeds, cherry swirl, ice crystals)
- Melting: skirt scallops lengthen into drips, teardrops grow, detach, follow the tower and cone silhouette and pool on the counter, faster when the sun is out from behind its cloud
- Splat shapes with spreading puddles, flying droplets and a counter shake; sprinkle bursts and a hand-lettered "perfetto!" on centred drops
- Procedural waffle crosshatch on the cone and wafer discs; swaying awning scallops; title lettering that writes itself across the valance on load
- Layered altitude backdrop with a sky gradient that shifts from cream to blue to night, twinkling stars and animated set pieces at set heights
- DOM interface pieces styled as objects: a hanging chocolate price-board, a punched flavour ticket, plastic spoons as lives, a zigzag-edged receipt; spring easing throughout
- Paper grain overlay and a warm sunlight wash; synthesised plop, bell and splat sounds, off by default

INTERACTION MODEL
One input everywhere: tap, click, Space or Enter. On load an attract loop stacks scoops automatically on a cone that already carries three; the first tap starts a round. During play each tap releases the scoop from the swinging spade, whose swing widens and quickens with height while gusts (shown on a small wind flag) push the falling scoop and the tower. Off-centre landings make the tower lean; a centred landing rings "perfetto", bursts sprinkles and briefly steadies the stack, and three in a row add a wafer or cherry. Special scoops arrive at random: a heavy doppio, a slippery sorbetto and a stabilising wafer disc; each arrival is named on the ticket. A missed or slid-off scoop costs one of three spoons; at zero the tower cascades down and the receipt prints, after which a tap outside it, the "Ancora!" button, Space or Enter starts again. P or the pause button pauses; the round sound button turns sound on and off. The price-board tracks scoops stacked, best today and height in metri di gelato. With reduced motion, scoops settle without wobble, the camera does not sway and melting is shown as static drips.