The schoolyard classic, and the fourth game on our Carnival shelf — a chalk ring on warm asphalt at golden hour, just beside the midway. Thirteen glass marbles in the ring, ten shots with the big taw: drag back, aim, let fly. Knock a marble out of the ring and it's yours. And the old rule stands: win a marble and leave your taw staying in the ring, and you shoot again from where it lies — no score, no stay. Clear all thirteen and the little bear 🧸 is yours.
The round: thirteen glass marbles in a cross inside the chalk ring, and ten shots to win as many as you can. Press anywhere on the asphalt, drag back, and release to shoot. A longer pull shoots harder; a short flick rolls it soft. The shot fires on release only, so you can drag, change your mind, and slide your finger off to cancel — and a pull too short to be a shot just cancels, it never wastes one. When everything stops rolling, your next shot is ready, and every marble you won stays won.
What counts as won: a marble is won the moment its centre crosses the chalk line. Out is out — even if it was creeping and might have rolled back, even if your taw chased it over the line. It hops the chalk with a sparkle and goes in your pile. The other twelve stay exactly where physics left them.
The taw, and the stays rule — the heart of the game: your shooter is the big amber marble, the taw. Classic schoolyard law applies, the way tournament Ringer plays it: if your shot wins a marble and the taw stops inside the ring, it stays — your next shot is taken from where it lies, which is often a gift, a short shot at the whole cross. If the shot wins nothing — or the taw rolls out of the ring — the taw comes back to the line: it is re-spotted on the chalk at the point nearest where it stopped. No score, no stay. If another marble happens to be resting right on that spot, the taw spots beside it, the way you'd agree it on the playground. Knocking your taw out costs you nothing but position — there's no foul and no lost turn beyond the shot you just took.
The physics — published, because the playground deserves it: the taw is a 15-unit marble weighing 2.5 target marbles (real glass: weight grows with the cube of size). Marbles collide elastically, glass on glass, restitution 0.82 — a click, a deflection, energy carried honestly. Rolling friction slows every marble at 600 units/s² on Gentle and Classic; on Expert the asphalt is slicker, 480 units/s², so everything rolls about a quarter farther and delicate shots run on. Nothing is scripted: no marble is ever nudged, spared or doomed by the code. A marble rolls where the shot put it.
Sunset Shells — the prizes, the whole ladder: the round pays by marbles won — 1: 1 · 2: 2 · 3: 3 · 4: 4 · 5: 5 · 6: 6 · 7: 8 · 8: 10 · 9: 12 · 10: 15 · 11: 18 · 12: 21 · all 13: 25 shells and the 🧸 Little Bear tier. Shells pile up in your HUD between visits. They are the arcade's just-for-fun prize currency: they never cash out, can't be bought or sold, and exist purely so the ring can hand you a prize.
The three games:Gentle draws your shot before you take it — a dotted line runs the real physics forward, showing the roll and the first bounce off whatever you hit first, so you can learn what a shot does. Classic shows a plain direction guide only — where you're aiming, not what happens next. Expert shows nothing, and the ground is slicker. Same ring, same thirteen, same ladder at every game.
Sound is off by default — tap 🔊 for the glass clicks.
Pick a game below to kneel down.
ALL 13 OUT = 🧸 THE BEAR
🧸⭐🧸
🔵
Marbles
Drag back anywhere on the asphalt and release — the longer the pull, the harder the shot. Every marble you knock out of the ring pays on the ladder, and all thirteen pays 25 shells and the little bear 🧸. Win a marble and leave your taw inside the ring and it stays — your next shot starts right where it lies. Win nothing, and the taw comes back to the line.
TAP TO START
About Marbles
Before the midway, there was the schoolyard: a ring scratched in the dirt or chalked on the asphalt, thirteen marbles in a cross, and somebody kneeling down knuckles-first with their best shooter — their taw — while the whole yard watched. That game is Ringer, and this is it, chalked on warm concrete at golden hour beside the booths: the fourth game on VRMatch's Carnival shelf, after Whack-a-Mole's racket, Duck Pond's patience and the Knockdown's physics lesson. Its shelf-mates test your reflexes, your luck and your throwing arm. This one tests the oldest playground skill of all — putting a marble exactly where the geometry hurts most, and reading where everything will stop.
Two schoolyard truths are built into this ring, and both are printed where you can see them. The first is the stays rule: win a marble and leave your taw inside the ring, and you shoot again from where it lies, so a scoring shot is never just about what it knocks out — it's about where it leaves you. A break that scatters two marbles and parks your taw in the middle of the cross is worth more than a blast that clears one and chases your shooter across the asphalt. Win nothing and there's no stay at all — the taw comes back to the line, and the long shot is yours again. The second is that out is out: a marble whose centre crosses the chalk is won, full stop, the way every playground from here to a hundred years ago has called it. Beyond those two rules there is nothing up this game's sleeve — elastic glass, rolling friction, and a taw two and a half times the weight of what it hits, all published in the how-to above. And one honest difference from the old game, stated plainly: nobody here plays for keepsies. The marbles you win pay Sunset Shells on a published ladder — clear all thirteen and it's 25 shells and the little bear, the fantasy prize of the whole Carnival shelf — and shells, as everywhere on this shelf, never cash out. Your taw is still yours at the end of the round. So is everybody else's.
Quick tips
Shoot through the near arm of the cross, not at the centre. A firm shot into the near marbles breaks the cross open and scatters toward every line at once — marbles knocked sideways out of a tight cross leave in bunches.
Just past the line is as won as a mile. A target needs only enough pace to carry its centre over the chalk, so a controlled shot that dribbles two marbles out beats a full-power blast that sends one into orbit and your taw after it.
Play for the stays — but remember, only a scoring shot earns one. Where your taw stops is your next shot, and a taw parked inside the ring is a short shot at everything left. Sometimes the best shot is the one that wins one marble and leaves the taw sitting pretty; a wild shot that wins nothing sends you back to the line.
On Expert, take a tenth off everything. The slick asphalt rolls every marble about a quarter farther — the break that was perfect on Classic will run through the cross and out the far side, taw and all.
Frequently asked questions
Is online Marbles free here?
Yes — free in your browser, no download, no signup, and no account needed.
What exactly counts as winning a marble?
The moment its centre crosses the chalk line, it's won — out is out, even if it was only creeping and might have rolled back. It hops the line, joins your pile, and pays on the ladder at the end of the round. The marbles still in the ring stay exactly where physics left them.
How does the stays rule work?
It's the classic Ringer rule. If your shot wins a marble and your taw stops inside the ring, your next shot is taken from where it lies — often beautifully close to what's left. If the shot wins nothing, or the taw rolls out, the taw is re-spotted on the chalk line at the point nearest where it stopped (nudged along the line if another marble is resting on that spot). No score, no stay — and no other foul or penalty, just position.
Can all thirteen really be cleared in ten shots?
Yes — with aimed play. In testing, a shooter who picks a target and a pace for every shot clears the ring inside ten; the line is proven in the build's own playtest notes. What essentially never happens is a clear by flailing: thousands of random shots in testing never once cleared all thirteen. The ring rewards reading the cross, not luck.
How is this different from tournament Ringer?
Three honest simplifications, all in the open. It's solo against the ladder rather than head-to-head, so there's no opponent and no turn-passing beyond your ten shots. The stays rule is the tournament one — score to shoot again from where the taw lies — but there are no knuckles-down fouls or shooting-form rules: a drag is a drag. And nothing is played for keepsies: won marbles pay Sunset Shells, and everyone keeps their marbles. The ring, the thirteen, the taw and the stays rule are the real game.
What are Sunset Shells? Do they cash out?
Sunset Shells are the arcade's just-for-fun prize currency — the ring pays them out at the end of every round, by marbles won. They never cash out: they can't be bought, sold, traded or exchanged for money or prizes of value. They exist so the ring can hand you a prize, the way a midway hands you the little bear.
What changes on Expert?
Two things, both printed up front: the aim guide is gone, and the asphalt is slicker — rolling friction drops from 600 to 480 units/s², so every marble rolls about a quarter farther. Breaks run hotter and taws chase their targets out more often. Same ring, same ladder.