Turn your Nothing Phone's Glyph Matrix into an arcade cabinet that probably fits in your pocket — with classic games rendered entirely on LEDs.
THIS APP IS PROVIDED AS-IS AND IS VERY EXPERIMENTAL.
Glyphcade is a personal project that turns the Nothing Phone's Glyph Matrix into a retro arcade. Expect quirks, performance hiccups, and things that feel like they shouldn't work — but somehow do.
If you want AAA polish, this isn't it. If you want silly LED arcade games at 3 AM, welcome.
Glyphcade is a collection of 6 pixel-art arcade games designed specifically for the Nothing Phone Glyph Matrix LED display.
Every game uses the Matrix as its screen — no phone display required (except for settings and controls).
Included games:
- 🏓 Breakout
- 🛸 UFO Abductor
- 👾 Space Invaders
- 🏃 Runner
- 🐍 Snake
- 🏗️ Tower Stack
No accounts. No analytics. No microtransactions. No idea why this exists.
Classic brick-breaking action on the Glyph Matrix.
- Tilt phone – Move paddle (tilt controls)
- Tap screen sides – Move paddle (touch controls)
- Circular matrix boundary physics
- Ball speeds up as you destroy bricks
- Lives system (3 lives)
- Level progression
- Tilt sensitivity adjustment
- Touch/tilt control toggle
- Sound on/off
- Vibration on/off
Abduct targets from the bottom of the Glyph Matrix.
- UFO auto-scans left to right
- Tap screen – Fire tractor beam
- Align beam with targets at bottom
- Cow = 5 points (large)
- Car = 3 points (medium)
- Person = 1 point (small)
- Miss a beam = lose a life
- 3 lives total
- Level up every 8 successful abductions
- Speed increases with level
- Targets randomize position
Defend Earth from descending alien invaders.
- Tap screen sides – Move ship
- Hold both screen sides – Fire bullets
- Destroy all aliens to advance
- Aliens descend and speed up over time
- UFO bonus ship appears randomly
- Shields protect you (but degrade)
- 3 lives
- Classic alien formations
- Mystery UFO for bonus points
- Shield mechanics
- Easy Mode toggle (slower aliens, fewer bullets)
- Easy mode on/off
- Control preferences
- Sound/vibration toggles
Endless runner where you dodge obstacles.
- Tap screen side – Jump
- Tap screen side – Duck
- Obstacles spawn from the right
- Jump over low obstacles
- Duck under high obstacles
- Speed increases as you survive
- One hit = game over
- Increasing difficulty
- Score tracking
- High score persistence
Guide your snake, eat food, grow longer.
- Swipe – Change direction
- Eat food to grow and score points
- Don't hit walls (optional)
- Don't hit yourself
- Speed increases as you grow
- Walls on/off – Toggle boundary death
- Swap control sides – Flip left/right
- Classic snake mechanics
- Grid-based movement on Matrix
- Score and high score tracking
Stack blocks to build the tallest tower.
- Tap screen – Drop moving block
- Blocks slide left and right
- Tap to drop block on stack
- Misaligned blocks get trimmed
- Blocks get smaller as tower grows
- Game over when you miss completely
- Physics-based stacking
- Increasing difficulty
- Score tracking
- Pixel-art arcade UI with CRT effects
- Coin insert animation to start
- Neon color palette (cyan, yellow, magenta, green)
- Energy particle effects during transitions
- Retro BGM and arcade sound effects
- Scanlines and screen glow for that vintage vibe
- Per-game sound overrides
- BGM on/off
- Tilt sensitivity – Wide range for fine-tuning
- Touch screen mode – Left/Right tap zones
- Swap control sides – Per-game preference
- Vibration on/off
- CRT effects
- High scores tracked per game
- Total games played
- Max level reached
- Last played timestamp
- Nothing Phone 3 (or compatible device with Glyph Matrix)
- A tolerance for experimental LED gaming
- Appreciation for retro aesthetics
- Glyph Matrix access – Required (obviously)
- Vibration – Optional (haptic feedback)
- Open Glyphcade
- Watch the coin insert animation (tap to skip)
- Select a game from the arcade cabinet
- Tilt, tap, or swipe to play
- Check stats after game over
That's it.
- Built with Jetpack Compose
- Uses Nothing Glyph Matrix SDK
- Custom pixel-art rendering on Canvas
- Tilt controls via accelerometer
- Touch gesture detection
- Persistent score storage (SharedPreferences)
- No backend, no cloud, no tracking
- Grid-capped coin rendering (max 50x50)
- Squared distance calculations for early exits
- Conditional glow rendering during animations
- 60fps target for smooth gameplay
(Coming soon — if I remember to take them)
Provided as-is.
No warranty. No guarantees. No high score leaderboards (yet).
If you lose your top score to a bug, that's part of the arcade experience.
- Coin animation may stutter on first run (optimized but not perfect)
- Easy mode in Space Invaders is actually easy
- Runner game difficulty ramps up fast
- Some games drain battery faster than others
- The entire concept is questionable
- Nothing Glyph Matrix SDK – For making LED gaming possible
- Jetpack Compose – For making pixel art rendering surprisingly fun
- My sleep schedule – For suffering during development
Version 0.1 – "It runs on LEDs, somehow."