Avoidance 1.0: Making Every Run Fairer | Simon Skinner<br>Skip to contentAvailableBook intro callMenu

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← Back to briefingsJuly 18, 2026 · 7 min read<br>Avoidance 1.0: Making Every Run Fairer<br>What changed in Avoidance 1.0 after feedback and testing across different devices, from fairer wave pacing and controls to clearer training, results and leaderboards.<br>AvoidanceGame developmentiOSAndroid

Avoidance 1.0 is the first major update since I brought the game back after 14 years. I have called it Fair Flight because almost every change is about the same thing: making a run feel fair, readable and consistent.

Once the updated build went out for testing, screenshots and feedback started coming back from different devices. That quickly showed where the game wasn't yet fair or clear enough. A layout could look fine on one screen and feel cramped on another. The edge of the playing area was visible on some devices. Text that sat neatly inside a panel elsewhere could be too close to the artwork, or overlap it. One training route could even leave the player in an empty game with no waves coming.

None of those things needed a new game mode. They needed the existing game to behave properly everywhere.

Fair Flight keeps the same basic game: move the ships through gaps in the incoming particle waves, protect the right ship with the right shield and survive for as long as possible. The changes make that experience fairer to play, easier to learn and more consistent on iOS and Android.

The same game on every screen

The biggest change is one most players shouldn't be able to see.

Phones and tablets have different screen shapes. Previously, those differences could affect how much room a player had and how long a wave took to cross the display. That meant a score earned on one device was not necessarily being earned under exactly the same conditions as a score on another.

Fair Flight now uses the same invisible playing area on every supported device. The background still fills the whole screen and the particle waves continue beyond the playable space, so there is no obvious box or border around the game. Behind the scenes, though, every ship has the same movement room and every wave covers the same distance.

In plain English: a larger or wider screen no longer gives somebody an easier run.

Waves now build up instead of simply arriving

The old wave timing depended too much on how quickly a wave happened to move across a particular screen. Fair Flight gives the waves a proper schedule.

Every wave now has a short warning, moves across the field and clears before the game starts the recovery period for the next one. This removes some of the awkward overlaps and makes the rhythm easier to read.

The start of a run is also more forgiving. The first gap appears around the ship's starting position, the first two gaps are wider than normal, and the gaps cannot jump wildly from one side of the screen to the other during the opening phase.

The game still gets faster and harder. It just does so gradually. Easy introduces the idea with one stream. Medium brings in the second ship and second direction. Hard and Ultra give the player a little more time at the start because there is more to keep track of.

The intention isn't to make the whole game easy. It is to make failure feel like the result of a decision or a mistake, rather than an unfair opening.

Close calls should feel close, not cheap

The ships are detailed pieces of artwork, but it never felt right for every glowing edge of that artwork to count as a collision.

The part of each ship that can actually be hit is now smaller than the full image. A wave still destroys the wrong ship if it catches the ship's centre, but brushing a decorative edge is less likely to end a good run.

There is also now a reason to take a risk. Passing close to a wave without being hit counts as a near miss and adds bonus points. String several near misses together quickly enough and the bonus grows, up to a five-part combo.

That gives better players another choice: take the safe middle of the gap, or fly closer to the edge for more points.

The ship stays where you grabbed it

Touch controls sound simple until your own finger covers the thing you are trying to move.

Previously, touching a ship could pull it directly under the finger. Fair Flight keeps the distance between the finger and the ship from the moment it is picked up. If the ship was slightly above or beside your thumb when you touched it, it stays there while you move.

That makes the ship easier to see and removes the small jump at the start of a movement. A coloured halo and a light line show which ship each finger owns when controlling two at once, and crossing your fingers no longer makes the ships swap unexpectedly.

The original direct control remains available in Options for anyone who prefers it. The new offset style is simply the default because it is more comfortable on a touch screen.

The shield display now...