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PK Mode: Challenge a Friend to the Exact Same 10 Rounds

PK Mode — Challenge a Friend
PK Mode — Challenge a Friend

ToonTone has always been a solo color-memory game. Today it becomes a head-to-head one.


PK Mode lets you send a link that drops a friend into the exact same 10-character game you just finished — same characters, same features, same order. While they play, their header shows your score and name so they know who they're chasing. At the end, they see who won.



What changed on the Result page


1. Your percentile — right next to your score


Every finished game now shows where you land against the global leaderboard: "Beat X% of players." It's computed live from every score we've ever recorded, so it drifts as the player base grows.


2. PK share always works


Previously, you could only share a link after submitting to the leaderboard. Now there's always a "Challenge a friend" card on the result page, whether or not you've registered your score. If you haven't submitted yet, we just ask for a nickname so your friend sees who they're playing.


3. A PK verdict after every match


Finish a PK link and the result page shows a You win / Lose / Tie card right above your breakdown, with both scores side by side.



How PK Mode works


Behind the scenes, every round you play is already tagged with its challenge slug. When you hit "Copy PK link", we pack three things into the URL:


  • Your nickname (so your friend sees who they're playing)
  • Your total score (so we can show them the target)
  • The 10 challenge slugs, in the original order you played

    • Your friend opens the link and the game boots straight into PK mode — no menu, no shuffle. Same 10 rounds, same order, different opponent.


    A few details worth mentioning:


  • Hints are independent. Your friend decides whether to use a hint each round — your hint choices don't carry over. That way a careful player isn't punished by their opponent's strategy.
  • No new account, no new table. The invite is a self-contained URL. Nothing is stored server-side until someone actually submits a score to the leaderboard.
  • Missing challenges fall back gracefully. If a community challenge in your set gets removed before your friend plays it, the game substitutes the next available one so they always get a full 10 rounds.


    • The design trade-offs


    A few alternatives we considered and rejected:


    "Store every session server-side so we can show richer PK history."

    Tempting, but it would have required a new database table and a submission flow for unregistered players. The URL payload is small (~500 bytes), fits comfortably in a share link, and keeps the system simple. If PK grows into a major format, we can revisit.


    "Sync the opponent's hint usage so matches are fair."

    This sounds fair on paper, but in practice it forces one player's strategy onto the other. PK is more fun when both players make their own calls; the score difference already tells you who played smarter.


    "Only surface PK for players who registered on the leaderboard."

    This would've been a shorter road, but it gatekeeps sharing behind an extra form. Most friend-to-friend challenges happen casually — a screenshot, a link in a group chat — and forcing a leaderboard submission would kill that flow.



    Try it


    Finish any game, grab the PK link from the result page, and send it to a friend. They'll see your name and score at the top of the screen while they play. When they're done, they'll know exactly how they measured up.


    The global leaderboard is still there, and submitting a score still matters. PK just adds a second, lighter loop — one that's less about the top of the table and more about who knows their anime colors better than their group chat.


    Fire off a link and see.