Waiter
Don't tip the tray!
How to play
A piece slides left and right above the tray; tap at the right moment to drop it. Stack plates, tea glasses, cups, Turkish delight, teapots and simit; if a piece hits the floor, the tray tips and the game is over. Land a piece exactly on top of the previous one for a Perfect bonus. In Service mode, complete each order in time and don't keep the customers waiting.
How to play Garson: a detailed guide
Garson (Turkish for "waiter") is a one-tap, physics-based stacking and balance game. Our waiter, with his moustache and red bow tie, holds a big tray in one hand, and on it pile up plates, tulip-shaped tea glasses, coffee cups, boxes of Turkish delight, double teapots and simit, the sesame bread rings sold all over Istanbul. Each piece slides left and right above the tray and you tap at the right moment to drop it. Pieces fall, slide and wobble like real objects; if a single one falls off the tray, the game is over. Two modes (Classic and Service), four places and four special pieces are waiting for you.
Goal
In Classic mode you build the tallest tower you can. In Service mode you stack the customers' orders on the tray and serve them on time. The one rule is in the game's slogan: Don't tip the tray! The ruler at the side of the screen shows your tower's height in centimetres.
The game ends in three ways: any piece on the tray falls down (The tray tipped over!), the piece you dropped goes into empty space without touching anything (You missed the tray!), or, in Service mode, you lose all your hearts (The customers left!).
Controls
The next piece slides back and forth above the tray. The moment you tap the screen, it is released and falls. On a computer, Space or Enter also drops the piece, and P or Esc pauses the game. A new piece only appears once the previous one has settled, so there is no need to rush, but pieces slide faster as the tower grows.
The waiter's face tells you how the tower is doing: calm means all is well, sweating means the stack is wobbling, and wide eyes mean real trouble. When the tower sways too much you will also hear the tray creak.
Points, Perfect and tips
In Classic mode every piece that settles on the tray is worth 1 point. Drop a piece right on top of the previous one, almost perfectly lined up, and Perfect! appears for 1 extra point. The golden plate is worth 2 points on its own.
When the game ends, your points are added to your piggy bank as Tips. Tips add up and unlock new places. The Statistics screen shows your Classic best, your Service best and your total tips.
Service mode
In Service mode an order card appears at the top: how many of each piece the customer wants, the time left and three hearts. As soon as every ordered piece has settled on the tray, the order is served, the tray is cleared and a new order arrives. Extra pieces are fine; plates never appear in orders, but they make a good base for glasses.
- Each service pays 2 points per ordered piece plus a bonus of half the remaining seconds.
- In this mode the pieces themselves score nothing; only Perfect drops and the golden plate add 1 point each.
- Orders start with 2 pieces, grow every second service (up to 7 pieces) and the time limit gets shorter.
- If time runs out, the customer cannot wait: you lose a heart and the tray is cleared.
Places and special pieces
You choose the place from the menu. Each one changes the game a little:
| Place | Unlocks at | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Tea House | Open from the start | A calm start |
| Diner | 100 tips | Wind blows when the door opens; a warning and an arrow show the direction first |
| Palace Kitchen | 300 tips | Pieces slide faster and special pieces come more often |
| Bosphorus Ferry | 700 tips | Waves rock the tray the whole time |
Once the tower has five pieces, special pieces start to appear: the Ice block is slippery, the Honey jar sticks to what it touches, the Golden plate gives double points and Fine porcelain breaks if tilted too far. The first time you meet each one, a short note explains it.
Helpers: Steady, Slow, Continue
In every game you have one Steady and one Slow. Steady freezes the tower for 5 seconds (the pieces glow blue); Slow cuts the sliding speed of the next 3 pieces to less than half (the piece glows green). When a helper is used up, a TV icon appears on its button; if you like, you can watch a short ad for one more use.
When the game ends and your score is above zero, a Continue button appears. This second chance can be used once per game: the tray returns to its last stable state and the tower stays still for a few seconds. In Service mode, if the game ended because the customers left, you carry on with one heart.
Tips
- Drop the first plates in the middle of the tray; a wide, flat base makes the whole tower much sturdier.
- For a Perfect, line up the centre of the piece with the centre of the one below; watching the sliding direction and tapping a moment early usually lands it.
- The simit and the double teapot are the tricky pieces; put them in the middle of a wide plate, never on the edge of the tower.
- Use Steady while the tower is swaying; 5 seconds of stillness is enough to calm the waiter's panicked face.
- Save Slow for when pieces are really fast; three slow pieces give you time to straighten things out.
- If crack lines appear on the fine porcelain, it is tilted too much; do not put anything heavy on it.
- In the Diner, do not drop a piece right after the door warning; wait until the gust has passed.
- In Service mode, avoid piling up pieces the order does not need; the tower grows for nothing and the order runs late.
Tray, tea and waiter: serving traditions in Turkey
A çay ocağı is a small tea stove found in bazaars, office buildings and ferry piers, brewing tea and serving it to the shops and offices around it. The tea goes out in slim, tulip-shaped glasses on little saucers, often on a hanging tray; carrying a full tray through a crowd without spilling a drop is the tea runner's everyday skill. Turkey is among the world's top tea-drinking countries per person.
- The word garson
- Borrowed into Turkish from the French garçon
- Tea glass
- A clear, tulip-shaped glass, so the colour of the tea shows
- Double teapot
- Water boils in the bottom kettle, tea brews in the pot on top
- Turkish coffee
- Its culture and tradition on the UNESCO list since 2013
- Hanging tray
- The tea runner's three-armed tray, held from the centre
The tea stall and the hanging tray
In Turkey, tea is drunk at any hour and offering it is a sign of hospitality. At the heart of this culture are the small çay ocağı (tea stalls), narrow kitchens in markets, office blocks and shopping streets that brew tea for the shopkeepers around them. The tea maker brews tea in a double teapot, pours it into tulip-shaped glasses and carries them from shop to shop on a hanging tray, a tray with three arms held from a handle in the middle. Even when it swings, the glasses stay upright, which is why a tea runner hurrying through a crowded street is such a familiar sight.
Tea is everywhere today, but large-scale tea farming in Turkey is fairly recent: it spread around Rize, on the Black Sea coast, in the first half of the 20th century.
Lokanta, coffee and Turkish delight
A lokanta is a simple Turkish eatery that mostly serves home-style cooking; the lunchtime lokanta where workers eat is part of city life. After the meal often comes tea or Turkish coffee. Served in a small cup with its grounds, it usually comes with a glass of water and often a piece of Turkish delight. Turkish coffee culture and tradition was added to UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.
Lokum, or Turkish delight, is a soft sweet made with starch and sugar; Istanbul has been home to famous lokum makers since the 18th century.
Palace kitchen and Bosphorus ferry
In Ottoman times, the large kitchens of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul cooked for hundreds of people every day. The palace is also known for its rich collection of Chinese porcelain, part of which is displayed in the palace museum today. The golden plate and fine porcelain in the game are a wink at that splendour.
Another symbol of Istanbul is the ferry that crosses the Bosphorus between the two shores. Buying a tea from the onboard tea seller, eating a simit and tossing a piece to the seagulls is an everyday habit for many Istanbul residents. Carrying a tray on a rocking deck, of course, takes real skill.
In the game
The waiter and the four places in the game are fictional; they do not portray any real person or business. But every detail comes from a real tradition: the tulip-shaped tea glass, the coffee cup with its saucer, the water glass, the box of Turkish delight, the double teapot with the brewing pot on top and the sesame-covered simit. The calm Tea House, the wind in the Diner when the door opens, the golden tray of the Palace Kitchen and the waves of the Bosphorus Ferry turn this everyday serving culture into a balance game.
How Garson was made
Garson, Turkish for waiter, was inspired by the skill of waiters who carry a loaded tray in one hand through a busy restaurant. Plates, tea glasses, cups, boxes of Turkish delight, a teapot and simit pile up on the tray of our mustached waiter with his red bow tie. Each piece dropped with a single tap makes the tower a little taller, and if it falls, the game is over. The tray sways gently and the pieces lean on each other with real physics. A well-placed piece earns a Perfect bonus, and a height ruler shows how tall the tower is.
There are Classic and Service modes and four venues, from the Tea House to the Palace Kitchen and the Bosphorus Ferry. Special pieces make things harder: a slippery ice block, a honey jar that sticks to what it touches, a golden plate worth double points and fine porcelain that breaks if tilted. Steady and Slow help in tight moments. The waiter, the tray and the pieces are drawn in code without image files, and the music is a short loop in the Hicaz makam, also generated in code.
After the move to CetinsGame, the game was tested with a bot playing with real physics, and it showed a problem: the tower fell after 9 to 12 pieces on average. The main cause was round and long pieces arriving at random; a simit or teapot in the first moves toppled the tower before it was built. In version 2.1.1, pieces started coming from a bag: the mix stayed the same, but these hard pieces no longer come in the first five drops or right after another teapot or simit. The same version stopped a stack glued by the honey jar from trembling endlessly; honey now sticks only after the pieces have settled.
After the change, the bot played 60 games again in each test. The perfect bot stacked 13 pieces on average instead of 10, the human-like bot 10.6 instead of 8.2, and games ending before five pieces dropped from 7 to 1. The game is playable in seven languages.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get the Perfect bonus in Garson?
If the piece you drop lands almost exactly on top of the previous piece, lined up with it, Perfect! appears and you get 1 extra point. The very first piece cannot earn this bonus.
What are tips for?
At the end of each game your points are added to your tips. When your total reaches 100 tips the Diner opens, at 300 the Palace Kitchen and at 700 the Bosphorus Ferry.
What happens if I put extra pieces on the tray in Service mode?
Nothing bad; the order is served as soon as every ordered piece has settled on the tray. Extra pieces just make the tower taller than needed and cost you time.
Does the game end when the fine porcelain breaks?
No. Fine porcelain breaks and disappears if it tilts too far, but the game goes on. It only ends if the pieces on top lose their balance and fall off.
Is the honey jar good or bad?
It can be either. Honey glues the pieces it touches together and can make the tower sturdier, but it also locks a crooked piece in place. Try to drop it on a flat spot.
How many times can I use Steady and Slow?
You get one of each per game. Steady freezes the tower for 5 seconds and Slow slows down the next 3 pieces. When they are used up, you can watch an ad for another use if you want.
Why does the Continue button sometimes not appear?
Continue can be used only once per game, and it does not appear if your score is zero. If the tower falls a second time, the game is really over.
Why do the pieces keep getting faster?
Each new piece on the tower makes the next one slide a little faster, and in the Palace Kitchen pieces are faster still. Slow brings the speed down for a while.
How is the tower's height measured?
The ruler at the side of the screen shows the height above the tray in centimetres. As the tower grows, the camera moves up so you can always see the top.
Why is Turkish tea served in tulip-shaped glasses?
By tradition, the slim glass shows off the colour of the tea and is less hot where you hold it. In Turkey, people often judge how strong a tea is just by its colour.
Is Waiter free?
Yes. No download or account needed; it plays right in your browser. Watching an ad for a hint is always your choice.
Will I lose my progress?
Your progress is saved automatically on this device. Sign in and it moves to your account, so you can continue on any device.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. The game opens full screen on phones; tap the X in the corner to exit. On iPhone use "Add to Home Screen" to play it like an app.
Can I play Waiter offline?
Yes. A game you have opened once is stored on your phone or computer and opens without internet. Leaderboards and cloud saves need a connection.
Which languages are available?
Turkish, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Russian.
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