Tested before release.
Hundreds of automated tests cover the game’s rules, and a bot has played all eight maps from start to finish.
Every machine and snail is a 3D model made in Blender and rendered into the pictures the game draws, so the phone draws finished pictures instead of rendering 3D live. One 11-minute match on an iPhone 17 Pro Max held 120 frames per second in every one-second window. It is the only phone measured so far.
Every build is a trade-off.
There are ten kinds of machine, and the five pictured are the classics. Blowhard lobs a gumball that swells into a pink bubble and slows whatever it lands on. The Cotton Candy Cart never shoots, but every machine inside its ring fires faster. The Water Tower hoses snails and pushes them back. Water maps add a Gumball Boat and a Gumball Submarine.
Each machine has three upgrade roads of five steps. You can take one road to the top and a second road to step two. The third stays locked. The limit is on purpose: no machine can do everything, so you decide what yours is for.
When three fully built machines of the same kind are on the board, you can fuse them into one Mega. The Giant Jawbreaker, for example, sends a huge ball down the entire road every sixteen seconds.
Jawbreaker
Bubble
Sticky
Lookout
Quarter
The same Jawbreaker at level 1 through 5
- Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Upgrade limit: one road to step five, a second to step two, the third locked.
Twenty kinds of snail, each a different problem.
The first waves are Garden Snails. After that the variety starts. Racers run past your machines, Rock-Shells wear armor, Mama Snails split into babies, and Leaf Snails stay hidden until something spots them. A boss arrives on wave 10 and every tenth wave after. From wave 50, those waves become Boss Days, with one lead boss, a themed crowd such as Slime Flood or Rock Slide, and a trophy to choose when the wave ends.
Garden SnailNo special traits.
RacerFast.
Rock-ShellHeavy and armored.
MamaSplits into babies.
Leaf SnailHidden until a machine spots it.
Slime SnailHeals itself.
Spiky ShellBubbles can’t hurt it.
SlickFast, and ignores goo.
Four bosses
Big SnailCurls up.
Giant SnailLeaves a slick trail.
Mega SnailSpits gum.
Grand SnailDoes all three.
Eight maps, each with its own rule.
Lily Creek has a bridge that shuts and lifts on a clock. In Hedge Maze you pay quarters to cut through the hedge. A sprinkler on Hose Knot stops your machines for a moment, and Tide Flats has a real tide that changes where your machines can work. Shell Spiral is open from the start. The other seven open as you reach higher waves.
Difficulty sets the size of your candy jar: 30, 20 or 12 candies on Easy, Medium and Hard. Once you reach the finish wave, you can keep playing for as long as you hold on.
Shell Spiral
Twin Ponds
Coral Cove
Frost Hollow
Hose Knot
Lily Creek
Hedge Maze
Tide Flats
Built so there is nothing to collect.
Your progress stays on your phone, and there is no Vyntechs server for Gumshell to send it to. Game Center, iCloud and purchases go through Apple, and only if you turn them on. The privacy policy comes from a scan of the game’s code, not from a template.
Your iPhone
Your progress, settings, saved matches and Ticket count. None of it reaches Vyntechs.
Apple, only if you turn it on
Your iCloud save, your Game Center scores and achievements, and your purchases.
Vyntechs
Nothing.
Vyntechs runs no Gumshell server, so there is nothing for the game to send and nothing for Vyntechs to receive.
Not on the App Store yet.
Gumshell is for iPhone only and needs iOS 26 or later. This page will link to the App Store listing once it is live.
Gumshell is made by Brandon Nichols at Vyntechs in Cleburne, Texas. Vyntechs also helps local businesses get found on Google. If that’s your business, get in touch.