The seven varieties
- Dive: swim, gather pearls, find the trove
- Needs a license
- Drift: swim where you like, nothing bites
- Needs a license
- Bubbles: pop bubbles for points
- Needs a license
- Kelp: drop food and find who hides
- Free
- Jelly: grow and tow a garden of jellies
- Free
- Nautilus: spin a shell to dive deeper
- Free
- Sand: draw in the sand
- Free
During your 14-day trial, all seven are open. After the trial, Dive, Drift and Bubbles need a license. Kelp, Jelly, Nautilus and Sand stay free. Your trial and license has the details.
Choose a variety
A row of names sits at the bottom right of the Reef: Dive, Drift, Bubbles, Kelp, Jelly, Nautilus and Sand. Press a name to switch. KeptNote remembers your last choice. The first time, you start in Drift.
Each variety opens with a short card that tells you how to play. Press Begin, press Return or Space, or press the water to start. Tick Don’t show this again to skip the card next time. To see a card again, press the ? button at the top left. You can untick the box there.
To open the Reef, see Notes and Reef during a meeting.
Dive and Drift
In both, you swim through a long reef. Move the pointer, and your fish follows it. Click to dash. The dash is a short burst, and it needs a moment to recharge. You can also use the arrow keys or the W, A, S and D keys to swim, and Space to dash. If you do nothing, a slow current carries you forward.
Dive
Dive is the game. The reef has five zones: The shallows, Coral garden, Kelp forest, The drop-off and The trove. A thin line at the bottom shows how far you have swum. Eight pearls lie along the way. Gather them, and dodge the animals that bite. When something catches you, the screen slows and you see Caught. Again? with a short line about the run. Click, or press an arrow key, to try again. If you reach the end, the trove opens.
Choose Fish or Diver under “Who you swim as”. Fish is the first choice.
Drift
Drift is the same reef with nothing that bites. There are no pearls, no zones and no score. You wander. Only the Share button shows.
Bubbles, Kelp, Jelly, Nautilus and Sand
Bubbles
Click or brush the pointer across bubbles to pop them. Smaller bubbles score more. Hold the pointer on the water to blow more bubbles. Press Space or Return to pop the highest bubble. A golden bubble gives 100 points and clears the fish from the water. Your score shows at the top right, with a combo count and your best.
Kelp
Click to drop food and see who comes out. Brush the pointer through the kelp to find who hides. Press Space or Return to drop food at the top. Press the Left or Right arrow key to send a current through the kelp. Eight animals can be found, and the score reads Found 0 of 8 and counts up.
Jelly
Click the water to make a jelly. Press and hold a jelly to squeeze it, and let go to bloom tiny jellies. Drag a jelly to tow it. Hold the open water to make the jellies pulse together. The garden holds at most seven jellies. There is no score.
Nautilus
Press the shell and drag around it to spin it. Let go with speed and it keeps spinning. The faster and longer it spins, the deeper it dives. When you stop, it floats back up. The Left and Right arrow keys nudge the spin, and Space or Return flicks it. The depth shows in meters at the top right. The water has three bands, named The shallows, The twilight and The deep.
Sand
Drag to draw in the sand. Three tools sit at the top right: Rake for grooves, Finger to write, and Stone, where you click to place a stone. Smooth clears the whole garden. The keys are R, F and S for the tools, and Space or Return to smooth. Two pearls lie buried. Dig across one to lift it out. KeptNote does not save your drawing.
When a variety is locked
After your trial ends and before you add a license, Dive, Drift and Bubbles show a small lock after their names. You can still choose them. The water plays behind the card, and the card says Part of KeptNote Personal. with an Unlock button instead of Begin. Press Unlock and your browser opens the pricing page. The Reef itself never goes online.
When you enter a license key, the lock opens at once. You do not need to leave the Reef.
What KeptNote saves
KeptNote saves a few small things on your Mac, in its own preferences. Nothing is sent anywhere.
- Your last variety.
- Which cards you chose to skip.
- Your best result in Dive: how far you swam and the most pearls in one run.
- Your best score in Bubbles, your best count in Kelp, and your deepest dive in Nautilus.
Jelly and Sand save nothing. KeptNote has no button to reset the scores.