LAPILLI STONES — FACT SHEET
Last updated: September 2, 2026

IN ONE SENTENCE
Lapilli Stones is a hand-crafted digital board game of five-in-a-row
and capture — glass stones on a carved Roman board, wrapped in an
original story of a game buried by Vesuvius — for iPhone, iPad, and
Mac in a single purchase, with no ads, no subscriptions, and no
tracking.

FACTS
Name:            Lapilli Stones
Developer:       Eddie Merkel (solo)
Platforms:       iPhone, iPad, Mac — one purchase covers all three
Business model:  Pay once. No ads, no in-app purchases, no
                 subscriptions, no data collection
Modes:           Vs. the computer (four tiers: Novice, Apprentice,
                 Journeyman, Artisan), two players on one device, and
                 asynchronous online play over Game Center
Rules:           Standard, Keryo, and Tournament variants of the game
                 known as Pente (created by Gary Gabrel, 1977;
                 gomoku/ninuki-renju lineage). Pente is a registered
                 trademark of Hasbro, Inc., with which we are not
                 affiliated.
Study tools:     Every finished game recorded and reviewable move by
                 move, a free-setup practice board, a mistake-trend
                 chart, and a 160-page companion book included
Release:         2026 — App Store
Beta:            https://testflight.apple.com/join/K7HAw4PP
Website:         https://lapilli-stones.com
Press page:      https://lapilli-stones.com/press.html
Contact:         lapilli-stones@proton.me

THE STORY
The game is framed by an original work of historical fiction: glass
drops from a Pompeii furnace, a scratched nineteen-line grid in the
back of a thermopolium, and an eruption that preserved a game
mid-play for two thousand years. The full story:
https://lapilli-stones.com/story.html
The fiction is fiction, the game is real, and the site says both
plainly.

CONTENTS OF THIS KIT
icon/                 App icon at 1024x1024
screenshots/iphone/   iPhone screenshots, 1320x2868
screenshots/ipad/     iPad screenshots, 2064x2752
screenshots/mac/      Mac screenshots, 2560x1600

Review copies: promo codes are available for press and creators —
just ask.
