Department of Ducks

Department of Ducks presents

MaMills

Four-in-a-row, but the board goes up too.

A cozy 3D board game for Steam Deck, Windows, macOS and Linux, in English and Hungarian.

Available on Steam (opens in a new tab)Built for Steam Deck. No microtransactions. Watch the 61-second trailer

See our first theme: Halloween

Drawing of a 4x4 board of sticks holding red and blue cylinders; a red cylinder drops onto three stacked reds to complete a vertical four. Released!Check it out on Steam! (opens in a new tab)

Watch MaMills

The trailer of MaMills

The trailer's opening frame: a tall MaMills board in cream at move 39, the four red cylinders that won rimmed in white while the rest fade, the title card Four in a row. beneath, and the player tags, YOU and Machine, at the top.
61 seconds. Music, cylinders landing and soft clicks, no speech; the captions describe the sound.
Describe this trailer

61 seconds of MaMills, captured from the game in a match against the Machine, with soft instrumental music ("Wholesome" by Kevin MacLeod) and the game's own sounds. No speech.

It opens on your own win. A red cylinder drops, four red cylinders light up with a white rim and the rest of the board dims: "Four in a row." A result card reads "You won!": "Through the cube."

On an empty board the cursor steps between sticks. A red cylinder drops, the Machine answers with a blue one, and a second red lands on the first: "Pick a stick." "Gravity does the rest." "Rows, columns, stacks, diagonals." "76 ways to win."

The board turns and tilts, then Lock view freezes the tilt while it keeps turning: "Rotate it, or lock the angle."

The same board in red and blue, purple and green, blue and orange with stripes and dots, then gold and silver: "Four palettes." "Patterns, not just colour."

The same board again as a Halloween scene, spiders against pumpkins under the moon: "Our first theme, for Next Fest." "More to come."

Eight cylinders drop onto two sticks, you and the Machine taking turns, each with a different sound, each named as it lands: "Eight drop sounds." Bop, Real-like, Falling, Depth, Cups, Wormy, Glass, Cherry. "Pick yours."

The Settings screen: patterned cylinders, reduce motion and opaque modal backgrounds tick on, then the text grows: "Text size, patterns, less motion." "Settings that fit you." The two loading screens, a tumbling cube of cylinders and a windmill with cylinder sails: "Two loading screens." "Pick the one you like."

The main menu. The Machine's difficulty picker steps from Beginner to Expert: "Play the Machine, five levels." "Or a friend, three ways." The friend picker holds on Same device (Hotseat): "Hotseat, same device." The Local Network lobby: "LAN, same network." Steam Remote Play Together is highlighted in the friend picker: "Steam Remote Play Together, remotely."

It ends on the end card: "Department of Ducks presents", the MaMills windmill seal and title, "Four-in-a-row, but the board goes up too.", a Wishlist on Steam button, and the line "English + Magyar, Play the Machine, or a friend, Cozy, not compulsive".

01 · How it plays

Three steps. No fine print.

Pick a stick

Sixteen sticks. Point at one. That is the entire move.

Down it goes

It settles on the lowest free slot. Gravity does not take appeals.

Four, any direction

Rows, columns, stacks, even diagonals through the cube. 76 ways to win.

02 · Who you play

Four ways to play.

The Machine, a friend beside you, a friend across the room on the same network, or a friend over Steam Remote Play Together. Same board, same 76 lines.

vs Machine

Solo · offline

Against the Machine

  • Five levels, Beginner to Expert. Every level above Beginner takes a win and blocks one.
  • Expert thinks four moves ahead. Beat it and the Gold & Silver palette is yours.
  • Pause any time. Your match waits for you, even after the Deck sleeps.

Hotseat

One device

On the couch

  • Hotseat: one device, one controller, pass it over.
  • Straight in: the board shows whose colour is up.
  • No take-backs in pass-and-play. Arguing about it is optional.

LAN

Same network · no Steam

Same network

  • LAN: two machines, one game each, no Steam needed at all.
  • The host shows up on its own, or you type the address.
  • No accounts, no servers. Nothing leaves the room.

Steam Remote Play Together

Steam · any distance

Over Steam

  • Steam Remote Play Together: you host, they join from wherever they are.
  • They need Steam, not the game. Their controller works only on their turn.
  • No matchmaking, no ranks, no strangers. Just the people you invited.

Extra

Solo · 40 puzzles

Puzzles

  • Forty puzzles in five levels, Beginner to Expert, eight in each.
  • Every one has exactly one right first move: win in one, or stop a threat.
  • On Hard and Expert, find the one move that wins on your next turn, whatever the other side does.
  • The game remembers the ones you have solved.
A MaMills puzzle in the Classic look: Medium, puzzle 1 of 8, red to move and win in one on a board of fourteen red and blue cylinders.
Medium, puzzle 1 of 8. One drop wins it. Only one.

03 · Screenshots

Same board, four moods.

Game screenshot in the Classic palette, a game against the Machine at move 10: your red cylinders and the Machine's blue ones on a 4x4 stick board, with a yellow drop beam and a translucent ghost piece above a three-high red stack.
Classic, move 10. The beam shows where red lands next.
The same game against the Machine seen low and nearly front-on, with patterned pieces: striped red cylinders and dotted blue ones, a ghost piece hovering above a three-high stack.
Low and close. Stripes against dots, so nobody needs the colour.
A MaMills game against the Machine as a Halloween scene, the whole screen in night purple: smiling black spiders against glowing jack-o'-lantern pumpkins on purple sticks, a full moon and stars above, lit candles at the corners of the board, and pale cobwebs in the corners of the screen and its panels.
Our first theme, Halloween. Spiders against pumpkins under the moon, in the game.
A late MaMills board against the Machine in the colour-blind safe palette at move 30, blue and orange cylinders stacked high, your blue to move with the game prompting you to block the Machine's threat.
Colour-blind safe. Blue against orange, a late board still easy to read.

04 · Accessibility

Never colour alone.

Four palettes, plus our first theme, Halloween (more seasonal themes to come), and the board never leans on colour alone to tell you whose piece is whose. It does not lean on sharp eyes, two ears or a mouse either.

  • Never colour alone A colour-blind-safe palette, and stripes-versus-dots patterns you can switch on over any palette.
  • Hint shows the threats Against the Machine, one press lights every live three-in-a-row on the board, so a busy stack never hides the danger.
  • Text size and motion, your call Bigger type, dialogs you can make opaque, and a Reduce Motion switch that snaps every animation. Desktop reads your system settings on first launch.
  • Every button, your way Rebind any key and any button; every prompt shows the glyph of the controller in your hands. No mouse needed, ever.

Classic

Red and blue. Where everyone starts.

Violet

Purple and green, for a change of scenery.

Colour-blind safe

Blue and orange, picked to stay apart.

Gold & Silver

Beat Expert to unlock. Gloating optional.

Also in Settings

Eyes

  • Patterned pieces: stripes on one side, dots on the other
  • The win is a white rim around the four and a board that steps back, not a flash of colour
  • Against the Machine, Hint lights every live threat when the board gets busy

Ears

  • Mono audio for single-ear play
  • Separate volumes for music and effects, and a mute just for the drops
  • Eight drop sounds. Pick the one that does not startle you.

Hands

  • Every button wears its own glyph, matching the controller in your hands
  • Rebind any key and any button
  • D-pad, arrows or Tab reach everything. No mouse required.

Text size, motion and dialog opacity each have their own switch. On desktop, the first launch reads your system accessibility settings and pre-fills the matching ones, then leaves a small note saying what it did.

05 · Seasons

Our first theme: Halloween.

Pick Halloween and the whole game turns to night, not just the board: the menus, the settings, the loading screen. Spiders play pumpkins on purple sticks, candles burn at the corners, a full moon hangs over the cube and cobwebs gather in the corners of the screen. It has music of its own, and the rules do not change - only the look. It is in the game from release day, and more seasonal themes are to come.

The teaser of the Halloween theme

The teaser's poster frame: the MaMills board as a Halloween scene at night, your turn against the Machine, a see-through spider waiting above its dashed landing ring, pumpkins and spiders under a full moon.
20 seconds. The theme's own music and the game's sounds, no speech; the captions describe the sound and the lines on screen.
Describe this teaser

20 seconds of the Halloween theme, captured from the game, with the theme's own music ("The Black Waltz" by Scott Buckley) and the game's sounds. No speech.

The main menu in night purple, cobwebs in the corners and draped over the title: "Halloween, in MaMills."

Settings at night with the Halloween theme picked, spiders and pumpkins in its preview: "The whole game turns to night." The loading screen, a tumbling cube of purple and orange cylinders: "Even the loading screen."

A night board under a full moon, candles at its corners, spider and pumpkin pieces dropping onto the sticks with soft clicks: "Spiders against pumpkins." "Candles and a full moon."

A last pumpkin completes a diagonal through the cube and a win chime sounds, "The pumpkins win!": "Four in a row, by candlelight."

It ends on a card: the Halloween theme, our first, more to come, a Wishlist on Steam button, and the music credit for "The Black Waltz" by Scott Buckley under CC BY 4.0.

06 · By the numbers

MaMills by the numbers

winning lines
76
Difficulty levels, Beginner to Expert
5
players, on one couch or two
1-2
achievements, six of them hiding
21
languages, English and Hungarian
2
drop sounds to pick from
8
The Steam Next Fest share image MaMills used during the fest: Steam Next Fest. MaMills by Department of Ducks. Check out our game demo during Steam Next Fest, October 19 to 26 at 10 AM Pacific.

07 · Along the way

Part of Steam Next Fest: October 2026

MaMills spent the week before its release at Steam Next Fest, Valve's festival of upcoming games, with a free demo anyone could play. Thank you to everyone who gave it a try! 

A MaMills board mid-game, red and blue cylinders stacked to different heights like a small skyline.

For Mami

This game is for my late grandmother, Mami, who I spent so many evenings playing it with. I loved it then, and I love it just as much now. If it brings you a little of that joy too, it has done its job.

Henrietta, Department of Ducks