OPEN CUT

Golf and tennis at once, and an editor. Everyone sits around one round field of shots and takes turns. Your ball's line of flight is your cut: every free shot it crosses joins our one film, for as long as the ball is over it, and becomes yours. Claimed shots are walls for everyone. The film plays in the middle.

Aim: drag back from your ball; the exact line, the shots it will cut and how they join appear, and stay. Adjust by dragging again or with the arrow keys. PREVIEW plays the proposed segment; CUT IT (Enter) commits. Score: each seam of your segment, from the film's last shot on, earns 2 if it joins well, 1 if loosely, and costs 1 if it jars; each chemical bond or crystal earns 1, each echo or backflow costs 1 (MENU explains the chemistry). The machine learns your taste from the lines you commit. MAGNET: how strongly the land bends lines toward good cuts. Any seat can be the machine, which shows its proposal before it cuts.

length of our film