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Puzzle Snake

Puzzle Snake is snake turned into a puzzle: nothing moves until you press an arrow, every apple makes you one square longer, and the gold door only opens once the last apple is gone. You can undo any move and you can never lose, so the only real question is the order.

Free
No ads
No account
No download
Works offline
Single player

How do you play?

Move one square at a time - Press an arrow key or W A S D, tap a button on the pad under the board, or swipe across the board. The snake takes exactly one step and stops.
Eat every apple - Each apple makes the snake one square longer. The gold door is drawn dashed while it is shut and turns solid and bright the moment the last apple is eaten.
Walk into the door - Put the head in the open door and the level is solved. The band on top of the board tells you before you start how many presses three stars take.
Undo, restart, or pick a level - Undo takes back one press, as many times as you like. Restart puts the level back to its first frame. Levels opens the map of both worlds, where each level opens once you have solved the one before it.

About this game

Nothing moves until you press. One press is one step, and the snake waits for the next as long as you like.

Your body is the puzzle. Every apple adds a square, and the tail follows exactly where the head has been, so the corridor you walked through a moment ago may now be full of you. The head may step into the square the tail is leaving, because the tail moves out on the same press, but it cannot turn back into its own neck or walk through a wall, and the door stays shut until the last apple. A refused press is a small bump of the head and nothing more. Order matters.

There are 12 levels in two worlds. The Garden has six on a 7 by 7 board, where the snake starts 2 or 3 squares long and finds out that the nearest apple is often the wrong one. The Maze has six on 9 by 9, where it starts 5 long and is 9 long by the last apple.

We checked every level twice: with a solver that tries every possible sequence of presses, and with a greedy bot that always walks to the nearest apple. The bot finishes the first level in the fewest possible presses, 5. It gets stuck on all 6 Maze levels. That is the trap. In the Maze, 12 of the 24 apples leave the level impossible if you eat them first, and on level 1-2 the order alone decides whether the level takes 11 presses or 19. The whole game at its best is 277 presses.

Stars count your presses. Three at the best possible, two for a detour or two, one for any finish.

What does it teach?

Planning a few moves ahead

Every level is solved in your head before it is solved on the board. Pressing without a plan usually ends stuck, which is its own lesson.

Order has consequences

Which apple you eat first changes everything after it, because the body you leave behind is the wall of your next move.

Recovering from a mistake

A stuck board is not a loss. Undo turns it into information: now you know which order does not work.

Tips

Count your tail before you go in

A corridor with one way in is only safe if there is room to turn inside it or another way out. Before you eat an apple at the end of a dead end, work out how long you will be afterwards.

The nearest apple is a question

Find the apple that would box you in if you ate it early, and leave it for last. Almost every Maze level has at least one.

Borrow the tail's step

The square your tail is about to leave is free on the same press. In the Maze's tight corners that is often the only way through.

Undo costs nothing

Nothing is scored until you reach the door, so try a line, look at where your body ends up, and take it back.

What age is it for?

Under 6

The first two Garden levels work with the pad and a grown-up nearby. Past that the ordering is usually too much at this age, and that is fine.

7 to 12

The Garden is the right size. The Maze is a real challenge, and it is usually solved with a lot of undo.

Teens and adults

The Maze is yours. Three stars on 2-6 means finding the single best route, 39 presses long.

Accessibility

Nothing is timed and nothing is lost, so it can be played at any pace. Every move is one press: an arrow key or W A S D, the on-screen pad, or a swipe on the board, and no move needs a held or dragged gesture. The door changes shape as well as colour when it opens, from a dashed outline to a solid one, and every button on the page, the level tiles included, has a name a screen reader can say.

Playing together

Plan out loud

One person holds the phone, the other calls the moves. Only the planner speaks, and the one holding it presses exactly what was said.

Race to three stars

Two players, one level, two devices. Fewest presses wins, and a tie goes to whoever never used undo.

Hunt the trap apple

Before anyone moves, each of you guesses which apple would leave the level impossible if it were eaten first. Check with undo.

Common questions

Can you lose in Puzzle Snake?

No. There is no timer and no game over. If the snake has no legal move the board says so, and undo or restart gets you out.

What is the number next to the three stars?

The fewest presses that solve the level, found by a solver that tried every possible sequence. You cannot beat it, only match it.

How do I get two stars?

Finish within 20 percent more presses than the best, and always at least 2 more. Any two solutions of the same level differ by an even number of presses, so 2 is the smallest gap there is.

Why can't the snake go back the way it came?

It cannot turn into its own neck. It can step into the square the tail is leaving, because the tail moves on the same press.

How do I open the next level?

Solve the one before it, with any number of stars. A locked level still wiggles when you tap it, so you can see where it is.

Does Puzzle Snake save my progress?

Your best stars for every level are kept on this device, and if you leave halfway through a level it opens exactly where you left it.

Is it the same game as Snake?

Same snake, same board colours, different game. Snake is about reflexes and speed. Here every level is a fixed puzzle and nothing happens until you press.

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