Ghost Parade

What you do

Ghost Parade is a real-time routing game in the style of train switching games, set in a village on Halloween night. Ghosts in costume scarves and hats leave the old mill one at a time, and each one is looking for the cottage whose roof matches its costume color. Cobbled lanes split at forks, and the signpost at each fork decides which branch a ghost takes, so the fun is keeping several ghosts on the right lanes at once. There are 12 hand-made neighborhoods, from three houses and two signposts to seven houses with two mills or lanes that cross on footbridges, and the parade grows longer and a little quicker as you go. Every parade is checked before you play it: a bot that reacts like a quick player gets every ghost home, so a perfect night is always possible.

How to play

1. Press Start on the title card. Ghosts float out of the old mill one at a time, and each one wants the cottage whose roof matches its costume color. The cottage roof, its porch flag and the badge on the ghost's scarf also share a symbol, such as a pumpkin, moon or star.
2. Lanes split at forks. The signpost at each fork points down the open branch, and little lights run along it. A ghost takes whichever branch is open when it reaches the fork.
3. Tap a signpost to switch it to the other branch. The next two ghosts wait in the mill doorway and upper window, so you can see who is coming.
4. A ghost that reaches its own cottage gets a treat: 10 treats, or 30 for a golden lantern ghost. Five deliveries in a row doubles every treat, and ten in a row triples it.
5. A ghost that reaches the wrong cottage giggles and floats away over the roofs, and the streak starts over. There are no lives, so every night plays to the end.
6. The night ends when every ghost has arrived somewhere. Every finished night earns a ribbon and opens the next of the 12 neighborhoods. Getting 70 percent of the ghosts home earns two ribbons, and 90 percent earns three.

Controls

• Touch: tap a signpost, or the little stone circle where its lane splits, to switch it.
• Mouse: click a signpost to switch it. Hover over one to see a dashed path to the cottage its other branch leads to.
• Keyboard: press a key and each signpost shows a letter; press that letter to switch it. Tab moves between signposts and shows where the other branch leads, and Space or Enter switches the one in focus.
• Toolbar: pause, help, restart (starts the neighborhood on screen again from the first ghost; saved results are never touched), optional sound and fullscreen.

Tips worth knowing

• Watch the mill doorway. The ghost waiting there leaves next, so set its first signpost before it steps out.
• Switch a signpost back as soon as a ghost passes it if the ghost behind needs the other branch.
• In later neighborhoods, a lane that crosses another on a footbridge does not join it: ghosts on the bridge stay on their own lane.

Accessibility

• Each costume color also has its own symbol (pumpkin, moon, leaf, star, heart, bell or flower) on the ghost's scarf, the cottage roof and the porch flag, so color is never the only cue.
• Every signpost is a button with its own letter key, reachable with Tab, and its label says which cottage its lane leads to now and after switching.
• There are no lives and no failure screen: a ghost at the wrong cottage giggles and the night carries on. The toolbar pause stops the parade at any time.
• Deliveries, giggles and the end of each night are announced to screen readers.
• Reduced motion keeps the ghosts steady instead of bobbing, holds the mill sails and signposts still and lets a giggling ghost fade where it is. The ghosts still float along the lanes, and every light, sparkle and sound stays. Sound is optional and never needed to play.

Guides and roundups

• Best Cozy Halloween Games to Play in 2026