Cozy Puzzle

Tag-Along Pup

A turn-based puzzle where your puppy is your second pair of hands: Toffee repeats your steps a few beats later, so the stone you stand on now is where he holds a gate open for you soon.

Play Tag-Along Pup Back to all games

Tag-Along Pup puppy puzzle cover artwork

What you do

A cozy turn-based puzzle about timing. Juniper walks a hedge garden one tile per beat, and her puppy Toffee follows her exact steps a few beats behind. Colored gates open only while someone stands on a stepping stone of the same color, so the puzzle is planning where Toffee will be: step on a stone now and, a few beats later, he stands there holding its gate open as you walk through. Then he needs a way through too. Bring both to the picnic blanket in as few beats as you can. There are 15 gardens on the ladder, from a one-gate tutorial to 7x7 gardens with red, blue and gold gates, and from garden 8 Toffee is sometimes eager (three beats behind) or sleepy (five). Each garden has a par, the fewest beats that finish it, found by a search through every possible move. Today’s garden is a new garden every day, picked by the date from a pool of 365. There is no timer and no move limit. Your gardens, bells and the garden in progress save on this device.

How to play

Press Start on the title card. Garden 1 teaches the rules, each garden you finish opens the next, and Today’s garden is open from the start.
Each tap is one beat. Tap a tile next to Juniper to step there, or tap Juniper to wait a beat. The numbered Wait buttons, one for each beat Toffee is behind, wait that many beats in one tap, and tapping a tile on Toffee’s paw-print trail away from Juniper waits until he gets there.
Toffee steps exactly where Juniper stood four beats earlier. From garden 8 and in Today’s garden he may be three or five beats behind instead, and a card says which before the garden starts. His paw prints and small numbers show where he will be on each coming beat.
While anyone stands on a stepping stone, every gate of its color (red, blue or gold) is open. Nobody may be in a gate when it shuts, so a beat that would leave Juniper or Toffee in a shut gate is refused, and the tip line says why.
Toffee holds gates open for you when he stands on a stone. The dots on a gate, one for each coming beat, light up on the beats he will be holding it open. Tap a gate or a stone to have it explained.
The picnic starts when Juniper and Toffee stand on the blanket together: three bells at par, two within two beats of par, and one otherwise.

Controls

Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD step, Space, Enter or the period key waits one beat, the number keys wait that many beats (up to Toffee’s pace), U, Z or Backspace undoes, H asks for a hint, R restarts the garden, M opens the garden map and ? shows the rules. Escape closes the rules or the map.
Touch: tap a tile next to Juniper to step (a short swipe steps too) and tap Juniper or Wait 1 to wait. Pressing a tile on Toffee’s trail shows where he would be before you let go; slide off to cancel. Undo, Restart and Hint sit beside or under the garden, and the garden name opens the map.
Mouse: click to step or wait. Hover a tile next to Juniper to preview the step, or a Wait button or a trail tile to see where Toffee would be.
Toolbar: pause, help, restart (starts the garden on screen over, and Undo brings the last try back until your next beat; bells, records, open gardens and spent hints stay), optional sound and fullscreen.

Tips worth knowing

Count from the stone, not the gate. Toffee reaches a stone exactly as many beats after you as his pace, so step on it that many beats before you want to walk through its gate.
Once you are through, return the favor: be on a stone of that color when Toffee steps into the gate behind you.
The picnic only needs both of you on the blanket on the same beat. Juniper can visit the blanket early, leave to hold a stone while Toffee crosses, and be back as he arrives.
The nearest gate is often a trap. From garden 4 on, the obvious first gate still works but costs at least three beats more than par.
Undo is free and unlimited. If Toffee can no longer reach the blanket, the tip line says how many beats to undo and the Undo button glows.

Accessibility

Everything can be played with a keyboard: arrow keys or WASD step, Space waits, number keys wait several beats, and every button is reachable with Tab.
There is no timer and no move limit. Undo and restart are free and unlimited.
Gate and stone colors never rely on hue alone: red has a heart, blue a drop and gold a star. Tapping a gate or a stone explains it in words.
Each beat is announced to screen readers, and the tip line describes which gates are open. The garden has a spoken summary of the beats so far, par and Toffee’s pace.
Reduced motion makes every step near instant and stills the hearts at the picnic. Sound is optional and never needed to play.

Questions

Can every garden be solved, and what does par mean?

Yes. Par is the fewest beats that bring Juniper and Toffee to the blanket together, found by a search that tries every possible move from every position, waits included. The game’s checks replay a shortest solution for every garden, and a second search written separately from the game’s rules finds the same par. From garden 4 on, every garden is also checked so that a plain one-gate-at-a-time plan never reaches par: you have to plan the holds together.

How do hints work?

Each garden has three hints, and they never cost bells. A hint makes the best next beat glow, rings the stone or gate it is about when that is a different tile, and says why in one sentence. Hints stay spent if you undo, restart or leave, until you finish the garden. If Toffee can no longer reach the blanket, the game says so and how many beats to undo, without spending a hint.

What does Tag-Along Pup save?

On this device: which ladder gardens are open, your fewest beats and most bells on each garden (the garden map counts them out of 45 bells), your record on today’s garden, and every garden you have started but not finished, step by step, so Juniper, Toffee and the undo history come back after a reload. Spent hints are saved too, and today’s garden in progress is cleared when the date changes. Restart in the toolbar starts the garden on screen over and never touches your bells, records or open gardens. If the browser blocks saving, you can still play, and the game says your progress lasts only until you leave the page.