Cozy Puzzle

Turkey Trot

A sliding puzzle with a very keen turkey: every trot carries Butterbean in a straight line until something stops him, so each course is about where he can stop, not where he can walk.

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Turkey Trot sliding puzzle cover artwork

What you do

A cozy Thanksgiving sliding puzzle set at a small-town turkey trot. Butterbean, in running shoes and a race bib, is very keen and very bad at stopping: each trot carries him in a straight line until a hay bale, a pumpkin, a tree or the rope at the park edge stops him. Pick up every acorn on the course, then cross the finish banner while a crowd of animal neighbors cheers. There are 30 courses on the ladder, from 5x5 teaching courses to 9x11 parks, and new tiles arrive one at a time with a note from the race coach: mud puddles, leaf piles, arrow signs and a gate with a button. Each course has a par, the fewest trots that finish it, found by a search through every position. Today’s course is a new course every day, picked by the date from a pool of 365. There is no timer and no move limit. Your courses, ribbons and the course in progress save on this device.

How to play

Press Start on the title card. Course 1 teaches the rules, each course you finish opens the next, and Today’s course is open from the start.
Swipe, press an arrow button or tap a spot in line with Butterbean. He trots that way until the next tile is a hay bale, a pumpkin, a tree, the shut gate or the rope, and stops on the last open tile. A way that is blocked straight away is refused, and the tip line says what is in the way.
Trotting over an acorn picks it up. The finish only counts once every acorn is in; before that, Butterbean trots straight through the banner.
Mud puddles stop him on the puddle. Leaf piles stop him inside the pile and scatter it, so the next trot passes through. Arrow signs turn his trot the way they point.
Stopping on the button swings the gate open, and stopping there again swings it shut. A shut gate stops him like a fence.
Rings show where each trot would stop. Finish in as few trots as you can: three ribbons at par, two within two trots of par, and one for any finish.

Controls

Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD trot, U, Z or Backspace undoes, R restarts the course, H asks for a hint, M opens the course map, T switches the stop rings on or off and V switches a big course between Close-up and Overview. Escape closes the map.
Touch: swipe anywhere on the course (a short or slanted drag does nothing), tap a spot in the same row or column as Butterbean, or use the arrow buttons. Undo, Restart and Hint sit beside or under the course, and the course name opens the map.
Mouse: click a spot in line with Butterbean or an arrow button. Pointing in line with him highlights that trot’s ring, even with the stop rings switched off.
On a short, wide screen such as a phone held sideways, a tall course is shown turned a quarter turn so its tiles stay large. Swipes and arrows follow the course as you see it.
On a phone, a course too big to show whole with large tiles is shown close up, and the view follows Butterbean as he trots. The Overview button shows the whole course at once with smaller tiles, and Close-up goes back. The game remembers which one you picked.
Toolbar: pause, help, restart (starts the course on screen over; ribbons, records and open courses stay), optional sound and fullscreen.

Tips worth knowing

Plan from stop to stop. An open spot is no use unless something stops him there, so look for the bale, pumpkin, puddle or rope that ends each trot.
The nearest acorn is often a trap. From course 4 on, every course is checked so that always trotting toward the nearest acorn misses par.
A leaf pile is a stop you can use once. Once it scatters, the same trot carries him on through.
Undo is free and unlimited. If Butterbean can no longer collect every acorn and finish, the tip line says so and the Undo button glows.

Accessibility

Everything can be played with a keyboard: arrow keys or WASD trot, and every button is reachable with Tab.
There is no timer and no move limit. Undo and restart are free and unlimited.
Every tile has its own shape (bale, pumpkin, tree, puddle, leaf pile, arrow sign, button and gate), so nothing relies on color alone.
Each trot is announced to screen readers, the course has a spoken summary of the trots so far, par and acorns to go, and the tip line says whether the gate is open.
Reduced motion makes every trot instant, moves the close-up view in one step and stops the drifting leaves. Bumps, pops and the finish still show, with smaller bursts that barely move. Sound is optional and never needed to play.

Questions

Can every course be finished, and what does par mean?

Yes. Par is the fewest trots that collect every acorn and cross the finish, found by a breadth-first search over Butterbean’s place, the acorns, the leaf piles and the gate. The game’s checks replay a shortest plan for every course, and a second, plainer search written separately from the game’s rules finds the same par.

How do hints work?

Hint makes the ring of the best next trot glow, and the tip line names the direction and how many trots are left at best. You can ask as often as you like, but a run that used a hint earns at most two ribbons, even after an undo or a restart, until you finish the course.

What does Turkey Trot save?

On this device: which ladder courses are open, your fewest trots and most ribbons on each course (the course map counts them out of 90 ribbons), your record on today’s course, whether the stop rings are on, whether big courses show close up or whole, and every course you have started but not finished, trot by trot, so Butterbean, the acorns, the leaf piles, the gate and the undo history come back after a reload. Today’s course in progress is cleared when the date changes. If the browser blocks saving, you can still play, and the game says your progress lasts only until you leave the page.