Shade Hop
A desert lizard crosses the burning sand to an oasis. Its water drains in the sun and comes back in the shade of rocks, cacti and palms, but the shadows swing and shrink as the sun crosses the sky. Reach the palms before sunset.
Play nowHow to play
Controls
TapHold- Touch or hold anywhere and the lizard runs toward your finger; it stops where you let go.
- The blue bar is its water: it drains in sunlight (faster on later crossings) and refills in shade.
- If it runs dry, or the sun sets before you reach the oasis on the right, the crossing fails.
- Watch the sun arc at the top: in the morning shadows point back to the left, at noon they shrink under each object, and in the evening they stretch toward the oasis.
- Stars by your time against the par.
About the game
Shade Hop is a short, tense crossing game about a lizard that has to cover a stretch of open desert in the heat of the day. Standing in the sun costs water, standing in shade gives it back, and the only shade around is what the rocks, cacti and the odd palm tree throw onto the sand. Running flat out across the dunes looks fastest, but on all but the first crossing the lizard would dry out long before the far side.
The twist is the sun itself. It rises behind the oasis, so morning shadows reach back toward where you started and help you only a little. As noon approaches they shrink until each one is a small dark puddle around its rock, and gaps that were easy an hour ago become long sun-baked runs. Wait too long for the evening, though, and the day runs out: the shadows stretch helpfully toward the oasis just as the light is going. Every crossing is checked by a computer runner to be possible. Eighteen crossings get longer, with sparser shade, a harsher sun and a shorter day.
Free to play in your browser. No download, no sign-up. Best on a computer, or a phone held sideways. Your progress is saved on this device.
