Sprouts
The classic pencil-and-paper game Sprouts, grown in a garden bed. Draw vines between sprouts, pop a new sprout on every vine, and wall your animal rivals in so that you make the very last move.
Play nowHow to play
Controls
DragKeyboard←→↑↓ H- Drag a vine from one sprout to another, or back to itself.
- The player who makes the last move wins.
- Keys: arrows and Enter, H for a hint.
About the game
Sprouts was invented by two mathematicians in Cambridge in the 1960s and is still played with nothing more than a pencil. Here it grows in a garden bed. Draw a vine from one sprout to another, or loop it back to the same one, and a new sprout pops up in the middle. A sprout can hold only three vines, and vines may never touch, so every move uses up space and leaves. Whoever makes the last possible move wins.
The secret is the walls. Every closed vine splits the bed into separate patches, and a patch where no move is left dries up, along with the sprouts trapped inside. You climb a ladder of six animal rivals over twenty-four levels, from two sprouts against a forgetful mouse to six sprouts against a raccoon that counts every move to the end.
Free to play in your browser. No download, no sign-up. Works on phones, tablets and computers. Your progress is saved on this device.