A turn-based block-pushing puzzle game for the browser and your phone. Push blocks, fill the water, collect keys, open doors… and find your way to the exit in as few moves as possible.
▶ Play puzzleCave — free, no account, works offline once loaded, and can be installed as an app on Android.
You are trapped in a cave: reach the exit to finish the level. There are no enemies and no clock running out (except in master mode, below) — take your time, every move counts.
- Blocks — walk into a block to push it one cell, if the cell behind it is free floor. You cannot pull a block, and you can only push one at a time: a block stuck in a corner stays there.
- Water — you cannot walk on water, but a block pushed into it sinks and becomes a bridge. Each block fills a single water cell, so think before you use one.
- Gravel — you can walk on gravel, but blocks cannot be pushed onto it.
- Keys and doors — walk over a key to pick it up; walk into a door to open it, which uses one key. Some levels give you more doors than keys, or start you in debt: choose which doors to open.
- Exit — step onto it to win.
Made a mistake? Undo as many moves as you like, or restart the level (master mode, below, has no undo).
Each level awards a medal for the number of moves — gold, silver or bronze (a few levels also have a medal for the time you took). The level selection screen shows the limits for each medal. Gold means a good, honest solution; you do not need to find the cleverest route to get it: from the Medium chapter on, the gold limit is always above the best solution (a good alternative route, or about 10 % more moves than the best one; on the Hard and Expert levels, between 10 % and 25 % more moves than the best known solution).
From the Medium chapter on, earning gold on a level unlocks its master mode (the Master button, or P on the selection screen). In master mode:
- no undo — and restarting starts a brand-new attempt;
- water no longer stops you… it drowns you;
- against the clock: on a level with time medals, you must finish within its bronze time. The clock starts with your first move (study the map as long as you like before it) and the remaining time is shown at the top, in red for the last seconds. Past it the attempt fails, like drowning: restart for a new one. The clock stops while the game is hidden (another app, screen locked); leaving for the menu ends the attempt.
Master mode has two medals of its own:
- Master (a violet medal with a crown): finish in master mode within the gold move limit;
- Grand master (a light-blue medal with a white sparkle): finish in master mode within the grand master limit, the best solution known — often a different, cleverer route than the gold one — and, on a level with time medals, within its silver time. Grand master includes master: a run within the grand master moves but slower than the silver time earns master.
Master mode is a separate achievement, with its own line on the selection and result screens: the limits, for example "Master ≤ 610 · Grand master ≤ 538 & ≤ 1:46.25 · limit ≤ 2:07.50" (grand master's moves and time, then master mode's time limit), and your best master run, under the name of the master medal you hold ("Grand master: 538 moves · 1:40.12"), or "Master mode: …" while you hold none. The best moves and the best time are kept apart and may come from different runs. A master finish also counts for the gold, silver and bronze medals it qualifies for. (Older versions had a single platinum medal: it is now grand master. A grand master earned before the silver time rule is kept.)
The Easy chapter has no master mode.
The levels are grouped into chapters — Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. Finish a level to unlock the next one; finish a few levels of a chapter to open the next chapter.
- Keyboard: arrows or ZQSD (WASD on a QWERTY keyboard, detected automatically) to move, U to undo, R to restart, Esc for the menu.
- Touch: choose how the play area answers your finger in Options (Touch control):
- Drag (the default): drag anywhere on the play area and keep your finger down: you take one step each time your finger travels a short distance, so a long drag walks several cells; steer by dragging the other way (right, then up…) without lifting your finger. A simple tap does nothing. Set the distance per step in Options (Drag: distance per move, shown in this mode only; 40 px by default, about a fingertip; lower is more sensitive);
- Tap zones: the play area is cut in an X into four triangles, up, down, left and right, which work like the buttons of the d-pad: touch a triangle for one step that way (at once, as your finger lands), keep your finger on it to keep walking (after the same delay and at the same rate as the d-pad); sliding off the triangle or lifting your finger stops. There is no drag in this mode. Touches on a diagonal or right at the centre do nothing, so that no step goes the wrong way. The zones stop short of the top bar and of the d-pad (24 px around them, a finger that just missed Undo or a d-pad button does not walk): the X is centred on what remains of the play area, and the lit triangle never covers them;
- in both modes, the on-screen d-pad: tap for one step, hold a button to keep walking (at the Repeat rate set in Options);
- the undo and restart buttons are on screen;
- on phones that support it (not iPhone), a short vibration tells you a move did not happen (a wall, a stuck block, a door without a key; once per press, not at every repeat); longer ones mark the end of a level and a failed master attempt. Turn it off in Options (Vibration).
The game is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian (it follows your browser's language; change it in Options).
Music by Eric Matyas — see CREDITS.md.
Want to build the game, create levels or play with the solver? See DEVELOPMENT.md.
Code under the GNU General Public License v3.0. The music has its own license (see CREDITS.md).