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Snakey is a snake game on a square board, free in your browser with no download. The snake moves on its own and you choose where it turns. Eat to grow, stay off the walls and off your own tail. One crash ends the try, even on level 1, so tries are short and one tap starts the next. This note describes version 0.6, and you can play Snakey in another tab while you read.
How do you steer? #
On a phone or tablet you have two ways, and you can mix them:
- Swipe the way you want to go. The game draws a short fading line under your finger so you can see it caught the move.
- Tap the left or right half of the screen. The snake turns to its own left or right, not the screen's.
On a computer, use the arrow keys or W, A, S, D. Space starts a try and starts the next one after a crash. P or Escape pauses. In the menu, the left and right arrows change the level.
The snake can never turn straight back into its neck. You can queue two turns in a row, so a quick double turn lands on two steps instead of one. The game also pauses when you switch to another tab or app.
Snakey plays in English and in Spanish, where it goes by Viborita. It starts in the language you use on the site, and EN and ES at the top of its menu switch between them.
What are the modes? #
- Levels. Numbered, and they never run out. Finishing a level opens the next, and you can replay any level you have reached. Ten levels make a world, and each world has its own colours and music. The ninth level of a world is marked hard in the menu, and the tenth eases off.
- Daily. One level a day, the same for every player, with a new one at midnight UTC. It always sits somewhere between level 24 and level 42 in difficulty, depending on the weekday.
- Endless. One board with no finish line. The snake speeds up and the board fills with hazards, and the level climbs by one every 3 seconds of play. Your score is how long the snake grew.
A level's number sets how hard it is, and the layout is drawn again every time you play, turned another way and in other colours, so there is no layout to memorise. The board is 17 by 17 cells on every level and always fits the screen whole.
The first seven levels are gentler: level 1 has no walls, and walls arrive slowly after that. The snake moves at 5 cells a second at the start, gets to about 8.5 by level 100, and tops out at 11 by level 150. After that, levels get harder through what is on the board and not through speed.
What does each hazard do? #
Each one appears on a set level and comes with a short line the first time you meet it. Here are the levels where they start, as of version 0.6:
| Hazard | From level | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Walls | 2 | Steer round them |
| Rocks | 6 | Steer round them |
| Beetles | 10 | They pace a line back and forth: keep off the line |
| Spikes | 16 | Cross while they are down |
| Portals | 21 | In one side, out the other |
| Sliders | 26 | Bars that slide along a track |
| Wasps | 31 | They come for your head, so keep moving |
| Crosses | 41 | They turn in place: time your crossing |
| Rows of spikes | 61 | Three spikes that rise one after another, like a wave |
Beetles and wasps are the enemies. They arrive few and slow and grow in number over about a hundred levels. From level 110, a board can carry two rows of spikes.
The coins show a way to the food
Coins lie on a path to the next food. Following them is the safe line when you cannot see a route. The counter at the top shows how many you have picked up of those laid so far.
How do stars and coins work? #
Every level has three stars:
- Finish it.
- Collect every coin laid on it.
- Finish it on the first try.
Each star you earn on a finished level pays 10% more coins from that play. Coins you pick up are kept even when you crash. A bite pays several coins, and finishing a level pays a prize on top. How much one coin is worth rises with the world, and the menu shows it under the level number ("Coins worth ..."). Prices in the store scale with your coin level, so this guide gives no price list.
What does the store sell? #
You spend coins on four things:
- Shields. One shield saves you from one crash, and afterwards you are untouchable for 1.4 seconds. You can hold up to 9. After a crash without one, the game offers a retry with a shield if you have the coins.
- Upgrades. Magnet draws coins in from further away. Grace gives you a moment before a crash lands, so you can turn away. Calm makes the snake slightly slower, 1.7% per level of the upgrade. Coin bonus adds 5% more coins per level. Each upgrade level costs more than the last, and further levels open as you reach further levels.
- A permanent shield, called Carapace, which gives you a shield on every play and does not use up your stock.
- Looks. 100 snake skins, 100 foods and 100 backgrounds. They change nothing about how the game plays. Reaching a new level opens one, and others open by time played, stars, daily levels or length in Endless. About a third are gifts the moment they open, and the rest are for sale.
Does it save my progress? #
As a guest, your progress and coins are saved in this browser on this device only. Clearing the site's data for your browser erases them. With a free account, they follow you to every device where you sign in: see your account page. The leaderboard ranks players with an account, by furthest level and stars, and by the longest snake in Endless.
To keep Snakey one tap away, see how to add browser games to your home screen. If you like one-touch arcade games, the Skimline guide covers our flying game the same way.
