HedgeClog

About the game

At "Hedgehogs and Associates" a fire has broken out, and every hedgehog in the office has to get out. There is just one problem: hedgehogs have spikes, and co-workers need to keep a safe distance from each other. HedgeClog is a puzzle game about moving all of them to the exit without letting any two end up side by side.

Here is how it works. You do not control one hedgehog but all of them at once: every arrow key press slides every hedgehog one step in that direction, as long as nothing is in the way. Desks, chairs, walls and flames get in the way differently for each one, so a hedgehog that is blocked stays put while the others move on, and that is how you pull them apart or push them together. If two of them end up too close, one rolls itself into a ball and the level has to be restarted. Fire is dangerous too, so each level is a little puzzle about timing and order.

There are 17 levels, about half an hour of play in total. Each level has its own idea instead of repeating the last one, and the authors say they kept the rules scarce on purpose. If a level is too hard you can skip it with the buttons at the top left, and level 10 is easier than the others. The art is hand-drawn and a little silly, the posters on the walls teach the controls and the dangers, and slow, warm music plays over the top.

Playing it here

Click Play and wait for the game to load (about 25 MB, downloaded only when you press the button). Click once inside the game so that it gets the keyboard. The first level has a poster with the arrow keys; it is a good place to try the controls.

Controls

Tips

Think in pairs. Look at which two hedgehogs would meet and which obstacle can hold one of them back while the other moves.

Use the obstacles as brakes. A hedgehog that cannot move stays where it is, so the furniture is your best tool for making them stop at the right time.

Skip and come back. The Next button lets you try the next level and return later if one puzzle will not give in.

FAQ

Does it work on a phone? The game needs a keyboard.

Is my progress saved? No, but every level can be reached from the previous and next buttons.

Why does the text look different from the original? The original used the font Impact, which is not free, so this version uses Anton, a similar free font.

Credits and licence

HedgeClog was made by the "semi-confituriers" team for the GMTK Game Jam 2021 and runs on Godot Engine 3.2.2, the version the authors used. The game, its code and its art are under the GNU General Public License version 3. As the licence requires, the complete source of this version, with the build script and the changes described below, is hosted next to the game and linked from this page.

• Music: "Wonderful" by Scott Buckley (scottbuckley.com.au), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
• Font: Anton by The Anton Project Authors, SIL Open Font License 1.1.

This version replaces the font Impact (a commercial font, which the authors used for the interface text) with Anton, and leaves out two poster images that were jokes based on well-known memes, together with the drawing files of the authors. Nothing else was changed.

The licence texts, including the notices of the libraries inside the Godot engine, and the source of this build are linked from this page.