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Knotsnake
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About the game
Knotsnake is a puzzle about tying a snake in knots. Each level is a small maze seen from above, with your snake's head waiting somewhere in the corridors and three scarabs scattered around. The snake grows with every step and can never turn back on itself, and the puzzle is only finished when the head comes back round and bites the tip of its own tail, closing the loop.
How well you do is a matter of points. A scarab is worth 50 and every time the snake passes over its own body it earns 10, so the best routes cross themselves again and again before closing up. The three numbers at the top left are the bronze, silver and gold targets for that maze, worked out from its layout, and your current score sits just above them. Beyond gold there are two more ranks, Platinum and Ouroboros, that the game only names when you reach them.
Every day brings a new daily puzzle, the same maze for everyone who plays that day, and you can also generate random mazes for as long as you like.
Playing it here
Knotsnake was made for TIC-80, a fantasy console: an imaginary 1980s-style computer with a 240 by 136 screen and 16 colours, for which independent developers write new games. petet created it for the 2024 game jam of Battle of the Bits, and it runs here in the official TIC-80 web player. Click Play; the first screen explains the rules, and X takes you to the day's puzzle.
Your best score on the daily puzzle is saved in this browser. Once you have a score for today, the game opens on a random maze instead, and the menu can always take you back to the daily one. Esc opens the TIC-80 menu. A gamepad works directly, and on touch screens an on-screen D-pad and buttons appear.
Controls
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | move the snake one square (hold to repeat) |
| Z (A button) | undo the last move (hold to undo several) |
| R | restart the puzzle from the beginning |
| A (X button) | open or close the puzzle menu |
| Up / Down arrows (menu) | choose Retry, Daily or Random |
| X (B button) | confirm in the menu; leave the instructions screen |
| Esc | TIC-80 menu |
A few things worth knowing
Cross on the straight bits. The snake can only pass over a straight stretch of its own body, at a right angle, and only once. Corners block the way, so leave long straight runs in places where you plan to come back.
Undo is free. Z takes back moves one at a time with no penalty, so try routes freely. R clears the whole snake if you want to start over.
Keep the tail reachable. The loop only closes when the head enters the tail square from the right side. A great score is worth nothing if the head ends up walled in, so plan the way back before you go for the last crossings.
Credits and licence
Knotsnake was created by petet, who made the code, the graphics and the sounds. It is free software under the MIT licence, chosen by the author in the header of the cartridge published on tic80.com. It runs here in the TIC-80 web player (MIT licence). The licence text is linked from this page.