Pull Ahead
Three ropes, two sides. Win two lanes to win.
What it is
A tug-of-war on three ropes. Each side holds three face-up dice and adds them to its own end of a lane, and each rope's red bow is pulled toward whichever side has the bigger total.
Each side has room for three dice in every lane. When a lane is full, the bigger total takes it, and a tie goes to whoever filled their side first — a star marks who that was. Win two of the three lanes and the game is yours.
A bow only crosses a team's chalk line once that lane is won, so the rope never shows a result the rules haven't given.
Nothing is hidden
The dice come from one set of twenty-four, four of each number from 1 to 6. Nothing is rolled: the set is shuffled once per game, and every die either side can play is face up. The computer knows which dice are left, but never their order.
There is no menu
The computer sets its own difficulty: it gets harder when you win and easier when you lose. Two minutes with nobody playing puts it back to the easiest.
When nobody is playing, the board plays itself at that easiest level. A fresh board waits fifteen seconds for two people to sit down, with a hand showing the two taps. A second person joins by tapping Play at the other end, and whoever walks away on their turn is replaced by the computer after thirty seconds. After a win the result stands for ten seconds, then a fresh board begins.
How to play
- Pick a dieTap it
- Play itTap a lane
- Put it backTap the die again
On a desktop, the mouse works the same way. Or press 1 to 3 to pick a die, then 1 to 3 for a lane. Escape puts the die back, and Space or Enter starts a rematch.
What isn't settled yet
Whether a tied lane going to whoever filled their side first feels fair in play. And there is no sound yet.
Build Log
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Build 7
The lanes became ropes on a lawn, each with a red bow that the stronger side pulls toward itself, and a lane is won when its bow crosses a team's chalk line. The lines sit at 1.09 times the bow's reach — past the furthest an open lane can lean, short of where a won bow rests — so a bow can never show a win the rules haven't given.
Credits and licences
No third-party engine and no embedded typefaces — it uses whichever fonts your device already has. Cover art was rendered from the game’s own drawing code.
Pull Ahead is original work by Launchway Games.