Top Rung
Up the ladders, down the snakes, one square at a time.
What it is
Snakes and ladders on a board of 100 squares, numbered back and forth from 1 at the bottom left, with one die and up to four tokens racing to the top. Reaching or passing 100 wins, and a 6 rolls again.
After each roll you move your own token: tap it once for each square and every square lights up with its number as you land, or tap the lit square where the roll ends and the token hops there by itself. Land at the foot of a ladder and you climb it; land on a snake’s head and you slide down.
At the foot of every ladder there’s a little picture of a kindness, like watering a flower or sharing a cookie, and at every snake’s head a small mishap, like muddy boots or a banana skin. When a token lands there, the picture grows beside it while the token climbs or slides. The pictures never touch the rules.
One person races a computer token; two to four people share the screen, and anyone can type a name on their seat. With nobody playing, four tokens race on their own. The die is fair, it doesn’t know who’s winning, and there’s nothing to be good at: every roll is the next number from one die, each face exactly one in six, and the computer only rolls.
How to play
- Sit downTap a seat panel, or the die
- RollTap the die
- MoveTap your token for each square, or the lit square
- Name your seatTap Name on your panel
Tapping the die sits you down and rolls at once. For the next 15 seconds the other panels read Tap to join, so others can sit down too. Ladders and snakes move the token by themselves. After a win, tap anywhere to play again; in a rematch, whoever finished furthest behind goes first. The speaker at the bottom right turns the sound on. Put the tablet down mid-game and your seat waits for you.
On a desktop, click just as by touch. Or use the keys: Space rolls, Enter moves one square, 1 to 4 touch the seat panels, and M turns the sound on or off.
What isn’t settled yet
Reaching or passing 100 wins. There’s no exact-roll or bounce-back finish to choose here.
One board: the ladders and snakes are always in the same places. Four players at most, and no settings screen; sound is the only switch.
Names last only while the page is open.
It isn’t playable with a screen reader. The board is drawn, not written out.
Build Log
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Build 4
The board was designed here rather than copied. Every candidate layout of seven ladders and seven snakes was measured with exact arithmetic for how long its games run, and the one chosen averages 28.4 rolls for a player alone and 40.1 rolls in a two-player game. The die was checked the same way: a separately written copy of it replayed 960 games, and all 53,731 rolls matched. It never looks at the board, so nobody is ever helped to catch up.
Credits and licences
No third-party engine — it draws to a plain canvas. The typefaces it does use are embedded under the SIL Open Font Licence, with the copyright notice retained in the shipped file. Board, pictures and cover drawn by the game’s own code.
Top Rung is original work by Launchway Games.