Snake Arena

How it works

Snake Arena puts you in a round arena with twelve other snakes and food scattered across the floor. The other twelve are controlled by the computer, each with its own name and colour; you are the only green snake, so you can always find yourself. The goal is to become the longest snake in the arena.

You start at length 20, and nothing can kill you for the first two and a half seconds: your snake blinks while that grace lasts. After that the rules are short.

• Your head must never touch another snake's body, or the red edge of the arena. Either ends the run.
• Your own body is safe. You can cross over it and curl around yourself as much as you like.
• When two heads meet, both snakes die.
• Every snake that dies turns most of its length into food, laid along the body it had, in its own colour. That food is worth far more than the loose food on the floor, and it fades after about twenty seconds.

Your score is your length at the moment the run ends. The five longest snakes are listed at the top right, and the small map at the bottom left shows where you are in the arena.

Controls

• Mouse: the snake heads towards the pointer, without clicking. Hold the button to boost.
• Touch: keep a finger where you want to go. Use the BOOST button, or put a second finger anywhere on the screen, to speed up.
• Keyboard: left and right arrows, or A and D, turn. Up arrow, W or Space boosts. P or Esc pauses, and N starts again.

The game pauses by itself if you switch to another tab, and waits for you to resume.

Growing and boosting

Loose food adds one or two to your length. The bites left by a dead snake add up to six each, which is why the moment another snake dies near you is the moment to move.

Boosting doubles your speed and costs length, about seven a second, which you leave behind you as food. You cannot boost once you are down to length 15. It is the only way to reach a fresh pile of food before the others, and the only way to cut across a snake's path in time.

As you grow, your snake gets thicker, turns in wider curves and the view zooms out, so a long snake sees more of the arena but cannot pivot on the spot any more.

Strategy that actually helps

Let the others make mistakes. Most snakes die by running into someone else. Staying near a crowd, but not in the middle of it, puts you close to the food when it happens.

Cut in front, never behind. A snake that runs into your body dies, not you. Boost across a smaller snake's path so its head meets your side, then circle back for what it leaves.

Circle to trap. A long snake can wrap around a short one. Once it has nowhere left to turn, it will run into you.

Boost in short bursts. Every second of boosting costs length. Boost to reach food or to cut someone off, and stop as soon as you are there.

Watch the red edge. The arena is large, but at speed and near the edge a wide turn can take you into it.

The computer snakes

The rivals look ahead a few times a second: they head for the best food they can see, turn away from the edge and from other bodies, and boost for the big bites a death leaves behind. They only hunt you once you have grown past length 50 and they are much bigger than you, and even then only now and then. When one dies, a new one appears a few seconds later, away from you.

Common questions

Is it free? Yes. It runs in your browser, with no signup and nothing to download.

Am I playing against other people? No. The other twelve snakes are controlled by the computer, and the game says so on its first screen.

Does it work on a phone? Yes. Steer with a finger and boost with the button or a second finger. It works in portrait and landscape.

What language is it in? The game's text is in English and Italian, and it follows the language you chose on the site.