Quackoria Play
Ice Pond
A frozen-pond puzzle: tilt the pond, every duck slides at once, and each one has to stop on a nest. Sixty stages, each with a par to match.
Ice Pond is an ice sliding puzzle on a frozen duck pond. Tilt the pond one way and every free duck on it slides at once, as far as the ice lets it, until the bank, a rock, a snowdrift or another duck stops it. A duck that comes to rest on a nest it may use settles there for good; a duck that slides over a nest keeps going. Settle every duck and the stage is clear.
There are sixty stages in six groups of ten. First Ice teaches the slide, Crowded Pond makes the ducks each other’s stops, Snowdrifts stop a duck dead, Logs turn it through a right angle, Own Nests give each duck a nest of its own, and Big Freeze puts all of it together. Every stage shows its par: the fewest tilts that can clear it, found by a program that checked every position the stage can reach. Each stage has exactly one shortest solution, and clearing it in par earns three stars.
The four ducks on the ice are a white Pekin, a dark Cayuga, a Khaki Campbell and a mallard drake, each wearing a symbol so that colour is never the only clue. The sliding, the pars and the stars are game design; the beginner’s guide to duck breeds has the real birds.
How to Play
- Press Play. The game starts at the first stage you have not cleared yet; once you have cleared a stage, it also opens the stage list, so you can pick another.
- Tilt the pond with the arrow keys or by swiping on the board. Every duck that has not settled on a nest slides that way at once.
- A sliding duck stops at the bank, at a rock or against another duck. It settles only if it comes to rest on a nest; sliding over one does not count.
- Later stages add snowdrifts, which stop a duck dead, logs, which turn it through a right angle, and nests marked with a symbol, which take only the duck wearing that symbol.
- Settle every duck to clear the stage. Do it in the par number of tilts for three stars.
- Undo takes a tilt back, Hint shows the next tilt of the shortest way from where you are, and the status line tells you when a position can no longer be cleared.
Controls
Desktop
- Arrow keys or W A S DTilt the pond
- U, Z or BackspaceUndo the last tilt
- HHint: the next tilt of the shortest way from where you are
- RRestart the stage
- N or EnterNext stage, after a clear
- LOpen the stage list (Escape closes it)
- SpaceStart, or carry on after a pause
- MSound on or off
Mobile
- Swipe on the boardTilt the pond that way
- Undo and Hint buttonsTake a tilt back, or show the next tilt
- Restart buttonStart the stage again
- Stages buttonPick any stage you have opened
- Tap the board when pausedCarry on
Gameplay tips
- Before you tilt, work out where every duck will stop. All of them move, not just the one you are watching.
- A duck that has settled on a nest never moves again, so it becomes a new wall. Settling one duck first often gives the next one something to stop against.
- Ducks stop against each other: a free duck is as good a stop as a rock, as long as you know where it will be.
- A snowdrift stops a duck partway while the others slide on. It does not hold it: the next tilt, whichever way, carries it out again unless something blocks it.
- A log turns a duck through a right angle, so it can reach a square that no straight slide would.
- When the status line says there is no way out, undo rather than restart: Undo takes back the tilt that trapped you, and it no longer counts.
- A hint caps that try at two stars. Restart the stage to go for three again.
About the game
Ice Pond is a sliding puzzle with ducks on a frozen pond: every tilt moves every free duck, so each move has to work for all of them at once. Sixty stages rise from one duck and one tilt to four ducks, snowdrifts, logs and nests of their own on a nine-by-nine pond. Every stage was checked by a program and proven solvable, and its par is the true minimum number of tilts. Your progress is kept in this browser only and is never sent anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ice Pond free?
Yes. It runs in the browser, with no download and no account.
How many stages are there?
Sixty, in six groups of ten. Each stage opens when you clear the one before it, and stage 1 is always open.
How are stars given?
Three stars for a clear in par tilts or fewer, two for par plus one or two, and one for any other clear. Using a hint caps that try at two stars. Each stage keeps its best result, and your score is the total, out of 180.
Is every stage solvable?
Yes. A program checked every position each stage can reach before it was included, and that is also how its par was found: par is the fewest tilts that can clear it.
What does "No way out from here" mean?
That no sequence of tilts can clear the stage from the position you are in. Undo the last tilt, or restart the stage.
Does a tilt that moves nothing count?
No. The board gives a small shake (with reduced motion, just a low blip if the sound is on) and the move count stays where it was.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, in this browser on this device only. Clearing the site's data, or playing in another browser, starts you again from stage 1.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Swipe on the board to tilt, and use the buttons for undo, hint, restart and the stage list.
