Pocket Hole.

How to play Pocket Hole

1. Choose a mode and a district. Tour is untimed, Contracts have three stars each, Rush lasts 90 seconds, Circuit and Rumble add three computer holes, and Daily is one shared town per day.
2. Move with the arrow keys or W A S D, or press and drag anywhere on the town. A stick appears under your finger or pointer; drag farther for full speed and release to stop.
3. Glide under small objects. Most of an object’s footprint must be inside your rim before it tips in. Objects that are too big lean and wobble at the edge, and the growth panel tells you which size they need.
4. Watch the growth bar. Each new size lets larger families fit, from benches and trees up to houses and the landmark. Swallow quickly in a row to build a chain.
5. Grab power-ups when they help: magnets pull things in, stretch widens your hole, clocks add time in timed solo modes. Some contract bonuses ask you to avoid them.
6. In Rumble, stay away from holes that are clearly bigger than you and chase the smaller ones. Pause any time with P or Escape, and read the result screen to see which stars and records you earned.

Make your move

About Pocket Hole

Pocket Hole is a three-dimensional arcade game about emptying a tiny town from the ground up. You steer a colored opening across the street. Anything small enough to fit tips over the rim, tumbles into the dark and adds points; bigger things lean and wobble at the edge until you have grown enough to take them. Points fill a growth bar, and each new size lets a larger family of objects fit: street cones, bins, crates and flower pots first, then benches and trees, cars, stalls, whole houses and finally the district landmark. The satisfaction comes from returning to something that was far too big a minute ago and watching it slide in.

There are six original districts, and they are laid out differently rather than recolored. Apricot Market is a grid of brick plazas around a clock tower and a busy promenade. Canal Quarter runs a terrace of tall canal houses along a quay, with a tree-lined avenue and four walled gardens. Moonstone Campus circles a copper observatory with rings of domed lecture halls. Saltwind Pier has a plank boardwalk, a warehouse row served by forklifts and a striped lighthouse. Juniper Fair has game booths, big-top tents, a bumper car arena and a painted carousel that actually turns. Bramble Farm has an orchard, a pumpkin patch, sunflower rows, tractors on a dirt track and a windmill with turning sails. The first three are open from the start; the pier, the fair and the farm open with contract stars.

Contracts are the main campaign: 54 jobs, nine in each district, and each one has three stars. The first star is the objective, such as reaching a score, catching the ducks, swallowing a set number of cars or houses, reaching Giant size, clearing most of the town, stringing a long chain or finishing ahead of one computer rival. The second star is a par, usually a time and in a duel a winning margin. The third is a bonus task, like a long chain, swallowing some extra objects on the way, or finishing without touching a power-up. Stars from different attempts add up, so you can go back for the one you missed. Limits and pars were set by playing every contract with the game’s own rules, and each one has been checked to be possible with all three stars.

Tour is the relaxed way in: no clock and no rivals, just clear every object in a district and try to beat your best time later. When only a handful of objects remain, orange markers float above them so you are never hunting for one lost crate. Rush gives you ninety seconds to swallow as much of a district as you can, with stars at 35, 60 and 85 percent of the town. The Daily town picks one district and one twist for the day, such as frequent magnets, a stretch day, faster traffic or extra clocks. Everyone gets the same challenge on the same date, reaching the target earns a stamp, and consecutive stamps build a streak.

Circuit and Rumble put three computer holes in the same town, labeled CPU and colored differently from your chosen rim. In Circuit holes never swallow each other; the town is shared, every object has exactly one owner, and the biggest score when the town is empty or two minutes pass wins. Rumble adds a sharper twist: a hole at least 1.2 times wider can swallow a smaller one, taking 30 percent of its points. A swallowed hole returns after two and a half seconds with a short shield. Computers come in Easy, Normal and Hard. They obey the same speed limit, growth sizes and fit rules as you; they differ only in how well they choose targets and steer. There are no online players.

Power-ups appear on a steady rotation and are never dropped directly underneath a hole. A magnet pulls fitting objects toward you for eight seconds, a stretch widens your opening by 30 percent for seven seconds so you can take the next size early, and in timed solo modes a clock adds ten seconds. Quick swallows in a row build a chain, which feeds several contract bonuses and pitches the swallow sound higher as it climbs. Growth is punctuated on purpose: the camera pulls back, the rim bounces, and a banner names the new size and the families that now fit.

Everything you see was made for this game. The miniatures are original procedural models built in code, the district maps are painted at load time, and the sounds and the quiet music-box loop are synthesized in the browser, so there are no downloaded assets. Progress saves on this device: best Tour times, contract stars, Rush and Daily scores, Circuit and Rumble records, your chosen rim, a lifetime swallow log and the six landmarks you have eaten. Progress from the first version of Pocket Hole carries over. Graphics adjust automatically on slower devices, and reduced-motion settings calm the camera and effects.

A little help for your next high score

• Follow lines of small objects before chasing one valuable thing. A chain of little swallows usually opens the next size sooner.
• Center yourself under large objects instead of brushing their corners; they drop in once most of their footprint is inside the rim.
• Moving things are worth catching early while they fit: cut across a car or tractor’s loop instead of chasing it from behind.
• Save a stretch power-up for the moment something is just one size too big, such as the first car or the first house.
• In Rumble, a fresh respawn shield makes a rival safe for a moment. Eat nearby objects to grow first, then turn on it.
• For a par star, plan the route before the growth spurt; the last few big objects are quick once you are large enough.

Good questions