Neon Snake

About Neon Snake

Neon Snake is our take on one of the oldest and best-loved arcade ideas. You control a snake on a 20 × 20 grid. Every glowing dot you eat makes the snake one segment longer and adds ten points to your score. The catch is that the snake never stops moving, and it gets a little faster with every dot.

The game ends when the snake runs into a wall or into its own body. Early on that feels easy to avoid, but once your snake fills a good part of the board, every turn needs planning. Good players think a few moves ahead and leave themselves an escape route.

How to play

1. Press Play. The snake starts moving to the right straight away.
2. Change direction with the arrow keys or W, A, S, D. On a phone or tablet, swipe on the board or use the on-screen arrows.
3. Steer into the pink dot to eat it. Your snake grows and your score goes up by 10.
4. Avoid the four walls and your own tail. You cannot reverse straight back into yourself.
5. Press P or Esc to pause. The game also pauses automatically if you switch tabs.

Tips and strategy

• Hug the edges early. Travelling around the outside of the board keeps the middle open for later.
• Use a zig-zag sweep when the snake gets long: move across the board in rows so your body folds neatly behind you.
• Don’t chase every dot directly. A slightly longer path that keeps you away from your tail is usually safer.
• You can queue up to three turns in advance, which is handy for quick U-turns along a wall.
• The speed increase is small for each dot but adds up. If you struggle above 150 points, slow down your decisions, not your hands — plan your route while travelling along straight lines.

Frequently asked questions