Canal Knot

About the game

The farming game is still slow, so here is something smaller. I walk past the locks in Utrecht every day and the boats are always packed in like this. Canal Knot is a sliding-boat puzzle set in a busy canal basin seen from above. The little red tug wants to leave through the lock on the right, but punts and cargo barges are moored all around it. Every boat slides only along its length, never sideways, so each move has to make room for the next. The canal has its own tricks. Stone mooring posts never move. Lock gates swing open and shut on a clock: every move turns it, a countdown on each gate shows when it will swing, and a boat left in a gateway holds it open. Some puzzles time the exit lock itself, so you have to arrive while it is open, or wait a move. And the white ferry can turn a quarter round about its middle, once per level, if you choose the moment well. There are 200 puzzles along eight stretches of canal, from the quiet water of Mill Reach to the expert knots of Midnight Locks. Each one was generated offline and checked by a solver that knows the fewest moves possible. Match it for three stars. Undo is free, and three hints a level show the next move on a shortest route.