Duckling Crossing

Three ducklings, one mother, and a country road busy with cars, buses and tractors. You only ever move the mother. Each time she hops, the first duckling takes the square she just left and the others follow down the line, so any gap in the traffic has to fit the whole brood. Past the road runs a quick creek where the only footing is logs, lily pads and turtles, and a turtle blowing bubbles is about to go under. Get her into an empty nest on the far bank and the little ones flutter in behind her. Fill every nest and the level is done. Now and then a lone straggler waits on a verge, and if you dawdle, an egret strolls over and carries it, very politely, off to the meadow.

The daily run is three levels on one board shared by everybody, with a streak for coming back, and Endless crossing carries on until your lives are spent. The mother is a brown call duck hen with a blue wing patch, the ducklings yellow or brown and yellow like the ones that hatch here, and every peep was recorded from our own birds. If you like a game that rewards looking before you leap, with nothing grim in it (a bonked duckling just waddles off a little dizzy), give it a go. Ducklark is a tiny studio out on Long Island; the game is free in your browser, and every rule is spelled out in how to play Duckling Crossing.