Gourdwatch

Five pumpkins, one lantern and a long spooky-cute night. Tap to flash lantern light: it shoos mischievous crows, hushes tumbling vines into flowers and gathers fireflies. Keep the patch glowing until dawn.

Year: 2013
Era: One-Tap
Genre: Defence / Halloween special

Play Gourdwatch

Free, no sign-up. Keyboard, touch or gamepad.

How to play

Arrow keys move the lantern, A flashes light there.
P to pause.

On touch

Tap anywhere to flash lantern light.
Tap a nibbled pumpkin to mend it.

Every run starts on the title screen. Pause any time with P or the pause button; calm mode removes flashes and screen shake.

Maker’s note

A five minute Halloween special, never scary. A pumpkin that is nibbled away just rests and sprouts back, the crows are cheeky rather than mean, and the moon brings a burst of fireflies halfway through. Lantern light is the resource: it refills slowly and fireflies top it up. Score is shoos, hushes and fireflies plus a bonus for each pumpkin still glowing at dawn.

The Eracade workshop

Target scores

1200
2600
31,000
41,500
52,100
62,700
73,400
84,100

Each target is a step up. Beat them all and you have outplayed the workshop.

The One-Tap era, 2012–2014

One thumb, big flat colours and endless runs built for the bus stop.

More One-Tap cabinets

High scores

The top ten runs are saved in this browser with your three initials. Nothing is uploaded unless you submit a ranked run, so clearing site data clears the table.