Maplesaphollow is a snowy sugar bush with six games bubbling away inside its timber shack. Merge sap up a thirteen-step ladder to the sugarmaker’s seal, stack falling cordwood, slide frosty pictures back together, match the kitchen party guests, pop a pan full of bubbles, or race a snowshoe ridge. Nothing to install, and your best runs stay put.
Sugaring Ladder is the game we reach for when the kettle and the evaporator are both going. Push the whole board, let twin tiles bump together, and turn a single iron spile into something worth stamping with the sugarmaker’s seal.
The rules fit on a mitten: slide everything one way, matching neighbours merge into the next step, and a fresh tile appears after every move — almost always a spile, now and then a twine tag. The board tightens as you go. Each merge pays points, and the value of a merge doubles with every step you climb, so a late draw-off pan is worth far more than an early pail. A strip under the board shows all thirteen steps, dark until you earn them. One Undo per game rescues a clumsy push, and a roomier 5x5 board waits if you want space.
Two of these want quick paws, two want a patient head, and two sit somewhere in the steam between. Each card tells you what the game asks of you and how long a round tends to take, so you can match the game to how much daylight is left.
Start here01Push every tile at once and let matching pairs bump into the next step of the sugaring season, from a lone iron spile up through pails, cordwood and boiling pans to the sugarmaker’s seal. A strip under the board lights each new step, and one Undo per game forgives a single clumsy push.
Quickest thrill02The trail up the birch ridge never stops moving. Hop over cordwood and stray sap pails, duck under low-flying grey jays and ring up every trail bell strung along the path. One button does it all: tap for a short hop, hold for a high one, tap again mid-air for a second hop.
Deepest stacker03Seven four-block shapes tumble into a tall woodshed well, each one stamped with something from the sugar bush. Turn them, shift them and drop them so rows fill edge to edge and vanish. A ghost outline shows where each piece will land, a hold tray keeps one in reserve, and the pace rises every ten lines.
Family favourite04The sugaring-off party has spilled into the shack, and every guest is hiding behind a face-down card. Flip two at a time and find Wren the otter, Barnaby the beaver, Sprocket the robot and the rest. Six levels grow from a friendly 3x4 to a crowded 6x6, with stars for tidy play.
Best for aimers05Barnaby the beaver works the launcher at the foot of a ceiling packed with picture bubbles: chickadees, grey jays, snowshoe hares, sap flasks, embers and lamps. Aim, bounce shots off the walls and join three or more of a kind to pop them. Knock loose a whole cluster and it tumbles away at once.
Slow evening pick06Eight painted scenes, from a steaming sugar bush to lavender hills and a prairie grain elevator, cut into tiles with one gap. Slide them back into place on a 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5 grid. A move counter and timer keep score, numbers can be switched on, and a Peek button shows the whole picture.
Tell Burdock how the day feels, how long you have and what makes you grin in a game. He scratches his quills, thinks hard, and hands you one game to start with.
Making syrup takes forty-odd buckets of sap and a lot of patience for each jug, and building a decent little game feels much the same. We boil every idea down slowly, skim off what does not belong, and keep three rules pinned above the firebox door.
Every point in the hollow comes from a choice you made: a merge you set up, a hop you timed, a tile you slid, a bank shot you judged. Where chance appears, it only arranges the board, like which tile drops next or how a picture is shuffled. It never hands out a lucky reward. Points, stars and personal bests are all there is to chase.
Your best scores, cleared levels and stars are tucked into your own browser on the device you play on. There is no account and no sign-in screen.
Difficulty climbs the way a snowshoe trail does: steadily, with nothing hidden behind a bend. The ridge run speeds up gradually, sliding puzzles are always shuffled into positions that can be solved, and the falling cordwood only quickens every ten lines.
Maplesaphollow is a small studio project built by people who enjoy making tidy, warm little games. The pages stay uncluttered, every game loads straight onto the stage, and nothing pops up between rounds to ask for your attention.
Every sugaring-off party has the same cast: the planner, the hustler, the stacker, the storyteller. Find yourself below.
You know syrup cannot be rushed and you enjoy watching something thicken slowly. Sugaring Ladder rewards exactly that temperament: a corner kept tidy, pushes planned two moves ahead, and the quiet pleasure of a dark step on the ladder strip finally lighting up.
Sugaring Ladder →hustlerYou are first out the door when someone says the sap is running. Snowshoe Scramble is one button and pure timing: short hops, long hops, a second hop in mid-air, trail bells to collect, and a ridge that keeps getting faster under your feet.
Snowshoe Scramble →stackerNothing pleases you more than a neat cord of split wood with no gaps. Cordwood Drop gives you seven falling shapes, a ghost outline showing where each will land, a hold tray for later, and lines that vanish when you fill them edge to edge.
Cordwood Drop →hostYou remember every guest’s name and where they left their mitts. Kitchen Party Pairs hides twelve friendly animals and six sugar bush keepsakes under face-down cards, across six levels that grow from a gentle 3x4 to a crowded 6x6.
Kitchen Party Pairs →sharpshooterYou love an angle that looks impossible until it works. Boiling Pan Pop lets you aim at a ceiling of bubbles, bounce shots off the walls, pop groups of three or more and watch whole loose clusters tumble down at once.
Boiling Pan Pop →dreamerYou would happily watch snow fall past the shack window for an hour. Frostpane Slider hands you eight painted Canadian landscapes, scrambled into tiles, and lets you slide them home at 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5 at whatever pace suits the evening.
Frostpane Slider →GuideA sugaring-off party has a natural shape: a rush of activity, a long warm middle and a slow, sticky finish. An evening of games can follow the same arc.
GuideEvery game here rewards skill over luck, which means every game can be practised. These are the habits we see in our strongest players and how to build them on a short break.
A small studio did, and every one of the six games is our own code, drawn and tuned in house. The porcupine, the kitchen party guests, the pails and lamps and snowshoes all belong to the hollow.
No. Each game loads right into the page in a modern browser, whether you are on a desktop, a tablet or a phone. Open the game page, press Play on the start screen and you are off.
They stay in your browser on the device you used. That means no account to create and nothing to remember, but it also means each device keeps its own record. Clear your browsing data or switch tablets, and the hollow starts you with an empty pail.
Yes. A sound switch sits above every game. With sound on, you hear short, soft synthesized tones for merges, matches, pops and hops. With it off, every game behaves exactly the same in total silence.
They were made with the whole family in mind. The characters are friendly animals and one cheerful robot, nothing is scary, and every game explains itself on the start screen. Younger players tend to love Kitchen Party Pairs on its smallest grid, or Frostpane Slider at 3x3 with the tile numbers switched on.
All six adapt to a narrow screen. Sugaring Ladder feels natural with swipes, Snowshoe Scramble needs one thumb, and Cordwood Drop puts big left, right, rotate, down and drop buttons under the well. Frostpane Slider at 5x5 is the one we would save for a tablet or laptop, simply because small tiles are fiddly under a mitten.
We are always sketching on the back of sap tags. For now we would rather polish these six until they shine like fresh amber syrup than rush a seventh.
Six games, nothing to download and your best runs kept safe on your own device. Pick one, press Play and let the steam roll up into the rafters.