Crate Shift
Push crates onto the target markers to solve each puzzle in this classic Sokoban-style game. You can only push — never pull — so plan each move before you act or you'll push a crate into a corner with no escape.
Each puzzle has a limited number of moves. Think ahead and find the efficient solution before you run out.
How to Play
- Move: WASD or Arrow Keys
- Walk into a crate to push it one square
- Place every crate on a target marker to solve the puzzle
- Mobile: on-screen D-pad controls
About This Game
Crate Shift is a Sokoban-style puzzle game with a move limit. Push crates onto their target markers to solve each puzzle — but you can only push, never pull, and every move counts. Getting a crate stuck in a corner means starting over. The move limit adds a second layer of constraint: even if you find a solution, it has to be an efficient one.
Why We Built It
Sokoban puzzles are mathematically elegant — they require genuinely planning several moves ahead, and a single mistake can make a puzzle unsolvable even though the board still looks like progress was made. We added the move counter to discourage brute-force exploration: knowing you have a budget forces you to think before acting. Each level was designed so the optimal solution uses noticeably fewer moves than a careless approach.
How It Works
The game state is a 2D grid of cells, each of which can hold a wall, floor, crate, target, player, or crate-on-target. When the player moves into a crate cell, the crate is pushed one step in the same direction if the destination cell is empty floor. If the destination is a wall or another crate, the move is blocked. The move counter decrements on every successful player step, and the puzzle is failed when it reaches zero without all targets covered.
Tips & Strategy
- Identify which target each crate needs to reach before making any moves. Pre-planning the route prevents mid-puzzle dead ends.
- Never push a crate into a corner unless that corner is its target — a cornered crate with no target is permanently stuck.
- Push crates along walls when possible. Wall-hugging paths leave you more options for the player character's position.
- Work backwards from the target: ask "where does the crate need to be one step before the target?" and solve for that position first.
Ideas for Improvement
- Undo button — step back one move at a time without restarting the entire puzzle.
- Level editor — a simple grid editor that lets players design and share their own puzzles.
- Move efficiency rating — a star rating based on how close to the optimal move count you solved the puzzle in.
- Crate types — heavy crates that require two pushes to move, or fragile crates that break if pushed into a wall.