Line Rider — Play Free Online

Line Rider is less a race than a physics sandbox. You draw the ground yourself, drop a small rider on a sled at the start, and watch gravity decide how the ride goes. The idea comes from the long-running Line Rider toy, where the fun is in building a track that is steeper, longer or more ridiculous than the last one.

A session is a loop of drawing, releasing, watching and adjusting. A slope that looks fine can launch the rider into a spin, and a jump that falls a little short sends them tumbling. There is no clock pushing you along, so it suits a few relaxed minutes or an hour of tinkering.

On a site built around Doodle Jump, it is the quiet counterpart to the twitchy games around it. Doodle Jump asks for reflexes every second. Here you do the thinking up front, then sit back and see whether the ride works.

How to play

This build lists the arrow keys or WASD for movement, the mouse to aim and select, and tap and swipe on a phone. In practice, the mouse or your finger does most of the work: you pick a drawing option from the on-screen menu, then drag across the canvas to lay down a line. Start the ride from the on-screen controls and the rider sets off down whatever you have built.

A round goes like this:

1. Draw a starting ramp so the rider has somewhere to begin.
2. Extend the track with slopes, dips and gaps.
3. Start the ride and watch where it goes wrong.
4. Stop, adjust that section, and try again.

Tips

• Build speed early. A long, fairly steep first slope carries the rider through almost everything that follows.
• Change one thing at a time. If you redraw half the track after each failed run, you will not learn which change helped.
• Smooth out landings. A gentle curve at the bottom of a drop is much kinder than a sharp corner, and a sharp corner is the usual cause of a sudden crash.
• Draw slowly with the mouse. Fast strokes give jagged lines, and jagged lines make the sled bounce unpredictably.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you like the physics but want something with a goal and a score, Helix Jump has you guiding a ball down a rotating tower. Bouncy Basketball also leans on ball physics, but as a quick head-to-head sport. For a puzzle that needs patience rather than reflexes, Fireboy and Watergirl asks you to work out a route one room at a time.

Line Rider suits anyone who likes making things more than racing against a clock. It runs in the browser with nothing to install, and works with a mouse or touch.