Sleepless Pug — Play Free Online

Sleepless Pug is a small puzzle-platformer from Nitrome in which you are not the one in danger. You play a pug whose owner is sleepwalking through the house, and your job is to get that sleeper safely to bed. The man will not stop or look where he is going, so every hazard in his path has to be dealt with by you before he reaches it.

It is turn-based, which changes the feel completely. Nothing moves until you do, so a level is less about reflexes and more about working out the order of your moves: which object to shove, which ladder to climb, and where to stand so the walker is steered the right way. Sessions are short and quiet, and a stuck level is solved by thinking rather than by faster fingers.

For someone who comes to Doodle Jump for quick, simple jumping, this is the slower, more thoughtful end of the catalogue. It still has the same easy pick-up-and-play nature: it runs in the browser with nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.

How to play

Move the pug with the arrow keys or WASD. The page's published controls are keyboard only, and the game is listed for desktop browsers, so plan on a computer rather than a phone.

Each level places the sleepwalker at one side and his bed at the other. Walking is automatic, and you act around him: move objects out of the way or into position, climb ladders to reach new spots, and block the man from stepping into trouble. The game describes 19 levels, and later ones add more obstacles for him to avoid, so each solution has to account for more moving parts than the last.

Tips

• Look at the whole room before your first move. Find where the man will end up if you do nothing, then work backwards from the danger.
• Because the game waits for you, use that time. Count how many steps the man needs to reach a hazard and how many you need to get there first.
• Treat objects as tools. Anything you can push or place may be the thing that stops him in the right spot.
• If a plan fails, restart the level and note what actually went wrong. A new level usually introduces one new idea, so look for what is different.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you want to keep the thinking and drop the pug, Fireboy and Watergirl is the closest relative on the site, with two characters and puzzles to solve in each room. Ovo 2 and OvO game are more movement-focused, rewarding precise platforming rather than planning. Hoppenhelm is another small platformer to try when you want a different pace.

Sleepless Pug suits a relaxed ten-minute break: a few levels, a bit of head-scratching, and a satisfying moment when the owner reaches his pillow.