Hairpin Cache Builder
Build a one-tap turn-runner geocache. Time the corner, hold the tiles, unlock the reveal.
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Free, just a username and passphrase, no email. Caches you build show up in My Caches so you can reopen and edit them without hunting for the edit link, and watch plays and wins. The same account syncs My Puzzle Texts across devices and manages your short links.
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Caches you build here are saved to your account, so you can reopen and edit them in My Caches without the edit link.
Play your own cache before you publish it
Settings that look fair in this form can be brutal, or trivial, in the field. Finish the game yourself, start to end, on the kind of device your finders will use, and check that the difficulty, timers, hints, wording, and the final reveal all behave the way you intended. Every cache you create here comes with a play link and an edit link, so you can test it, tune it, and test it again before anyone else sees it.
Hairpin is a one-tap arcade game. A ball rolls forward on its own along a narrow tiled path, seen from a fixed isometric angle. The path only ever runs in two directions, and there is one control: tap anywhere and the ball switches onto the other heading at once. There is no hold and no easing, just a clean instant turn. There are no kerbs either: the path has an edge and nothing else, so the moment the ball's centre leaves the tiles the run is over and a brand new path is waiting for the next try. Reaching your distance goal, or collecting your jewel goal, reveals the final coordinates or keyword.
The path is built out of phrases rather than one uniform zigzag: long straights to breathe on, staccato bursts of two or three tiles where the taps come quick, and ordinary mixed stretches in between. Every tile the ball has passed drops away into the void a beat later, tilting and fading as it falls, so there really is no going back and no lingering on a tile you have already cleared. The corner is the whole game: turn too early and you drop off the inside of it, too late and you sail off the end.
Jewels sit on tile centres all the way along every track, so there is always something to pick up simply by staying on the driving line. You can leave them as scenery for a distance goal, or make the jewel count itself the goal and let the distance run as long as it takes to collect them. Crossing the finish line banks the reveal the instant your goal is met, and the run keeps going after that as bonus track, so a slip on the victory lap costs nothing.
Save this link now. Without the key you cannot edit or delete this cache (only the site admin can reset it).
Your cache
Shown to players as a link to your cache page.
Only the site admin can see this, in case they need to reach you about your cache. Never shown to players.
Game settings
The ramp sets how fast the ball rolls and how quickly the phrases shorten as the run goes on, so even the gentle setting tightens up the further a player gets.
A narrower path and a harder ramp both lower the furthest you are allowed to ask for, because we measure what a real thumb can actually clear before letting you publish it. The goal slider moves its own ceiling when you change either one. Caches you have already published are untouched by that.
On solve, reveal
Shown only after a player reaches your goal. Reveal either the final coordinates or a keyword, not both.
Where can I host an image for free?
Paste a direct https:// link to an image. Free image hosts that give a direct link include
ImgBB,
postimages.org, and
Cloudinary.
A geocaching.com image link works too. The link must start with https://.
Keep your cache in play to keep it live. Share the play link so people visit it; unused caches are cleaned up over time.