Skip to main content
CacheSleuth

Plank Cache Builder

Build a hold-and-release bridge geocache. Grow the plank, drop it, walk across.

Sign in to save this cache to your account

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.

My Caches

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.

Plank has one control and it is a hold. Your avatar stands on the edge of a pillar, there is a gap, and across it stands the next pillar. Press and hold and a plank grows straight up out of the edge, let go and it falls flat across the gap. If the tip lands on the pillar opposite, the avatar walks over and a new pillar arrives. If the plank is too short it falls in, and if it reaches past the far edge it falls in too, so both sides of the window end the run. There is no miss budget here, one bad plank and it is over, which is why a modest goal is already a real ask. The tip landing on the glowing center tile is a perfect and starts a double streak, and the pillars narrow as the crossings pile up. About one pillar in nine is a thin one, well under the width of the rest, and finders always see it coming: a thin pillar is capped in red with a bracket on each corner while they decide. Score is crossings and nothing else. Perfects, streaks and points are for the celebration, so they can never change whether your cache unlocks. Pick how wide the target pillars are and how many crossings finders have to make. Reaching your goal reveals the final coordinates or keyword.

The whole run is replayed on the server. The browser records only the moments a player pressed and let go, and the server rebuilds the same pillars and replays those exact holds itself before it accepts the run, so a score that was never really played cannot be claimed. A run also cannot be submitted faster than it could have been played. Your reveal is not in the page until the server sends it, and it is banked the moment the goal is passed, so a fall on the very next plank costs nothing.
Anything you create here is public to anyone with the link, and you are responsible for what you publish. Keep a copy of your edit key, it is the only way to change or delete your cache later.

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 target is a share of the pillar the game drew, never a fixed number of pixels, so a preset means the same thing on every pillar. It is the only setting that changes the judging, and the goal range below moves with it. The thin pillars are a share of it too, so a thin pillar on Wide is still wider than a thin pillar on Narrow.

There is no miss budget on this game. One plank that does not land ends the run and the count starts again, so a run of crossings is a run in a row.

On solve, reveal

Shown only after a player meets 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.

Live preview

My Plank cache
Reach the goal to reveal the cache.