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CacheSleuth

Switchback Cache Builder

Build a drag-to-steer geocache. Thread every gap, one wall ends the run.

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.

Switchback has one control and it is a drag. A puck sits low on the field and walls scroll down toward it, each wall solid except for a single gap, and a finder slides the puck left and right to thread that gap. The field never stops moving and nothing a finder does can slow it down, so the game is deciding early and steering steadily. The gaps drift rather than jump, which is what keeps every course threadable, and they narrow as the rows pile up. Touch a wall and the run is over, there is no miss budget, so a modest goal is already a real ask. Threading near the middle of a gap is a clean thread: it pays a coin, builds a streak, and a run of clean threads drops a gem. Score is rows threaded and nothing else. Coins, gems, streaks and points are for the celebration, so they can never change whether your cache unlocks. Pick how wide the gaps are and how many rows finders have to thread. Reaching your goal reveals the final coordinates or keyword.

The whole run is replayed on the server. The browser records only where a finder's finger asked the puck to go and when, and the server rebuilds the same course and replays that exact steering itself before it accepts the run, so a score that was never really played cannot be claimed. The puck moves no faster than a thumb can drag it, so a log that tries to teleport it across the field simply hits a wall. 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 wall on the very next row 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 gap is a share of the wall the game drew, never a fixed number of pixels, so a preset means the same thing on every screen. It is the only setting that changes the judging, and the goal range below moves with it.

There is no miss budget on this game. One wall ends the run and the count starts again, so a goal of rows is a run of rows 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 Switchback cache
Reach the goal to reveal the cache.