How to play
HOLE FEAST is a timed arena game in a miniature model-town look, with the blurred edges of a tilt-shift photo. You are a hole in the ground. Steer it around the streets and anything small enough to fit falls in and is gone. Each thing you swallow adds points and makes the hole bigger, so you can swallow bigger things.
The hole follows the mouse cursor: the further the cursor is from the hole, the faster it moves. You can also steer with W A S D or the arrow keys, or on a phone by dragging anywhere on the screen, which brings up a small joystick. M mutes. When a round ends, Enter or Space plays again.
You share the town with five rival holes: Gobbler, Pothole Pete, Crumbs, Drainy and Abyssa. A live scoreboard in the corner ranks all six. When the clock reaches zero, the hole with the most points wins.
Tips and strategy
- Start small. At first you can only fit people, cones, hydrants and bins. Sweep through crowded streets to grow quickly, and you will soon fit trees and cars, then buses, then houses.
- Know what fits. Something fits if it is a little narrower than your hole. Anything too big just wobbles when you touch it, which tells you to come back later.
- Big things grow you fastest. Each thing adds to your hole by its footprint, so one bus does far more than a crowd of people. Move up to the next size of prey as soon as it fits.
- Head for clusters. Eating things in quick succession shows a COMBO counter and the pops rise in pitch. It does not add points by itself, but sweeping through a busy plaza is still the quickest way to score.
- Holes eat holes. A hole that is 20% bigger than another can swallow it. The winner gets 25 points plus a fifth of the victim's score, and half of its size. The victim loses more than half its size and comes back somewhere else three seconds later. Rivals will hunt you if they are clearly bigger and leave you alone if they are smaller, so watch the sizes around you.
- Save the big stuff. Shops, towers and skyscrapers are worth a lot. Grow enough to take them before the round ends rather than circling the same streets.
- Bigger is faster. Your hole speeds up as it grows, so a big hole can cross town to reach a skyscraper in time.
What's in it
Three cities, each unlocked by finishing first in the one before: Pebble Town and Brickton with two-minute rounds, and Glass Bay with two and a half. Each has its own colours, and people walk the pavements and cars drive the roads while you eat.
Points for each thing you swallow:
- People, cones, hydrants and bins: 1
- Benches, lamp posts and bushes: 2
- Trees: 3
- Cars: 5, kiosks: 6, vans: 9
- Fountains: 14, buses: 15
- Houses: 20, shops: 30
- Towers: 50, skyscrapers: 90
Your hole shows a SIZE number that goes up as you grow. The results screen shows your place, points, things eaten and holes gulped, with a new best for each city marked.
Every point you score is also added to a lifetime feast total, which unlocks six hole skins: Classic, Mint (400 points), Sunset (1,200), Grape (2,500), Bubblegum (5,000) and Gold (9,000).
Behind the game
The hole's size is worked out from everything it has eaten: each object adds an amount based on its footprint, and the hole's width is the square root of the total. That means growth slows a little as you get bigger, and you need to keep stepping up to larger prey to keep growing quickly. A swallowed object tips and falls into the hole, and its points only count once it has dropped out of sight.
Each rival rethinks its plan every half second or so. If a much bigger hole is close, it runs away. If a smaller hole is near, it may go after it, the juiciest and nearest first. Otherwise it picks the best-value thing it can fit, weighing points against distance. Rivals also move at a little under full speed, so you can just outrun a rival of your own size.
The miniature look comes from a narrow band of sharp focus across the middle of the screen with soft blur above and below, the way a tilt-shift photo makes a real town look like a model. A marimba loop plays under the round.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Your cities, best scores, skins and lifetime points are saved in your browser.
How do I unlock the next city?
Finish first in the current one.
How do I change my hole's colour?
Pick a skin from the menu. Locked skins show how many lifetime points they need.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Drag anywhere on the screen and the hole follows the joystick.
Is it multiplayer?
No. The five rival holes are played by the computer.
Is it violent?
No. Things, including tiny people, just drop into the hole and disappear. There is no blood.
Does it flash?
No. There is a little screen shake when you swallow something big or another hole.