Tinmoth

A vegetable plot at night, tin lanterns with mica windows, and moths coming in from the dark.

A moth knows one thing: it steps towards the brightest cell next to it. That is the whole of the game. Set a lantern and the light spreads in rings with numbers on them; shut one of its sides and the light stops there; hang a net on it and whatever arrives is caught. Keep every moth off the seedbeds until the night runs out, and do it with the oil you are given.

- 60 nights in five chapters, a single new rule per chapter: lanterns and nets, shutters that cut the light one way, gusts that push every moth a cell, hawkmoths a net only holds from the second turn, and mist that halves the glow
- Nothing is random. Each moth's next step is drawn on the board before you move, so you can see exactly what a lantern will do
- Oil budgets are minimums found by search, and a bot that just lights a lantern beside the nearest bed loses at least two nights per chapter
- Short Oil, the same 60 nights with lanterns that burn three turns instead of six, unlocked at 36
- A plot a day from the date, with a chain of nights to keep
- 24 catches to collect, each the picture of a light field you laid out
- A third star for a night where every moth ends in a net

Take any turn as slowly as you like, and undo it before the moths move.

The plot stays dark to the outside world: nothing is sent, nothing is sold, nothing advertised, no account made and no permission asked. Your nights live on the device.