Walk on Thin Ice

Every step you take starts melting the ice beneath you. Plan your route before the lake swallows you whole.

You're an explorer stranded on a frozen lake, and the only way home is a ship somewhere ahead of you. There's just one problem: every tile you step on starts to crack, and after enough cracks it melts into open water. Walk somewhere once, and you might be walking there for the last time.

Walk on Thin Ice is a minimalist puzzle game about planning your own escape route before you seal it off yourself. Every level is a small grid, a handful of moves, and one goal — but the ice remembers everywhere you've been, and a path that looks safe on your first step can strand you three moves later.

HOW TO PLAY

• Move one tile at a time — up, down, left, or right — by swiping or tapping an adjacent tile. Tap a farther tile instead and you'll walk the whole path there in one go.
• Every tile cracks a little more each time you step onto it. After a few cracks, it turns to water — stand on it when that happens, and you're done.
• Reach the ship to complete the level. Fewer moves earns more stars.
• Made a mistake? Undo up to 5 moves, or restart the level from scratch.

HAZARDS

• Rock — blocks your path outright, unless you're carrying a pickaxe to mine through it.
• Fire — cracks every tile around it, every single turn, whether you're nearby or not.
• Wind — sweeps you one or more extra tiles in the direction it's blowing, cracking everything it carries you across. Ride it right and it's a shortcut; misjudge it and it's how you strand yourself.

GEAR

• Pickaxe — a one-time use that breaks through a single rock.
• Snowshoes — four charges that stop badly-cracked ice from cracking any further while you cross it.
• Compass — once you've found it, a needle on your HUD always points the way to the ship, even across ice you haven't explored yet.
• SOS flare — some crossings hide the ship until you signal for it; find the flare and it appears.
• CO2 canister — freezes a crumbling tile rock-solid right before it would've dropped you into the water, three uses per canister.
• Wooden scraps — build a permanent bridge across open water, one plank at a time.
• Ski poles — plant them once and the wind can crack the ice under you, but it can't push you around anymore.

Expeditions bundle levels into themed sets with their own painted landscape, difficulty curve, star ratings, and achievements to unlock as you go. Later expeditions branch — choose a path, discover a dead end or two along the way, and every branch you've found stays open for next time. No timers, no penalties for thinking — just you, the ice, and the choices you can't take back.