Crane is a one-tap tower building game. A crane swings a new floor back and forth on its hook; tap to let go and it drops onto your tower. Land it in the middle and the tower stays steady. Land it off to one side and the whole building starts to sway, so the next drop has to read both the swing and the sway. Three hearts per run, a new level every day, and your friends' ghosts racing you to the clouds.
How to play Crane
- Tap anywhere to release the swinging floor.
- It falls straight down (keeping a little of the swing's speed) and lands on top of your tower.
- Land it near the centre of the floor below. More than half over the edge and it topples off, costing a heart.
- Lose all three hearts and the run is over. Each floor you place is a point.
Tips to get a high score
- The swing is slowest at its ends and fastest in the middle. Beginners do best tapping a beat before the block passes over the tower.
- Off-centre drops make the tower sway. Wait for the tower top to swing back under the hook before you tap.
- Perfect drops calm the sway, and every 8 perfects in a row win back a lost heart.
- Higher up, wind gusts push the falling block and the tower. Watch for the WIND warning and aim a little upwind.
- Don't wait forever: a block left hanging too long slips off the hook.
How the swing and the weather build up
Crane gets harder by floors placed, not by time. Over the first 48 floors a full swing goes from about two and a half seconds to just over one, and its width more than doubles, from about 17 degrees each side to about 40. After floor 48 the swing keeps quickening a little with every floor until it's around a fifth faster again.
The window for a PERFECT narrows too, from about 5 pixels either side of dead centre to 4, on a block 70 pixels wide. Wind joins at floor 18. A WIND warning comes about a second before each gust, the gust lasts about two seconds, and gusts come every five to eleven seconds. They grow stronger until about floor 58 and push both the falling block and the tower.
Lead the drop more as the swing speeds up
A released block keeps 30% of the swing's sideways speed and takes about a quarter of a second to fall onto the tower. On the first floors that only carries it a few pixels. By floor 24 a release at the bottom of the swing carries it about 18 pixels past where you let go, and by floor 48 about 40, which is more than half a block and enough to topple it.
So the further up you are, the earlier you tap. Drop the block well before it reaches the tower top, while it's still swinging in. The alternative is to drop at the very end of a swing, where it's barely moving, but that only works when the swing ends near the tower.
The crane trolley always slides over the tower's centre line, but the tower's swaying top doesn't. When the top is leaning, aim for where the top is now, not where the hook is.
Hearts, lean and long streaks
Floors never get trimmed. Every block is the same width, and anything landing less than half a block off-centre stays put and scores a floor. The cost is sway. Each off-centre landing shoves the tower and adds to a lean that fades only slowly, so several misses to the same side pile up. Taller towers sway slower but wider.
A perfect drop snaps the block to dead centre, cuts the sway sharply and halves the lean. Every third perfect in a row drops a coin for hats, and every eighth gives back a heart if you've lost one. A topple, a clean miss, or a block that slips off the hook after five seconds of hanging each cost a heart.
In a long run, chain perfects while the tower is calm. When it starts rocking, place a safe, slightly off-centre floor rather than gambling on a perfect against the sway.
Daily levels and ghost races
Today's Crane level is the same for everyone, and you race the ghosts of other players' runs. How daily levels and challenges work.
FAQ
Why is my tower swaying?
Every floor that lands off-centre gives the tower a shove, and the leaning weight keeps it rocking. Perfect, centred drops damp the sway back down.
How many lives do I get?
Three hearts. A floor that topples off, misses, or slips off the hook costs one. A streak of 8 perfect drops gives one back.
Is it free?
Yes. Every Tapamine game is free to play in your browser with no download and no account.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. Tapamine is built for phones first: portrait, one thumb, and it works offline after your first visit. It also works with a mouse or the spacebar on a computer.
How do challenges work?
After a run, tap “Challenge a friend” to send a link. Your friend plays the exact same level and races your ghost — a replay of your run — to see who wins.
Add Crane to your site
Crane is free to embed on your blog, class page or website. Paste this code:
<iframe src="https://tapamine.com/embed/crane/" title="Crane: free one-tap game" width="360" height="640" style="border:0;border-radius:16px;max-width:100%" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; web-share" loading="lazy"></iframe>