Evac Direct

A browser puzzle game built from emergency-exit pictograms (the running figure and the door). You give evacuees a route by placing arrow tiles on a grid, steering them past the fire and into the exit.

Have a lovely evacuation experience!

##Version updated on September 1st 2026## 

How to play

1. Tap a floor tile to cycle what sits there: up → right → down → left → nothing. On stages with an extinguisher, it comes after left; a watering can comes after that.
2. Right-click or long press to clear a tile at once.
3. Press “Start evacuation” to run the simulation.
4. Pause any time. The start button becomes a pause button while people are moving, and pausing freezes the whole board so you can read it properly.
5. Share copies the board as an emoji grid you can paste anywhere. Your arrows are left out, so you will not spoil the puzzle for anyone.

There is no tool palette. Everything is placed by tapping the board itself, so the controls are identical on desktop and on a phone.

Rules

Movement

• An evacuee turns to face the arrow on the tile it stands on, then keeps walking that way.
• You only need arrows at corners — never along straight runs.
• Walking into a wall makes them mark time on the spot.
• The figures only have left and right artwork, so read the small triangle beside them for the direction they will actually take.

Fire and smoke

• If even one evacuee touches fire, you lose.
• Fire spreads one tile up, down, left and right every two turns.
• Grey smoke appears on those tiles one turn beforehand, so you can always see what is coming.
• The smoke itself is harmless — but standing on it is not.

Kinds of evacuee

• Wheelchair users, elderly people, shoppers, sumo wrestlers and others move one tile every two turns.
• Someone marked with a blinking ring cannot set off alone. They start evacuating once another evacuee passes through their tile.
• The cat can only be carried out by a running evacuee. Walk anyone else past it and it stays put — and leaving it behind fails the stage.

Extinguisher

• Fire cannot enter a tile holding one.
• The number available is fixed per stage, and it does not count against your arrow budget.
• It will never seal a fire off completely — every fire in the game can spread at least two ways. The question is always which route is worth protecting.

One-way panels (from stage 53)

• A tile marked with a double chevron can only be crossed in that direction.
• An evacuee arriving from the wrong side stops on the spot, exactly as if it were a wall.
• You can go through, but not back — so the order you send people matters.

Warp tiles (from stage 56)

• Two blue tiles are a pair. Step on one and next turn you appear on the other.
• You keep facing the same way, so work out which way you will be pointing when you land.
• You will not bounce straight back.
• On these stages walls cut the floor in two: the warp is the only way across.

Nothing can be placed on a one-way panel or a warp tile.

Scoring

Three stars, awarded separately:

1. Everyone (and the cat) escaped
2. Finished within the target number of turns
3. Used no more than the target number of arrows

Daily Challenge

One puzzle a day, built from the date itself — so everyone playing on the same day gets the same board.

• Dailies run up to 10×10, larger than the main stages.
• They add the watering can: it holds the fire back once when flames reach the tile beside it, then it is gone.
• Unlike an extinguisher it will not hold forever, so the puzzle is deciding where that single save is worth spending.
• Smoke never appears on a can’s tile.