Neck Snake

About Neck Snake

Neck Snake is our head-controlled take on the arcade classic, built from scratch for webcam input rather than ported from a keyboard version. You steer a snake around a 24×18 grid, eating food to grow longer, and the run ends the moment you hit a wall or your own tail. What makes it different from every other snake game is the input: a deliberate flick of your head to the left, right, up or down turns the snake, and your neutral head position does nothing at all.

That single change reshapes the whole game. On a keyboard you can tap out a three-turn sequence in a fraction of a second; with a neck you cannot, so we slowed the snake down and gave it room to breathe. It starts with roughly 142 milliseconds between steps and accelerates as you grow, bottoming out at 82 milliseconds — quick, but never quicker than a head can answer. The grid is deliberately wide rather than square, because the hardest thing about head-steered snake is running out of space on the vertical axis, where head movement is least precise.

A run lasts a couple of minutes, which is the point: it is a desk-break game. Your best score is kept in your browser's local storage on that device only — there is no account, no leaderboard, and nothing is uploaded.

How to play

• Head flick left, right, up or down — turn the snake that way
• Arrow keys or WASD — the same four turns, no camera needed
• R — restart the current run
• Eat food to grow one segment and score; hitting a wall or yourself ends the run
• The snake cannot reverse directly into itself, so a wrong flick is survivable

Tips & tricks

• Turn early. There is a real delay between your head moving and the tracker registering a flick, so commit to the turn one cell before you would on a keyboard.
• Work the long axis. The board is 24 wide but only 18 tall, so build your loops sideways and keep vertical moves short — up and down flicks are the ones players misfire most.
• Return to neutral after every flick. The tracker looks for movement away from your calibrated centre, so if you leave your head tilted, the next flick in that direction has less room to register.
• Hug the walls while you are short. Spiralling inward from the edge leaves the centre open for the food that spawns late in a run, when your tail is long enough to trap you.
• When the snake gets fast, stop chasing food across the board. Take the food that is on your way and let the rest wait — a greedy diagonal dash is what ends most long runs.

Frequently asked questions

Is Neck Snake free to play?

Yes. It is free, runs entirely in your browser, and needs no download, account, or plugin.

Do I need a webcam?

No. The camera is optional. Arrow keys and WASD control the snake exactly the same way, so you can play the whole game without granting camera access.

Where does my camera video go?

Nowhere. Face tracking runs inside your browser on your own device, and the video is not uploaded to our servers.

Where is my best score stored?

In your browser's local storage on the device you played on. Clearing site data or switching browsers resets it, and it is never sent anywhere.

How fast does the snake get?

It begins at about 142 milliseconds per step and speeds up as you grow, capping at 82 milliseconds per step so head control stays viable at top speed.