Once upon a time, a brave warrior, a crafty thief, and a mysterious wizard went on an adventure. Their mission: to find precious doors. Doors are fantastically useful things that are made of wood and can keep things in or out of closed spaces. The three adventurers crawled through the labyrinths of dungeons, pushing, pulling, and magicking obstacles out of the way, but when they thought they captured their beloved doors, they found themselves in another dungeon with more doors to claim. That's probably not the story behind Heroes of Sokoban, a puzzle by Jonah Ostroff, but it's one possible interpretation. Using Sokoban-like mechanics, you've got to navigate the three adventurers to the exit, but sometimes dealing with their quirky behaviors is the greater challenge.

The first adventurer you meet is the red warrior who, like your typical Sokoban protagonist, can push blocks around the map, although uniquely, more than one at a time. Next, you'll meet the green thief, who can't push blocks at all, but will always pull blocks behind him when walking away from them. Eventually you'll meet the blue wizard who swaps places with the first obstacle in the direction you're moving in. When active, you can move each adventurer using the [arrow] keys, or switch the active adventurer using [X]. It'll take some juggling to navigate crowded hallways, push buttons, and open closed paths to the doors, all of which must be covered by an adventurer in order to beat the level.

As a side note, Heroes of Sokoban was developed using PuzzleScript, an online puzzle game editor created by Stephen Lavelle (aka increpare). If you're interested in seeing how the game was made, take a look under the hood. Almost all of the rules that make up this game are written in about 25 lines of code (not counting all the level and sprite designs and whatnot). If you're looking for a starting point for trying your hand at creating games, PuzzleScript might be an interesting choice to consider.

But back to the game. Can you help the warrior, thief, and wizard find their way around the maze (and themselves) to help them collect sweet, sweet doors?

Play Heroes of Sokoban