Box Mover is a warehouse puzzle on a small scale. You are a little mover in a garden shed, and your task is to push every crate onto a marked spot on the floor, without ever pulling one back.

How to play

The goal is to get every crate onto a spot. The spots are drawn with dashed outlines on the floor.

Walking: move the mover one square at a time. On a computer, use the arrow keys. On a phone, swipe, or tap the arrow buttons on the screen. You can also tap any floor square, and the mover walks there by itself.
Pushing: walk into a crate to push it one square ahead of you. You can only push, never pull.
One crate at a time: you cannot push two crates in a row, and a crate cannot go through a wall or through another crate.
Corners: a crate pushed into a corner is stuck for good, because you can never get behind it to push it back out. The same is true along a wall when there is no spot on that wall.
Winning: when every crate is on a spot, you win. The result shows how many pushes and steps you used.

Undo takes back your last push, along with the walk that led to it, and you can use it as often as you want. On a computer, Z or Backspace also undoes. Restart puts everything back as it was at the start. Both are free.

The levels

The levels change the number of crates and how many pushes the shortest solution needs. Each room was made by a computer search that works backwards from a solved room and keeps the layouts that need the longest solutions.

Easy: two crates in a small shed. The shortest solution takes 6 to 14 pushes.
Medium: three crates and a few more walls. The shortest solution takes 15 to 28 pushes.
Hard: four crates in a tight shed. The shortest solution takes 29 to 44 pushes.
Expert: five or six crates and a long way to go. The shortest solution takes 45 pushes or more.

Today's game

The daily game is a Medium room. Everyone who plays on the same calendar day gets the same shed, and the result records your pushes and steps.

Tips

Plan the last crate first. Decide where it must end up, and then work out how to get it there.
Before you push a crate, look at what is behind it. Never push a crate into a corner unless the corner is one of the spots.
Do not push a crate against a wall unless that wall has a spot on it. A crate on a wall can only slide along it.
Think about where you will stand. To push a crate in a direction, you must be able to reach the square on the opposite side of it.
Keep paths open. A crate left in a narrow corridor can block you from reaching the others.
Work out which crate can reach which spot. If a crate can only ever reach one spot, give that spot to it.
Undo is free and restores the walk, so test an idea. If you are not sure, push and see.

A bit of history

Box-pushing puzzles began as computer games in Japan in the early 1980s, and they have been a favorite of puzzle fans ever since.

Questions

Can I pull a crate? No. You can only push, which is what makes the puzzle hard.

What if I push a crate into a corner by mistake? Press Undo. It takes the push back, together with the walk that led to it.

Do all the crates have fixed spots? No. Any crate may go on any spot. The puzzle is finished when every spot has a crate on it.

Is every room solvable? Yes. Each room is built by playing backwards from a solved room, so a solution always exists.

Box Mover