About Trap the Cat

trapthecatgame.com is a small website with one aim: to let you play Trap the Cat the moment the page opens. There is nothing to install, no account to create and no sign-up screen before the board.

What the game is

Trap the Cat is a turn-based puzzle on an 11 by 11 board of staggered circles. You place one wall per turn, and the cat answers with one step. You win if the cat has no free circle left to step to. You lose if it reaches the edge of the board. The game page explains the rules and some strategy in full.

How the cat moves

The cat is not a clever opponent, but it is a consistent one. It always takes the first step of a shortest route to the edge. When several routes are equally short, it picks one at random. When no route is left, it steps to a random free circle beside it.

How the daily board is made

The Daily puzzle turns the current UTC date into a number, and that number drives a fixed sequence of pseudo-random choices. The same date always gives the same sequence, so everyone gets the same starting walls and the cat breaks its ties the same way. No server is involved: your browser builds the board by itself.

How the site is built

The site is a set of static pages. The text you read is plain HTML, and the only script on the site is the game itself. The pages use your system fonts, so they load quickly even on a slow connection. You can read how we handle data on the privacy page.