PAPER ROUTE — Pixel Bike Game

HOW TO PLAY

You're a kid on a bike with a sack of newspapers. Your job: deliver papers to every household on your route that subscribes — and survive the chaos of a suburban street while you do it.

1 · The Goal

Throw rolled-up newspapers at the blue mailboxes in front of subscriber houses. Land hits, build combos, rack up score, and ride as far as you can on three lives.

2 · Controls

Key	Action
`↑` `↓` `←` `→`	Move the bike around the playable strip (sidewalk + street)
`SPACE`	Throw a paper — arcs forward and up, then falls into the yard area
`SHIFT` (hold)	Speed boost — covers more distance per second, but reaction time shrinks
`M`	Mute / unmute sound
`T` (on title screen)	Show in-game tutorial overlay

3 · Scoring

Action	Points	Notes
Direct hit on subscriber mailbox	+50	Triggers the BULLSEYE burst
Mailbox hit during a combo	+50 + (combo × 25)	Combo resets after ~2.2s without a hit, or on any crash
Paper lands in any front yard	+10	Consolation points — at least it landed on the property
Crash into anything	—1 life	Brief invuln flash; combo resets to zero
Pickup the gift box	+5 papers	Capped at 15 in the sack

4 · What's on the Route

SUBSCRIBER HOUSES

Bright roof colors, glowing yellow windows, blue mailbox out front. These are your targets. The mailbox pulses with a soft yellow glow so you can spot it.

NON-SUBSCRIBERS

Gray paint, dim windows, no mailbox. Skip them — you can throw at the yard for +10 if you want to clear papers, but no bonus.

TRASH CANS / HYDRANTS

Sit on the sidewalk. Static. Easy to dodge once you spot them, but get clustered with other obstacles fast.

DOGS

Bob up and down. The vertical motion makes them tricky to thread past — wait for the down-beat or steer wide.

CARS

On the road below the sidewalk. Move faster than the world. If you've dropped down to dodge a hydrant, get back up onto the sidewalk before one catches you.

GIFT-BOX PICKUPS

Yellow & red box. Refills your paper sack by 5. Spawns when you're below 9 papers — don't waste them.

5 · Throwing — How the Arc Works

Your paper launches forward at about 320 px/sec with an upward kick of —300 px/sec, then gravity pulls it back down. In practice that means:

The paper peaks above the houses and lands roughly 240 pixels ahead of where you threw it.
Throw before a mailbox is dead in front of you — lead the target. As a rule of thumb, throw when the mailbox is about a house-width to your right.
Speed boost (SHIFT) doesn't change paper physics, but the world scrolls faster, so your effective lead time shrinks.

6 · Combo Strategy

Combos are where the score really comes from. Three mailboxes in a row at x3 bonus = +50, +75, +100 = 225 points, vs. 150 without the combo. Tips:

Subscribers cluster — once you see one, the next is usually within a couple of houses.
Hold SHIFT off when you spot a combo opportunity. Slower world = more reliable throws.
If you only have 1 paper left and the next mailbox is iffy, save it for a sure shot rather than break the chain on a miss.

7 · Survival Tips

Keep your bike on the sidewalk by default. The road has cars; the sidewalk only has static obstacles you can see coming.
Use the road for emergencies. A clustered trash-can + hydrant + dog row is sometimes only passable by dropping into the road for one second.
Speed boost = score multiplier in disguise. Distance ramps difficulty, and difficulty ramps spawn frequency, which means more mailboxes per minute. Boost when the sidewalk is clear.
Crashes don't end the run — they just clip your combo. If you've already chained 4 hits, sometimes it's worth eating a crash to save a paper-throw window for the next subscriber.

8 · Game Over

When all three lives are gone, your final score and total distance display. SPACE restarts immediately — your high score is saved in your browser and shown on the title screen next time.

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