Lollipop

School Crossing Patrol handbook

How to play

• Hold anywhere on the screen, or the space bar, to step out and raise the sign. Let go to walk back to the kerb.
• The ring under the next car in each lane says what happens if you step out now: stops easily, brakes hard, too close, a near miss. A blue ring is an ambulance: never stop it.
• Each lane you are holding turns red. A car too close to stop drives through first: it is marked let it pass, its lane pulses amber, and the walkers wait for it. Once it has gone by, the lane turns red.
• Each hold is scored on three pips. Tight gap: step out right behind a passing car, with every car able to stop gently. Full wave: the crossing takes eight at once; anyone else waits for your next hold. Clean release: let go as soon as the last walker is over.
• Walkers pay as they reach the far kerb, more for each place further back in the wave. A hold's pips add a bonus when you let go, and holds with two or more pips in a row build your rhythm, which multiplies everything.
• Every held driver burns a fuse, shown over the car. A burnt fuse, a near miss, a shunt or a child who gives up and jaywalks earns a letter to the council. Blocking an ambulance earns two. Three letters and you are off the crossing.
• A school bus at the stop, or a parent double-parked on the zig-zags, holds its whole lane for you. On island days each hold takes walkers half way.
• The Autumn Term is a set of handmade days, three stars each. The rota is a random week with a council memo after each day and three letters for the whole week.