Pecking Order

One button, one pigeon, one lunch break. Mr. Pigeon works in an office, and for sixty seconds a day he is free. He spends them in the park, eating everything the lunch crowd drops: crumbs, bread, pretzels, sandwiches, ice cream before it melts, and hot dogs, if he can stand still for three pecks. Hold anywhere to peck at what is under his beak. Let go to hop, and the hop carries him toward the nearest food. That is the whole game, and everything in the park asks for one or the other. Cars, dogs and skateboards come along the path: let go just as they reach you and hop over them. Frisbees fly at hop height: keep holding and they pass overhead. Gulls dive at a piece of food and mark it red: eat it first and they fly off empty, but do not be standing there when they land. Every hazard is announced before it arrives, by a sign at the edge of the park or a red mark on the food, and by a sound of its own, and a red LET GO under Mr. Pigeon's feet tells you the moment to hop. He has three feathers. Eat three things inside two seconds and he gets HUNGRY: food counts one and a half times for three seconds, and a knock ends it. Lunch Rush is sixty seconds on the leaderboard, with a bonus for every feather you keep to the whistle. Endless runs until the last feather goes, while the park gets busier and faster and the afternoon turns to dusk. A game for a minute on the bus or an evening chasing a best. Played with one thumb, with the phone upright or sideways, or with keys or a gamepad. Everything plays signed out; only the leaderboard needs an account.