How to play Snip!
Snip! is our free browser rope-cutting puzzle, built in the spirit of Cut the Rope. A sweet hangs in the night air from one or more ropes pinned to pegs, a hungry monster waits somewhere on the screen, and stars float in between. Cut the ropes in the right order, at the right moment, and the candy swings, drops or flings its way through the stars and into the monster's mouth.
The ropes are simulated rather than scripted, so nothing is on rails. A rope pulls but never pushes, which means a cut made at the bottom of a swing throws the candy sideways while the same cut a moment later just drops it. Some levels add a bubble: the candy floats upwards instead of falling until you pop it, and a rope still attached turns that float into an upside-down pendulum. The level is cleared the instant the candy reaches the mouth. If it leaves the screen instead, you get a friendly retry.
Controls
- Cutting: swipe a finger, or drag with the mouse held down, across a rope. Any rope your line crosses on the way is cut, so one long sweep can take out several at once.
- Bubbles: tap or click near the floating candy to pop the bubble it is riding in. The tap area is generous, so you do not have to hit the bubble precisely.
- On-screen buttons: while you play, three round buttons sit in the top right - ⟳ restarts the level, ▦ opens the level list, and the speaker mutes or unmutes the sound.
- Keyboard: R restarts the level you are on or the one you just lost, and Enter moves you to the next level after a win or retries after a loss.
Levels that need a nudge show a one-line hint under the board, such as "Wait for the swing, then cut". Otherwise that line carries the standing reminder of what the swipe, the tap and the ⟳ button do.
Levels, packs and progress
There are 112 levels grouped into seven packs of sixteen, and each pack introduces its own trick:
- First Snips - mostly single ropes, plus a first look at bubbles, to learn what a cut does.
- Swing Time - no bubbles at all, so every level is about cutting at the right point of an arc.
- Bubble Woods - one rope per level and a bubble in most of them, so the candy spends its time going up.
- Loose Ends - every level uses a slack rope, one that hangs loose and only catches the candy once it has already fallen a way.
- Fling Canyon - the monster set well off to one side, so the candy has to travel sideways as well as down.
- Twin Bubbles - single-rope bubble levels, seven of them with two bubbles to move between.
- Starfall Finale - up to three ropes at once, mixed with bubbles and slack rope, as a final test.
Finishing a level unlocks the next one. The level list shows one pack at a time with arrows either side, and each button carries the best number of stars you have caught there. Your unlocked level and every per-level best are stored in the browser, so progress survives closing the tab and there is no account to make. The first twelve levels are handcrafted; the rest were machine-checked so that each one is solvable with every star reachable.
Stars and stickers
Each level holds up to three stars, and catching them is optional - a level counts as complete the moment the monster is fed. Three counters run along the top of the screen: the level you are on out of 112, the stars caught in this attempt out of the number available, and your all-time star total.
That all-time total is what drives the stickers. Catching 1, 10, 25, 60 and 120 stars unlocks First Star, Star Snacker, Rope Ranger, Candy Captain and Snip Superstar in the site-wide sticker book. Because the count carries across sessions rather than resetting each run, a child who plays a few levels at a time still moves steadily towards the next one.
Tips for catching every star
- Watch a full swing before you cut anything. The candy repeats its arc, so you can see exactly where it will go before committing.
- Cut at the bottom of a swing to fling the candy furthest sideways, and at the top to drop it almost straight down.
- On multi-rope levels, cutting one rope usually turns the other into a pivot. Choose which rope survives, not just which one to cut.
- In a bubble, popping early trades height for distance and popping late does the opposite.
- Use ⟳ freely. Restarting is instant and costs nothing, and a level can be replayed later purely to pick up a star you missed.
Who Snip! is for
Snip! is cause and effect made visible. A child cuts something, watches what happens, and adjusts - which is exactly the reasoning loop that is hard to teach from a worksheet. It builds anticipation, timing and an intuitive feel for how things swing and fall, and it does it without any reading beyond a short hint line and without any typing at all.
The catch zones around the stars and the monster's mouth are deliberately larger than they look, so a near miss usually still counts and a child stays encouraged. Losing a level costs nothing but a retry, there is no timer and no score to fall, and the whole game can be muted with one button for sensory-sensitive learners or a shared room.
Questions parents and tutors ask
How many levels does Snip! have?
112 levels, arranged as seven packs of sixteen: First Snips, Swing Time, Bubble Woods, Loose Ends, Fling Canyon, Twin Bubbles and Starfall Finale.
Does Snip! save your progress?
Yes. The highest level you have unlocked and your best star count for each level are saved in the browser, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off without an account.
Do you have to collect all the stars to finish a level?
No. A level is cleared as soon as the candy reaches the monster. Stars are optional, and the ones you do catch are recorded as that level's best score and count towards your stickers.
Can the sound be turned off?
Yes. A speaker button sits in the top right corner while you play and mutes the music and effects. The choice is remembered the next time you open the game.
Snip! is free to play with no signup, no download and no third-party tracking. It was built by a UK SEND tutor with QTS and runs in any modern browser on a tablet, laptop or classroom whiteboard, which makes it easy to use in 1:1 tutoring and screen-share therapy sessions.