Neon Gridlock: Parking Lot Puzzle Game

What is Neon Gridlock?

Neon Gridlock is a sliding-car parking lot puzzle, free in your browser on phone, tablet and computer. The 6×6 lot is jammed with glowing cars and trucks, your red car is stuck on the exit row, and the only way out is a gap in the right wall. Slide the other vehicles along their lanes, one at a time, until the red car has a clear run to the exit.

Every vehicle moves only along its length, so each lot is a small logic puzzle about who has to move first. Easy, Medium, Hard and Tubular each have endless numbered lots, and every one is solved by computer before you see it, so its par is the true minimum number of moves. A new daily lot arrives at midnight, the same for everyone, with a streak, a calendar and a board of the fewest moves.

How to play Neon Gridlock

1. The goal: drive the red car out through the exit in the right wall of the lot.
2. Drag a car or truck along its length: cars lying across slide left and right, upright ones slide up and down. Nothing turns, jumps or passes through another vehicle. You can also tap a vehicle, then tap an empty bay in its lane to send it there.
3. One slide of one vehicle is one move, however far it goes, and the drive out through the exit counts too. Picking up a vehicle or bumping into something costs nothing.
4. Par is the fewest moves the lot can be solved in. Match it for three stars, then try the next puzzle or retry for fewer moves.
5. Undo, Redo and Restart are always there. A hint shows which vehicle to move and why, then its direction, then the exact spot: two per puzzle on Easy, one on Medium, none on Hard and Tubular.

Neon Gridlock tips and strategy

• Work backwards from the exit: look at what stands between the red car and the gap, and where each of those vehicles can go.
• A blocker on the exit row has to leave the row completely. A long truck needs three free bays above or below it, so it is often the hardest piece to shift.
• When a blocker is boxed in, the move you need is somewhere else: free the car that is boxing it in first.
• Don't be afraid to back the red car up. On many lots it must reverse to let an upright vehicle pass through its row.
• One long slide is one move, the same as a short one, so slide vehicles all the way when it leaves more room.

Four levels of traffic

Easy lots need 4 to 9 moves and open with five short lessons: sliding along a lane, clearing one blocker, freeing a boxed-in blocker, making room for a long truck and backing the red car up. Medium lots need 10 to 17 moves, Hard lots 18 to 30, and Tubular lots 31 or more, the deepest jams our generator can find. Each lot is also graded on how many vehicles must move, how often they reverse and whether the red car has to back up.

The daily parking lot

The daily lot changes at midnight and is the same for every player. Monday is Easy, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday are Medium, Thursday and Saturday are Hard and Sunday is Tubular. Solve it on its day to grow your streak, play past days from the calendar, and see who escaped in the fewest moves, with ties going to the faster time.

Neon Gridlock FAQ