How to play
- Pick your speed. Slow, Normal or Fast, chosen before you start. It stays at that speed for the whole run, so nothing ever runs away from you.
- Jump the rocks. Press the space bar, the up arrow, the Jump button, or tap the picture. The jump is always the same height, so the skill is when you press, not how hard.
- Grab the stars. Golden stars sit in an arch over most rocks, exactly where a well timed jump passes through. Every one you catch is worth ten points, so a good jump is worth more than a safe one.
- You get five lives. A hit costs one life rather than ending the run, and your dinosaur flashes while it recovers. The counter shows how many are left, and the run ends when it reaches zero.
One button, and a reason to use it well
There is exactly one control: jump. That is the whole game, and it is why a five year old can play it without anyone sitting next to them. What makes it more than dodging is the stars. Three of them arch over most rocks, sitting on the precise path a well timed jump follows, so the difference between surviving and scoring is timing rather than an extra button. Jump a fraction late and you sail through all three.
You choose the speed, and it stays there
Most runners speed up until you lose, which means the game decides when your turn ends. This one does not. Slow, Normal and Fast are three genuinely different games, and whichever you pick holds for the whole run. A five year old can stay on Slow and jump rocks for as long as they like, and an older child can pick Fast and take the wider rocks at pace.
Late jumps beat early ones
The mistake that costs most lives is jumping too soon. The jump is a fixed arc, so leaving the ground early means coming down early, straight into the front of the rock you were trying to clear, and dropping under the last star on the way. Watch the empty ground just in front of the rock rather than the rock itself, and let it come to you. It feels wrong for about three runs and then it feels obvious.
Every gap is one you can clear, and every star is one you can reach
Obstacles are spaced from the real jump arc plus a proper landing pause, so there is always close to a second of ground between coming down and needing to go up again. The stars are placed the same way: their positions are sampled from the actual flight path at the speed you are playing, not put where they looked about right. Both are checked against thousands of simulated runs, because a runner that occasionally spawns something impossible, or dangles a star nothing can reach, teaches a child that losing is bad luck.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play the dinosaur game?
Pick Slow, Normal or Fast, press Start, then jump over the rocks with the space bar, the up arrow, the Jump button, or by tapping the picture. Golden stars float in an arch over most rocks and are worth ten points each. You have five lives, so a hit costs one rather than ending the run.
How do I get the stars?
Jump the rock properly and the stars take care of themselves. They are placed on the exact path a well timed jump follows, so a jump that clears the rock cleanly passes through all three. If you are only catching one or two, you are jumping too early, which sends you up before the arch and down before the last star.
Does the game get faster on its own?
No. Whichever speed you pick is the speed for the whole run. That is deliberate: a game that quietly accelerates until you lose takes the decision away from the player, and a child who wants a calm run should be able to have one for as long as they like.
How do you get a better score?
Distance counts, but stars are where the points are. Jump as late as you dare rather than as early as you can: the jump is a fixed arc, so leaving the ground too early means coming down in front of the rock instead of over it, and missing the arch of stars on the way.