Ski is a one-button downhill skiing game seen from above. Your skier is always carving: hold to swing right, let go to swing left. Point straight down the hill and you pick up speed; traverse across it and you slow down. Weave between pine trees and rocks, thread the flag gates for combos and coins, and don't clip the tree line at the edges. Ski long enough and a yeti comes thundering down the mountain after you, getting faster every second. There's a new mountain every day, with friends' ghosts skiing the same slope.
How to play Ski
- Hold anywhere to carve right. Let go to carve left.
- Point down the hill to go fast. Quick taps make tight S-turns that keep you heading straight.
- Ski between the flags to build your gate combo. Hit the middle for a PERFECT and a coin.
- Don't hit trees, rocks or the tree line at the sides. Later, keep ahead of the yeti.
Tips to get a high score
- Turning takes a moment, so start your carve before you reach a tree, not when you're next to it.
- Wide, lazy turns are safe but slow. Once the yeti shows up, tighten them to keep your speed.
- Look a couple of rows ahead and pick the open lane early.
- Gates in a row build a combo that climbs in pitch. Skimming a tree or rock adds a CLOSE! to it.
How the mountain gets steeper
Everything ramps up over roughly the first 67 seconds. Your top speed rises by about 40%. Rows of trees come a third closer together, and a row that held one or two trees early often holds three later. The open lane through each row gets narrower and wanders further from side to side.
Gates get tighter too, ending up well over a third narrower than the first ones, and they come a little more often.
The yeti arrives at 45 seconds. It starts slower than your top speed but gains every second, and about half a minute later it's faster than you can ever ski. It never falls far behind, and it drifts sideways to follow you, so swerving won't shake it for long. Once it shows up, every carve that isn't pointing downhill costs you ground.
Gates, PERFECTs and following the lane
Your score is metres skied downhill. Gates and close calls only feed your combo, which climbs with every gate you thread and every tree or rock you skim. Missing a gate resets it. Coins come from PERFECT gates (dead centre) and from every third combo step. They're for hats and don't add metres.
Here's the useful part. Each gate is placed on the open lane, and trees are cleared away from the gate line. So the next gate is a signpost: aim for it and you're usually skiing the safest path through the trees as well.
Missing a gate costs nothing but your combo. If a gate would mean a sharp swing late in a run, let it go and keep your speed.
Carving with one button
Your skier is always turning. A full swing from hard left to hard right takes just over half a second, and the widest carve is about 70 degrees off straight down. At that angle you're crawling. A carve of about 15 degrees still keeps over 90% of your speed.
Speed also changes gradually, so short, quick swings barely slow you down, while one long traverse drags you to a near-stop. Let the button go before the skier swings too far across the slope.
The common crashes are easy to avoid once you know them. The tree line at each edge ends a run as surely as a trunk does, so don't hug the sides. Rocks are smaller than trees, so the gap beside a rock is wider than it looks. And turns take time, so commit to your lane a row early.
Daily levels and ghost races
Today's Ski level is the same for everyone, and you race the ghosts of other players' runs. How daily levels and challenges work.
FAQ
When does the yeti appear?
About 45 seconds into a run. A red ! at the top of the screen shows where it is. It starts slower than you and keeps speeding up, so sooner or later it catches everyone.
How do I ski straight with one button?
Tap quickly. Each tap swings you a little right and letting go swings you back left, so a steady rhythm of short taps keeps you pointed down the hill.
Is it free?
Yes. Every Tapamine game is free to play in your browser with no download and no account.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. Tapamine is built for phones first: portrait, one thumb, and it works offline after your first visit. It also works with a mouse or the spacebar on a computer.
How do challenges work?
After a run, tap “Challenge a friend” to send a link. Your friend plays the exact same level and races your ghost — a replay of your run — to see who wins.
Add Ski to your site
Ski is free to embed on your blog, class page or website. Paste this code:
<iframe src="https://tapamine.com/embed/ski/" title="Ski: free one-tap game" width="360" height="640" style="border:0;border-radius:16px;max-width:100%" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; web-share" loading="lazy"></iframe>