How to Play

What kind of game is it?

Sneaky Lunch is a game about secretly finishing the lunch on your desk while the teacher is turned toward the board. The lid of your lunchbox opens and you keep eating only while you hold the screen. When you let go, the lid closes.

The teacher writes on the board for a while, then suddenly turns around to face the class. If the lid is open when the teacher looks, the Suspicion meter goes up, and when it's full, your lunch is confiscated. Finish your lunch before the bell and you pass that class. Get through all four teachers, 1st period to 4th, and it's finally lunchtime.

Controls

• Phone or tablet: Press and hold anywhere around the board or the desk to eat. Let go to close the lid.
• Computer: Hold down the mouse button or the space bar.
• The 🔊 button in the top right turns sound on and off. The chalk sound tells you when the teacher is about to turn around, so we recommend playing with sound on.

Reading the screen

• Top bar: Which period it is and how much time is left. The bar turns red when there are less than 8 seconds left.
• The board and the teacher: While the teacher writes, you see his back, the word “tap” pops up, and you hear the chalk. When he turns around, you see his face. If he sees the lid open, his eyes narrow and a “Hm?” bubble appears.
• Your lunchbox: As you eat, the food disappears in this order: potato chips, baby carrots, apple slices, a chocolate chip cookie, and finally your PB&J sandwich.
• Eaten meter: How much you've eaten (0 to 100%). At 100%, your lunchbox is empty.
• Suspicion meter: How suspicious the teacher is. It turns red above 60, and when it's full, your lunch is confiscated.

How a class goes

1. Before each class, you see the teacher's name and a hint about his habits. Press “Start” to begin.
2. The teacher starts writing on the board. While you hear the chalk, it's safe to eat.
3. When the chalk stops, his head tilts a little and his arm drops: that's the sign he's about to turn around. Let go right away to close the lid.
4. The teacher turns around and looks at the class for a moment. If your lid is open, Suspicion goes up.
5. When he turns back to the board, start eating again. Repeat until you finish your lunch or the bell rings.

Each class lasts 35 seconds. If you finish, you see “All gone!”, earn points, and move on to the next class. If your lunch is confiscated (Suspicion is full) or the bell rings before you finish, you start that class over from the beginning. Points you earned in earlier classes are kept.

The lid and eating speed

• The lid takes 0.12 seconds to open fully after you press, and 0.17 seconds to close fully after you let go. Closing is a little slower, so letting go right before the teacher turns is too late.
• You only eat while the lid is fully open. If you keep tapping on and off, most of your time goes into opening and closing the lid, and you barely eat.
• While the teacher is looking, Suspicion rises depending on how far the lid is open. With the lid wide open, it fills up in about 0.4 seconds and your lunch is confiscated. If the lid is almost closed (open 8% or less), Suspicion doesn't rise.
• While the teacher isn't looking, Suspicion drops by 7 per second.

The four teachers

Each period has a different teacher, with different habits when turning around and a different amount of eating time needed to finish. “Warning” is the time between the chalk stopping and the teacher turning around.

“Eating time to finish” is the total time you need to keep eating with the lid fully open.

Mr. Mellow (1st period, English)

He writes “To be, or not to be” on the board, and he's the practice teacher. Each stretch of writing lasts a long 2.6 to 4.0 seconds, and there's a full second between the warning and the turn, so you're fine even if you let go after the chalk stops. Use his class to get used to the timing.

Mr. Fakeout (2nd period, Algebra)

About 4 times out of 10 (38%), he gives the warning and then goes right back to writing without turning around. You still have to let go every time, but how quickly you start eating again after a fake makes a big difference in your time.

Coach Quick (3rd period, Health)

The coach teaches Health too, and he turns around just 0.48 seconds after the warning. Since the lid takes 0.17 seconds to close, there's almost no time to hesitate. Let go before you even think. His stretches of writing are short, too: 1.3 to 2.4 seconds. He fakes once in a while (12%).

Mr. Double-Take (4th period, U.S. History)

After looking at the class and turning back to the board, about half the time (45%) he turns around again 0.5 seconds later. The second look is a little shorter. Don't start eating the instant he turns back; wait a beat. He also fakes (28%).

Scoring

When you finish your lunch, you score points for that class.

Points = seconds left (rounded up) × 10 + (100 − Suspicion when you finished)

For example, if you finish with 20.3 seconds left and Suspicion at 15, you get 21 × 10 + 85 = 295 points. The faster you eat and the less suspicious you look, the higher your score.

Clear all four periods and you see your total for the day. If it beats your previous best, you see “New best!”, and your best score appears on the title screen.

Tips

• Listen for the chalk: When the sound stops, that's the sign. You can also tell because the “tap” words on the screen stop appearing.
• Hold, don't tap: You only eat while the lid is fully open. While the teacher writes, keep holding instead of pressing and releasing over and over.
• Start again right away: As soon as the teacher turns back to the board, press and keep eating (except with Mr. Double-Take: wait a beat).
• A little suspicion is fine: Suspicion goes down while the teacher looks away. Getting seen once doesn't always mean your lunch gets confiscated.

Saving

Only your best score is saved, in your browser. Your progress in the middle of a game isn't saved, so reloading the page takes you back to the title screen. For details, see the Privacy policy.