How to play Sneaky Beans
Tiny Paws. Big Crimes.
Play Sneaky BeansCats, treasures and the cone
Sneaky Beans is a real-time game about cats stealing things they should not have. Every round one player wears the cone and plays the House Cat, who can only see straight ahead. Everyone else is a sneaky bean, padding round the house collecting hair ties, bottle caps and empty tuna cans before the cone turns their way.
Everyone wears the cone once, so a game is one round per player, each lasting up to three minutes. The bean with the most treasure at the end wins.
It plays three to six in nine to eighteen minutes, on a touchscreen or a keyboard, and every game is set in a different house.
The house and the cone
Every player is a cat. Each round, one of them wears the cone and plays the House Cat, guarding the house's treasures, and everyone else is a sneaky bean trying to steal them.
On a touchscreen, hold anywhere on the lower half of the screen and your cat walks that way; let go to stop. On a keyboard, move with W, A, S and D.
A round as a bean, a round in the cone
As a bean, you steal a treasure by walking over it. Hair ties, bottle caps, empty tuna cans and dental floss all count, and new treasure keeps appearing during the round.
When you are close to another cat you can Swipe it, and a swiped cat moves at half speed for 5 seconds. You can swipe other beans and the House Cat.
As the House Cat, you see only what is straight ahead of you. To catch a bean, keep it in view until the ring around it fills, then press Meow. A caught bean goes to the pen for the rest of the round. Meow is the only way the House Cat can catch anyone.
A bean can press Hide to become invisible to the House Cat. While hidden, you cannot move, steal or see what is happening around you. When you come out, Hide cannot be used again for 20 seconds.
A bean in the pen keeps every treasure it stole, and watches the rest of the round.
Winning
A round ends when every bean has been caught or after 3 minutes. Each bean adds the treasure it stole that round to its total. The House Cat scores nothing in its own round, and everyone wears the cone once. When everyone has had a turn in the cone, the cat with the most treasure wins.
Hiding costs you time: while you are hidden you cannot steal, and new treasure keeps turning up without you.
Three minutes in the kitchen
Four players, and it is Lena's turn in the cone. You start in the hallway, with Kemal and Sam somewhere ahead of you.
You grab a hair tie under the kitchen table, then a bottle cap by the sink. Kemal comes past and swipes you, so for five seconds you move at half speed, just as Lena's cone swings round toward the kitchen.
She sees you, and the ring around you starts to fill. You press Hide, she cannot see you at all, and the ring is gone. You cannot see anything either, or move, or steal. You wait, come out, and Hide goes on its 20-second cooldown.
Lena turns the other way to chase Kemal down the hallway, and you take an empty tuna can from the counter while she is busy. She fills Kemal's ring and Meows, and he goes to the pen with the five treasures he stole, which he keeps.
The round ends at three minutes. You took 3, Kemal took 5 before he was caught, and Sam, who hid for most of the round, took 1. Lena scores nothing this round, and steals in all the others.
Stealing more, getting caught less
Stay out of the cone's line. The House Cat sees only what is straight ahead, so the safest place is behind them, and the most dangerous is a long room with the cone at one end.
Save Hide for when a ring is filling. Coming out starts a 20-second cooldown, so come out somewhere the cone is not pointing.
Swipe at the right moment. Slow a rival just as the cone turns their way, or slow the House Cat when it is closing in on you.
Keep moving. Treasure keeps appearing, and a bean sitting in a corner is not collecting any.
As the House Cat, turn slowly. A ring fills only while a bean stays in front of you, so a quick spin catches nobody.
You do not collect treasure while playing the House Cat, so focus on catching beans and limiting the scores they can earn in your round.