Support

Help for Yank the Tablecloth!

How to play

You are holding the near end of the tablecloth. A marker runs back and forth along the meter under your hands, and part of the meter is gold. Tap anywhere on the game — or click, or press Space, Enter, W, S or the up or down arrow — to start, and then to yank the cloth.

• In the gold, nothing moves. The cloth comes out clean and the crockery stays exactly where it was.
• Off the gold, everything slides toward you, every piece by the same distance: a little for a near miss, a lot for a real one. The game says whether you were early or late, under the meter.
• A piece goes over only if more than half of it ends up past the edge. One that only hangs over a little rocks, and stays — but it is still hanging over the edge next round. Every piece that smashes costs one of your three good plates, shown at the top left; when they are gone, the run is over.
• Every round a fresh cloth goes down and one more piece joins the table, each one nearer the edge, and nothing leaves unless it smashes. The marker speeds up and the gold narrows as you go.
• Five clean yanks in a row win back a good plate.
• Your score is the number of yanks that left everything standing.

Common questions

Are there ads?

No. Not a banner, not a pop-up, not a “watch a video to carry on”. There is no advertising in Yank the Tablecloth! at all, and there is nothing to buy. Your run is never interrupted.

My tap did not yank the cloth

A tap yanks only while the marker is running. Between rounds — while the table settles, the fresh cloth goes down and the next piece arrives — a tap tells the game you are ready and the fresh cloth goes down at once, but it never yanks: you can only yank what you can see. Two fingers at once, or a finger that bounces, count as one yank. Every yank is judged where the marker was on your screen at the moment you tapped.

My best score disappeared

In a browser, your best score and settings are saved in that browser, on that device only. They are lost if you clear the site's data or browsing history, and private or incognito windows forget them when closed. They do not transfer between devices or browsers.

In the Android app, your best score and settings are kept in the app's storage on your phone. Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage in your phone's Settings removes them.

It says the game is offline, or looks out of date

In a browser, Yank the Tablecloth! keeps a copy of itself in your browser so it works without a connection. When a new version is published, the first launch with a connection downloads it and the launch after that runs it — so if something looks stale, open it once more. Reloading twice is always enough. The Android app has the whole game inside it and never needs a connection; new versions arrive as app updates from the store.

The game runs slowly or stutters

In a browser, close other tabs and reload the page. In the Android app, close the app and open it again. If it continues, send us your device model and browser, or that you play the app — performance reports genuinely help, and we act on them.

Can I turn off the sound?

Yes. Open Settings with the gear in the top-right corner of the game and switch Sound off; it remembers your choice. The game is fully playable with sound off. It also pauses by itself when you switch away from the tab or the app, and the pause button next to the gear — or P or Esc on a keyboard — stops it any time.

How do I report a bug or suggest something?

Email us. Small games are shaped by the people who play them, and suggestions are read by the person who makes the game.

Accessibility

The game needs one input and no aiming, plays with touch, a mouse or a keyboard, and works fully with sound off. In a browser, it respects your system's reduced-motion setting — the shake, the confetti and the popping text hold still while play stays identical. If something makes the game hard for you to play, please tell us — that is a bug we want to know about.

Privacy

See the privacy policy for exactly what the game stores, and where.