Dinoferndale is a fern-choked valley of our own invention, and every game in it came out of our little studio. Stack fossils into a golden skeleton, dash along a lagoon shore, putt round a grumbling volcano, pop eggs and ammonites, slide a sunrise back together or match the camp crew in pairs. Nothing to install, ever.
Fossil Stack is the game our team reaches for first thing in the morning. Push the whole tray, bump matching finds together and work a curly fiddlehead all the way up to a gleaming golden skeleton.
Every push shifts every find on the tray at the same moment, which is where the craft lies. Two identical pieces that meet become the next find along: fern fossil, then brush and trowel, then a softly glowing ammonite, and onwards through amber, lava pebbles, obsidian and thunder eggs. A new fiddlehead turns up after each push, so the tray fills unless you plan. Points grow as the finds get rarer. A strip of all thirteen finds sits under the tray and lights each one as you first reach it, and a single Undo per game will rescue one rash push.
Each of these began as a doodle in the margin of a sketchbook and was polished until the whole studio kept stealing it for lunch breaks. A couple want quick hands, a couple want a slow and careful head, and two sit somewhere in the middle. Have a look at the feel profiles and pick your trench.
Dig here first01Push the whole tray in one direction and let matching finds bump together into something rarer. Thirteen finds climb from a dewy fiddlehead through ammonites, amber and thunder eggs to a gleaming golden skeleton, and a strip under the tray lights each new one. One Undo per game rescues a single bad push.
Quickest rush02Dottie scampers along the edge of Fernfall Lagoon while geodes and fossil stones sit in her way and sunrise gliders swoop in low. Tap to hop, hold for a taller leap, and save a second hop for mid-air. Scoop up drifting amber for bonus points as the shore rushes faster.
Nine holes03Nine holes laid out on the slopes of a friendly volcano, with walls to bank off, bumpers that kick the ball away, slopes and sand that bend and slow it, pools that send it back, and gates that slide open and shut. Drag back to aim and set power, then chase par on a scorecard.
Colour cascade04Captain Ned stands by the launcher at the lagoon’s edge, firing bubbles of eggs, hatchlings, ammonites, amber, lava pebbles and dragonflies into a packed honeycomb above. Match three or more to pop them, bank shots off the walls, and drop whole dangling clusters before the ceiling creeps down.
Slow burner05Eight painted scenes from around the valley, from a sunrise over the ferns to a crystal mine, are cut into sliding tiles at 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5. Slide tiles into the gap to rebuild each picture, with a move counter, a timer, a Peek button and optional tile numbers when you need them.
Family favourite06The whole Ferndale camp crew is dealt face down: Juniper the potter, Barnaby the walrus, Ned the captain, Biscuit the corgi and friends. Flip two at a time to find matching pairs across six levels, from a tiny 3x4 grid to a 6x6 that adds fossils and dinosaurs to the deck.
Tell Dottie a little about your mood, your time and what makes you grin. She will peer through her magnifying glass and point you at the game in the valley that fits right now.
We are a handful of people who make every Ferndale game from scratch: the code, the tuning, the little sounds. Three habits run through all of it, and they are why the valley plays the way it does.
Scores here come from choices and timing: the push that lines up two thunder eggs, the leap over a geode, the putt that curls past a gate. Randomness only ever shapes a layout, such as which find drops onto the tray or how the cards are dealt. It never doles out a surprise reward. Points, stars, pars and personal bests are the whole of it.
Bests, cleared levels and finished pictures are kept in the browser on your own device. There is no account to create and no form to fill in. Pop back tomorrow on the same laptop or phone and Ferndale remembers your best dash, which pairs levels you opened and the lowest move count you managed on each slide puzzle.
We test every hole, layout and level by hand until it feels testing for the right reasons. The lagoon dash always leaves a gap you can clear, every golf hole can be holed, and every slide puzzle shuffle can be solved. When something beats you, you should be able to see exactly why, and fancy one more go.
Dinoferndale exists because the people behind it love making small, bright, well-tuned games. Pages load quickly, the games appear straight on the stage, and nothing pesters you between rounds. We spend our time where it shows: on the bounce of a putt, the pop of a cluster, the click of the last tile, and on keeping the valley tidy enough that those moments arrive without fuss.
Some mornings call for a careful brush, others for a sprint along the shore. Here is how the valley divides by temperament.
You enjoy building something precious one careful step at a time. Fossil Stack gives you a tray to keep tidy, thirteen finds to collect in order and one Undo for the moment a push goes horribly sideways.
Fossil Stack →sprinterYou want a single button and a heartbeat that quickens. Fernfall Dash sends Dottie racing along the lagoon edge, hopping rocks, ducking gliders and grabbing amber while the pace slowly builds.
Fernfall Dash →surveyorYou like to crouch, squint and line things up before committing. Smokepeak Putt offers nine holes of walls, bumpers, slopes and moving gates where a well-judged bank shot beats brute force every time.
Smokepeak Putt →popperColour, aim and a satisfying cascade are your thing. Fernfall Pop lets you bank shots off the walls, pop groups of three or more and watch whole dangling clusters drop away at once.
Fernfall Pop →restorerYou find calm in putting scrambled things right. Strata Shuffle breaks a valley painting into sliding tiles at three sizes and asks you to coax every piece back home with as few moves as you can.
Strata Shuffle →recallerYou never forget a face. Dig Camp Pairs deals the whole camp crew face down across six levels, from a tiny warm-up grid to a sprawling 6x6 that adds fossils and dinosaurs to the deck.
Dig Camp Pairs →GuideSliding puzzles look like chaos until you learn to shrink them. Here is the method our studio swears by, explained without any maths.
GuideMini golf rewards the player who looks before they putt. These are the habits that turn a scrappy card into one you will want to beat.
We did, in our own small studio. All six games are written from scratch in plain JavaScript and tuned by hand. The dinosaurs, fossils, crew members and painted valley scenes belong to Ferndale as well, so you will spot Ned the platypus captain in one game and the same glowing ammonite turning up in two others.
Not a thing. Each game loads straight into its page and runs in any up-to-date browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Open the page, press Play on the start screen and you are digging. Above the stage you will find a restart button, a sound switch and fullscreen whenever you want more room.
They are kept in the browser on the device you are using. There is no login, so nothing to remember. If you clear your browsing data or pick up a different device, Ferndale starts afresh, so treat each phone or laptop as its own field notebook of achievements.
Of course. Each game page has a sound switch above the stage. With it on, you hear short, soft synthesised blips for merges, pops, putts and finished pictures. With it off, every game plays exactly the same in silence, which is how a good few of us play on the train home.
They were made with families in mind. The dinosaurs are cheerful, the volcano puffs heart-shaped smoke, and nothing in the valley is scary. Younger explorers usually love Dig Camp Pairs at its smallest grid, or the 3x3 slide puzzle, before moving up to bigger challenges.
All six reshape themselves for a narrow screen. Fossil Stack is happiest with swipes, Fernfall Dash needs only one thumb, and Smokepeak Putt works beautifully with a drag of the finger. The 5x5 slide puzzle has smaller tiles on a phone, so many people save that one for a tablet or laptop.
Our sketchbooks are full of ideas, but for now we would rather polish these six until they gleam than rush out a seventh. Expect small improvements first. If you have an idea for a dinosaur game, or a favourite fossil you would like to see in the art, the contact page reaches the studio directly.
Six games, nothing to install, and every best score kept snug on your own device. Choose one, press Play, and see what you unearth today.