Door 7 · Runner
Hot Sand Sprint: Day 7 of Sunburnt Santa
Barefoot Santa sprints along the beach: jump the hot sand, sandcastles, umbrellas and mud crabs, and stay low when the seagulls swoop. Grab coins, ice creams and cakes in a row for a multiplier, and pick up thongs (flip-flops) to save your feet.
How to play Hot Sand Sprint
- Tap to jump. Hold for a bigger jump. Tap again in the air to double jump. Santa is barefoot, so jump the hot sand.
- Jump the mud crabs, sandcastles and hot sand. Seagulls fly at head height: stay low and they miss you.
- Grab coins, ice creams and cakes in a row for a multiplier. Thongs forgive your next hot-sand patch.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Every metre run | 1 |
| Every obstacle you pass | 10 |
| Near miss | 100 |
| Coin | 20 |
| Ice cream | 50 |
| Cake | 250 |
| Thongs | forgive your next hot-sand patch (50 if you already have a pair on) |
Pickups in a row build a multiplier: x2 from the 5th, up to x5 from the 20th. Letting a coin, ice cream or cake go past resets it; a missed pair of thongs doesn't. Santa starts at about 29 metres a second and keeps speeding up.
Stars: the three targets
Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.
Tips for three stars
- Run for about 75 seconds and the metres alone get you close to three stars, so survival comes first. Seagulls fly at head height: if you stay on the ground they pass over you, and jumping is what gets you hit.
- The coin arcs trace the path of a jump, so if you follow the coins you're also clearing the obstacle. Over a tall sandcastle the arc is the held-jump path: hold the tap, don't just tap.
- Thongs are worth grabbing even mid-streak. With a pair on, the next hot-sand patch costs you nothing instead of the run. Mud crabs scuttle towards you faster than the beach scrolls, so jump them a touch earlier than you'd think.
The real story: Sid the Seagull and Slip, Slop, Slap
Christmas in Australia falls in summer, so for many families Christmas week means the beach, and a sprint across sand hot enough to make you yelp. Australians of a certain age learned to cope with the sun from a seagull. In 1981 the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria (now Cancer Council Victoria) asked broadcaster Philip Adams, then an advertising creative director, for a campaign to get people protecting their skin [1]. He, composer Peter Best and animator Alex Stitt came up with Sid, a cheerful seagull in board shorts, a T-shirt and a hat, singing "Slip! Slop! Slap!" to a jingle adapted from a Queensland Cancer Fund campaign [1].
Cancer Council calls it one of the most successful health campaigns in Australia's history, and the slogan is still the core of its SunSmart programme [2]. In 2007 it grew to five steps: Slip on protective clothing, Slop on sunscreen, Slap on a hat, Seek shade and Slide on wraparound sunglasses [2].
Our Santa is called sunburnt as a joke, not a goal. On the real beach, Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide, and wear your thongs over the hot sand.
Read more: Why is Christmas in summer in Australia?.
When it opens
Door 7 opens on day 7 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 7 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.
Play now
Same kind of game: Ute Run, Christmas Eve Run.
Sources for the real story
- Slip! Slop! Slap! Original SunSmart campaign (1981), SunSmart, Cancer Council Victoria
- Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide, Cancer Council Australia