Door 1 · Runner
Ute Run: Day 1 of Sunburnt Santa
Tap to jump Santa's red ute over roos, wombats and emus on an outback road, and see how far you get before you hit one. Grab presents in a row for a multiplier, and clear the animals by a whisker for bonus points.
How to play Ute Run
- Tap to jump. Hold for a bigger jump. Tap again in the air to double jump.
- Dodge roos, wombats and emus for as long as you can.
- Grab presents in a row for a multiplier. Gold ones are worth more.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Every metre driven | 1 |
| Every animal you pass | 10 |
| Near miss (clear an animal by a whisker) | 100 |
| Present | 50 |
| Gold present | 250 |
Presents in a row build a multiplier: x2 from the 5th, up to x5 from the 20th. Let one go past and the streak starts again. The ute starts at about 27 metres a second and keeps getting faster.
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
- Distance does most of the work. Survive about 85 seconds and the metres alone come to roughly 4,400, so staying alive beats chasing a present that puts you in front of a roo.
- A near miss is worth 100, as much as two plain presents. Leave your jump late so the ute only just clears the animal; a wombat is the safest one to practise on.
- Each present you let pass resets the multiplier, so line your jumps up with the present arcs early on. A gold present at x5 is 1,250 points.
The real story: the ute, an Australian invention
A ute (short for "coupe utility", the Australian word for a pickup with a car's cabin) is about as Aussie as a vehicle gets, and it really was invented here. In 1932 a farmer's wife in Gippsland, Victoria, wrote to Ford's Australian company saying farmers needed one vehicle that could both work and carry the family [1]. A young designer at the Geelong works, Lewis Bandt [2], answered with an enclosed, comfortable cabin at the front and a tray at the back [1].
A sample body was built in 1933 and the first utes came off the production line in 1934 [1]. A history of Australian technology describes it as "a unique Australian vehicle to meet what was thought to be peculiar Australian needs" [2]. When Bandt showed two of them in Detroit in 1935, Henry Ford nicknamed the ute "the Kangaroo Chaser" [1]. That makes Day 1 almost historical: Santa's ute, a tree in the tray, dodging roos instead of chasing them.
Our Santa has swapped the sleigh for one because it suits an Australian Christmas: hot, dusty, and a long way between houses. He drives it sensibly, too. No hooning, just a lot of jumping.
Read more: Aussie Christmas slang: a dictionary for visitors.
When it opens
Door 1 opens on day 1 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 1 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: Hot Sand Sprint, Christmas Eve Run.
Sources for the real story
- Bandt, Louis Thornett (Lewis) (1910–1987), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University
- Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Chapter 7: Motorised Vehicles, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, University of Melbourne