SELL THE
LADDER

Every household has an expiry date.
Yours just needs a little encouragement.

Warming up the grill…

Sell the Ladder is a free 3D household sandbox you play in the browser. Four people start on a furnished lot with a swimming pool and §18,000. They try to look after their own needs. The dark humor is what you decide to do with the house.

How to play

  1. Press Begin the Household. If this browser already has a save with someone still alive, that button says Continue, and Start a new household under it replaces the house. While playing, ↺ does the same. A vacant house is not restored. A damaged save stays on this device until you start a new household; you can download it first.
  2. Click or tap someone to select them. On a phone, tap that portrait again to open their needs. Click an object for actions, a puddle to order a mop, or a doorway to bolt or unbolt it. Right-click opens those same menus. Drag them to carry them.
  3. Drag empty ground to pan. On a phone, pinch to zoom and twist two fingers to turn the view. The buttons on the right do the same turn and zoom. Right-drag orbits the camera, and the wheel zooms. On a keyboard, the arrow keys pan (hold Shift to move faster), Q and E turn 45 degrees, 0 through 3 set the speed, and Space pauses.
  4. Open Build with B or the Build button. On a phone the catalog sits along the bottom. Place objects, walls, doors, floors, and pool tiles. R, or Rotate, turns the piece. Pinch to move the camera while you build. The Lock tool, or a tap on a doorway, bolts it so nobody can walk through.

On the lot

  • Needs: hunger, bladder, hygiene, energy, fun, social, comfort, and bowel.
  • Buy and sell furniture, draw walls and floors, cut doors, and dig a pool.
  • Devious props include a live terminal, a gas can, a poison fogger, a waste drum, a revolver, cigarettes, an unlabeled tonic, a bear trap, a chandelier, and a ouija board.
  • Pee and filth stay on the floor until someone mops them up.
  • The mug button turns on drunken stupor for the whole household.
  • A dead resident haunts the lot as a ghost and leaves at midnight.
  • One household is saved in this browser. G cycles graphics: Low, Medium, High, or Ultra.

Privacy

Sell the Ladder in play: a furnished house, a swimming pool, four people, and the selected person's needs panel.
The lot during play, with the house, pool, and needs panel.
Sell the Ladder on a phone, with the needs panel open over the house.
The same household on a phone-sized screen.