Tag: game

Plan the day. Weigh the risks. Finish the job.

Spray Window is a free browser game about planning a spray day. Each turn represents one day. Review the forecast and field requirements, choose which jobs to complete, their order and the sprayer setup, and then see how the day unfolds.

You have one sprayer and six working days of changeable weather. Depending on your role, you manage your own fields or a list of clients’ jobs. There is no single right answer.

The challenge reflects what every operator learns on the job: assess the work, plan ahead, weigh risk against reward, and complete as much as you safely can. A week takes about 20 minutes and plays best on a tablet or desktop. At the end, a debrief explains what your decisions cost, what they saved and how a benchmark operator planned the same week.

Why a game?

Most sprayer training explains the pieces one at a time: drift, Delta T, inversions, spray quality, water volume, travel speed. In reality, operators never get to address them one at a time. On a real morning they all arrive together, along with crop stage, a closing window, a neighbour, and someone waiting on the work.

These decisions are difficult to teach in an article or test with a quiz because they rarely have one correct answer. An owner facing a closing disease window might reasonably accept more drift risk than a custom applicator whose business depends on reputation. Both may be making a sound call. 

Simulation lets players decide, experience the consequences and try again. In Spray Window, the opponent is the weather and the clock, not another player. The goal is to see how your reasoning plays out.

How it plays

The game is set in Ontario fields and features common broad-acre crops like corn, soybeans and winter wheat. Each week of game play is a unique combination of fields, pests, crops and weather that takes place in one of three seasons. Choose your role, (Owner-Operator or Custom Applicator) outfit your sprayer with a limited budget, and dive in. Weather changes and there are random surprises to deal with. And yes, Micron Woman is back to be your guide.

Spring

In mid-May, jobs include herbicide and fungicide applications in wheat, a pre-emergence herbicide before corn emergence, a burndown ahead of soybean planting, and insecticide applications for cereal leaf beetle and black cutworm at threshold. 

Early Summer

In mid-June, jobs include fusarium head blight at wheat flowering, a Group 4 herbicide before the corn crop-stage limit, post-emergence herbicides in soybeans, and armyworm in wheat. 

Mid Summer

In late July, jobs include tar spot at corn tassel, white mould and soybean aphid in soybeans, western bean cutworm, and a pre-harvest herbicide as wheat dries down. 

Drift

Every field borders something sensitive, such as open water, a neighbour’s home and garden, beehives in a flowering hedgerow, a vineyard or a certified organic farm. Each responds as it might in real life.

Labels may also require an unsprayed buffer zone beside sensitive downwind areas. Coarser sprays can reduce that buffer. Heat introduces another risk: after application, a Group 4 herbicide such as dicamba can turn to vapour and move off target regardless of the nozzle. In June, a cooler day or an application after the heat of the day may be the safer choice.

High scores, weekly scenarios and feedback

A score of 1,000 means your decisions left you as well off as the benchmark operator playing the same week. Both roles use the same yardstick, so their scores are comparable. Beat the benchmark and you score higher. If your balance falls below zero, you are broke and the week ends with zero points. 

Ranks are awarded as follows: 

• Apprentice (0-499)
• Operator (500+)
• Pro (800+)
• Ace (950+)
• Legend (1,100+)

At the end of the week, “Turning points” identifies the three decisions that cost you the most and shows what the forecast could have allowed instead. Your score is compared with the benchmark playing that same week, and weeks are selected from scenarios of similar difficulty. This keeps scores comparable. 

Enter your initials arcade-style. The game saves your top ten scores on your device and provides a score code. This code records your plans and decisions so Sprayers101 can replay the week and confirm the result. Just copy your code and paste it in the leaderboard page to see where you rank. Only a week’s first play counts. “Play this week again” is just for practice.

Ready to play?

High Scores

See the full leaderboard