Lumber Jack and Jill

If a tree falls in the forest, it lands somewhere. Usually not where you wanted. Lumber Jack is a tree-felling game where the fall is simulated, not scripted. There is no animation waiting to play. There is a trunk, its lean, the wood you leave behind, and gravity taking a vote. Where the tree ends up is arithmetic — yours, mostly. THE CUT Read the tree first: which way it leans, where the crown hangs heavy, and whether there is a cabin standing in the fall zone. Then aim the face notch by dragging around the trunk, and saw it in one cut at a time — the level cut, then the slope, and the block drops out. Place your back cut above the notch, drive it, and drive wedges into the kerf if the tree is sitting against you. Every cut is a decision with a consequence. Cut the back cut below the notch and you leave a shelf the trunk has to split through — that is a barber chair, and it comes back…