Puzzle Games

32 puzzle games, oldest first

• Peg Parlor 1983 Peg solitaire on three boards: a triangle, a cross and a round board. Leave as few pegs as you can.
• Sonar Sweep 1984 Hunt hidden subs with a limited stock of depth charges. Every miss pings how far the nearest sub is.
• Tile Temple 1986 A mahjong-style tile solitaire on a five-minute clock, with a score streak for quick pairs.
• Gemfall 1991 Stacks of three jewels tumble into a well. Line up three or more of one colour in any direction, rows, columns or diagonals, and they shatter. Whatever sat above falls and may shatter again.
• Crate Courier 1992 Push every crate onto a gold spot in sixty small warehouses, easy to hard. Each one was solved by a computer before it shipped, there is a par for every level, and undo is free.
• Culvert Crew 1993 Water starts creeping out of a spout in a few seconds. Lay pipe ahead of it, one piece at a time from the queue, and keep the water moving. Fill the quota and the site is cleared for the next one, with faster water.
• Mergecliff 1993 A sliding rune puzzle on a 4x4 cliff face, with boulders that roll in every fifteen moves.
• Tidepool Tactics 1994 Nudge hermit crabs into shells of their own colour while the tide keeps rearranging the pool.
• Lantern Sweep 1995 A crypt-floor deduction puzzle: read the lantern numbers and dig every square that is safe.
• Stack Duel 1995 Two wells, twelve block shapes of our own (three, four and five cells), one seeded piece order. Clear two or more rows at once to send junk rows across, and keep your own well from topping out.
• Walkabout Wardens 1995 A line of little hard-hatted walkers marches out of the hatch and never stops. Hand out jobs, bridge, dig, block and float, to get enough of them to the door. Thirty levels, each one checked solvable.
• Sparkstone Swap 1996 A timed match-three where every match buys seconds and a climbing score speeds the clock.
• Dyeflood 2002 A flood-fill puzzle across ten boards, 6x6 up to 15x15, where spare moves turn into points.
• Gloss Garden 2007 A match-three where the humidity bar drains while you think and refills with every bloom.
• Tilt Orchard 2008 A match puzzle where you tip the whole orchard and gravity slides every fruit.
• Lamp Lattice 2013 Press a lamp and it flips its four neighbours. Light the whole lattice before the move cap.
• Merge Mutts 2014 Drop pups into a pen and merge matching breeds, from Pip all the way up to Moose.
• Transit Tangle 2015 Stations keep popping up and every passenger wants a station of their own shape. Draw coloured lines, add carriages and bridges, and keep the city moving. The river moves every week.
• Mossbloom 2016 Plant spores in a six-by-six garden. Four spores make a plot bloom and throw one to each neighbour, so one tap can run through the whole bed. Clear every weed before your taps run out.
• Rune Duel 2017 Swap runes to line up three or more and every match casts a spell: ember hurts, sprout heals, tide wards, star freezes the foe clock, gold scores. Ten duels, each foe tougher.
• Sneak Path 2018 Slip a courier across a night-time courtyard to the lit door. Guards move when you do, and a lantern beam that reaches you sends you back to the start. Thirty levels, each checked solvable.
• Tube Tidy 2018 Pour coloured layers between glass tubes until each one holds a single colour. Five puzzles per run, each checked to be solvable, with stars for beating par.
• Ninefold 2021 Fill the 9x9 board so every row, column and 3x3 box holds the digits 1 to 9 once. Three boards a run, easy to hard, and each has exactly one answer. Pencil marks help you keep track.
• Pebble Jar 2021 Drop pebbles into the jar. Two the same size that touch merge into the next size up. Keep the pile under the rim: a pebble resting over it for two seconds ends the run.
• Postcard Puzzle 2021 A postcard painted in code, cut into jigsaw pieces. Pick a loose piece, find its place on the card, and post the finished picture. The daily card has 48 pieces, the weekly has 96, and a free game can be 24, 48 or 96.
• Equate 2022 Find the hidden eight-character equation in six tries. Green is the right character in the right place, amber is in the equation somewhere else. Three equations a run, and the daily set is the same for everyone.
• Pixel Proof 2022 The numbers beside each row and column say how long the runs of filled squares are. Work them out and a small pixel picture appears. Three pictures a run, from 10x10 up to 15x15, each with exactly one answer.
• Triplet Tray 2022 A heap of layered tiles. Tap the free ones into a seven-slot tray; three alike vanish. Fill the tray and the run is over. Clear a board to open a bigger one.
• Alchemy Shelf 2023 Start with water, fire, earth and air. Mix two things from your shelf and see what they make: 116 finds in a hand-written web of recipes, from steam and mud to dragons and rockets. Ten minutes on the clock.
• Numpath 2024 Draw one line from 1 through every number in order, over every cell, ending on the top number. Fences block the way. Five boards from 4x4 to 7x7; each has exactly one answer.
• Shelf Sort 2024 A cosy tidy-up with new rules every level. The shelves are labelled; read them top to bottom and put each item on the first shelf it fits. From level four the shop re-labels the shelves half way through.
• Codebreak Hues 2025 Crack a four-peg colour code in eight guesses. A dark pin means right hue, right slot; a ring pin means right hue, wrong slot. Chain up to ten codes: miss one and the case closes. Normal has 5 hues, no repeats; Hard has 6 hues with repeats and scores x1.5.