How to play
Four games, all played with a finger or a mouse, and most of them with the keyboard too. Here are the rules in short, the controls, and guides for the tricky parts.
Jigsaw
Drag pieces from the table onto the board. When a piece meets its true neighbour, the two snap together and move as one group; a group dropped near its home spot locks onto the board. Pinch, scroll or use the zoom buttons to look closer.
Slide puzzle
One tile is missing. Tap or swipe any tile that touches the empty square to move it in. Pick a tile two or three steps away in line with the empty square and the whole stretch of tiles shifts together. Rebuild the picture to finish; the last tile appears when you do.
Swap puzzle
Every square tile is in the wrong place. Drag one tile onto another, or tap two tiles one after the other, to swap them. A tile that lands in its home spot locks, so you always know what is finished.
Turn puzzle
Each tile already sits in its own spot, just rotated by 90, 180 or 270 degrees. Tap a tile to turn it a quarter clockwise; right-click, or press Shift+Enter, to turn it back. When every tile is upright, the picture is whole.
Guides
- Open water, sand and sky: finishing the plain partsA practical guide to the slowest part of any picture puzzle: open water, sand and sky. Gradients, light, shapes and the order of work that speeds them up.
- Slide puzzles: the last tiles are the hard partA clear method for 3 × 3 to 6 × 6 slide puzzles: solve rows from the top, handle the tricky last tile of each row, then finish the last two rows in pairs.
- Swap and turn puzzles with fewer movesHow to solve swap puzzles in as few swaps as possible by following chains, and how to set every tile of a turn puzzle with the fewest taps.
Keyboard and mouse
| Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z | Undo the last move (all games) |
|---|---|
| H | Hint (all games) |
| Tab | Move between the buttons and the board |
| Arrow keys | Slide puzzle: move a tile into the gap. Swap and turn: move the cursor. Jigsaw: pan the view |
| Enter / Space | Swap: select and swap. Turn: turn the tile clockwise |
| Shift+Enter / right-click | Turn puzzle: turn the tile back |
| + / − / 0 | Jigsaw: zoom in, zoom out, fit to screen |
| E / G / T | Jigsaw: edges only, ghost image, sort loose pieces |
Saving and resuming
Every game saves after each move in this browser. A numbered dive, a free-play puzzle and today's tide each keep their own save, so starting one never wipes another. Open the same page later and the puzzle is where you left it.
Sound
The soft clicks and chimes are made by the browser itself; there are no sound files. The speaker button switches them off, and the choice is remembered.