How it works
Three ways to play, and none of them ask you to sign up for anything.
1. The daily
Every game has one puzzle a day, and everybody in the world gets the same one. That is the whole point of a daily: a score only means something if the person you are comparing it with played the same board.
You get one go. Your first score is the one that stands, so there is no advantage in refreshing, and the puzzle is worked out from the date rather than stored anywhere, which is why the archive goes back to the first day without us keeping a single row.
Play a few days running and you build a streak. It lives on your device, so you can keep one without ever telling us who you are.
2. Unlimited
One a day is the deal, and unlimited is the pressure valve. Play any game as many times as you like, off the daily. Nothing there is banked, ranked or counted towards a streak, which is exactly what keeps the daily worth turning up for.
3. The lobby
The part worth having. Make a lobby, send the link, and two to twelve of you play a run of games against each other. No account, no download, nothing to install, and the fourth person can still turn up four minutes late and join the standings.
Rounds are scored by where you came, not by your raw score. That sounds like a detail and it is the whole tournament. A Sudoku time, a number of guesses and a distance in kilometres cannot be added together honestly. Rank can: inside a round everybody played the same board of the same game, so whatever the difficulty of that game is, it is identical for all of you and cancels out. First takes 100, last takes 0, and a run of very different games still adds up to one fair table.
The host picks one setting: Precision, where each game is scored on what it is actually about, or Speed, where the clock decides. A game that would be ruined by a clock, like a word puzzle, ignores Speed and stays on its own measure, because ranking deduction on a stopwatch stops rewarding thinking and starts rewarding typing.
While a round is running you can see that somebody has finished. You cannot see what they scored until it closes, because in a deduction game knowing the answer was findable in four is most of the way to finding it in four.
The games
- AlibiWork out which room each suspect was in and which hour they were there.
- ArrowsGet through all twenty as quickly as you can. A wrong direction costs you more than a slow one.
- BallparkGet all five answers as close to the right size as you can.
- BounceTake all six targets, ideally with your first shot.
- CipherlineWork out the swap and read the saying back, as quickly as you can.
- CrackerWork out the four hidden shapes, in order, in as few guesses as you can.
- Digit DropPlace twelve falling digits into three four-digit numbers and make the biggest total.
- FitFill the tray with every shape, as quickly as you can.
- Five MarksWork out the hidden five-letter word in as few guesses as you can.
- FlashgridGet through as many rounds as you can. Round one is four squares and every round after it adds one.
- GridlightFill in exactly the squares the numbers describe, and see what you have drawn.
- ReckoningHit the target exactly by combining the six numbers you are dealt.
- RungsTurn the first word into the second in the fewest steps.
- SixesFill every empty cell so no digit repeats in a row, a column or a box.
- SnapScore as many points as you can by catching the matching pairs and leaving the rest alone.
- SpillboxScore as many points as you can in two minutes by finding words in the box. Long words are worth far more.
- SumsFill every empty square so all eight totals come out exactly right.
- SweepOpen every square that is not a mine, as quickly as you can.
- Two ThirdsLand nearer than anybody else to two thirds of the average of all the numbers picked. Not the highest number and not the lowest: the one that guesses what everybody else will do.
- WarmerFind the hidden word. Closeness here means closeness in the alphabet, not in meaning: a guess is warmer when fewer words sit between it and the answer in our A to Z list.
Do I need an account?
No, and you never will. Everything above works as a guest. An account does two things and nothing else: it carries your streak between your phone and your computer, and it puts your name on the daily boards, which guests cannot have because a guest has no name to show. Make one if either of those is worth it to you.
Is it free?
Yes. Puzzle Party is free to play, there is nothing to buy, and there is no prize with a cash value. The site carries advertising on pages where nothing is in progress, and never during a puzzle.
More small games
- Aux WarsDaily music puzzles, and multiplayer rows about who has the best taste.
- Shareholder PartyAn office board game and four daily puzzles. Praise the shareholders.
- Tavern PartyRoll a character, survive five encounters, and only one of you gets the loot.
- Car FootballFour letters. Six cars. One ball.
- Kart PartyKart racing in a browser tab.