How it works
Three ways to play, and none of them ask you to sign up for anything.
1. The daily
Nearly 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 storing a single board.
Play a few days running and you build a streak. As a guest it lives in this browser, kept against a random identifier that says nothing about who you are, so you can hold a streak without ever telling us. With an account it lives on the account and follows you between devices.
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
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 of the five people was in, and what time they were there.
- BallparkGet all five answers as close to the right size as you can.
- BiggerGet as many of the ten right as you can. Ten out of ten is the top of it.
- 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.
- DoormanWork out the rule from the words you try, then get all ten right.
- FitFill the tray with every shape, as quickly as you can.
- Five FrontsBeat as many of the 16 opponents as you can. You play all of them at once with the same placement, so you are not looking for the best split, you are looking for the split that beats the most people.
- 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.
- FoursFind all four groups of four before you run out of lives. The fewer lives it costs you, the better the day went.
- GridlightFill in exactly the squares the numbers describe, and see what you have drawn.
- HearsayFill all twenty-five squares so that every one of them agrees with its own claim. There is only ever one way to do it, and you never have to guess.
- HotterFind the secret country. Every guess tells you how far away it is and which way it lies, so two good guesses narrow the world a long way.
- Over the LineGet all five right. Knowing who borders whom is half of it; knowing which way round they sit is the other half.
- Penny DropYou are looking for one word. The clue is right there. The only question is when the penny drops.
- PercentClear all five. The 1% is the one worth telling people about, and the only way to it is through the four above it.
- PerjurySay which suspects are lying and which are telling the truth, then name the culprit. Exactly one arrangement fits everything said, and you never have to guess.
- QuicksetFinish the grid, as quickly as you can.
- 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.
- SkylineGive all twenty-five squares a height so that every row and column uses 1 to 5 once, and every number round the edge counts exactly what you can see from it.
- 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.
- Ten UpGet as many of the ten down as you can. The skill is not guessing what comes next, it is leaving room for it.
- TidelineWork out which squares are sea and paint them. There is only ever one way it can go, and you never have to guess.
- TimelineGet the six events into the order they actually happened, earliest at the top. You do not need the years. You score for every one you put in the right place.
- 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.
Do I need an account?
No, and you never will. Everything above works as a guest. What an account adds is that your record follows you between your phone and your computer, and that your name appears on the boards, which a guest cannot have because a guest has no name to show. Whatever you played as a guest in that browser comes with you when you sign in. 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.