Relaxing Puzzle Games: How to Unwind with Picture Puzzle

What makes a puzzle game relaxing?

The puzzle games people call relaxing tend to share a few things: no countdown, no way to fail, small rewards that come often, and something pleasant to look at. Picture Puzzle was built around exactly that.

• No clock to watch. The toolbar shows your level, your moves and the pictures done. There is no timer on screen and no time limit.
• No losing. A level only ends when every picture is whole. When new pieces are dealt, the game makes sure at least one picture on the board can always be finished.
• Small, frequent rewards. Every time two pieces join you hear a soft chime, and a finished picture flies away to your gallery.
• Calm pictures. Sea turtles, lighthouses, autumn cabins, snowy villages, flowers in a vase.

How Picture Puzzle works

This is what the video shows.

1. Swap pieces. Drag a piece onto another spot, or tap a piece and then tap where it should go. The two trade places.
2. Watch them stick. When two pieces that belong next to each other meet, the line between them disappears and they move as one group from then on.
3. Finish a picture. A whole picture flies away to your gallery. The pieces above it fall into the gap, and new pieces drop in from the deck at the top.
4. Clear the level. When the deck and the board are both empty, the level is done.

Stuck? Hint lights up two pieces that belong together, and Peek shows the finished pictures for a moment. Both are always there, they just take a little off your score.

Slow down: the score rewards calm play

Even the score is designed for relaxed play. We read the game's scoring code. A finished level scores:

So a whole minute of looking at the board costs 60 points, the same as four wasted moves. A worked example on level 1, which has 20 pieces: finish in 22 moves with a best combo of 3 and no hints. Take 3 minutes and you score 2,000 - 330 - 180 + 60 = 1,550. Rush it in 1 minute and you score 1,670. Rushing gains you 120 points, while one careless move costs 15. Take your time.

Levels and grades

Levels grow slowly, and they never run out. Each picture is cut into 2 by 2 or 3 by 3 pieces.

At the end you get a grade from C to S for moves, time and combo, measured per piece. On level 1, an S for moves means 15 moves or fewer, an S for time means a minute or less, and an S for combo means 5 joining moves in a row. The grades are only there if you want a goal. You can ignore them and just enjoy the pictures.

Tips for a smooth, calm solve

• Sort by color first. The game picks pictures with clearly different colors and from different sets, so each picture has its own palette. Decide which picture a piece belongs to before you move it.
• Sky up, ground down. Top pieces usually show sky, bottom pieces show ground, water or a table.
• Move groups, not single pieces. Moving a joined group counts as one move, however many pieces it holds.
• Finish one picture at a time. A whole picture frees its space, and the deck deals the missing pieces of pictures already on the board first.
• Peek once, early. If you want help, a single Peek at the start tells you the most.

The pictures and your gallery

There are 136 pictures. 100 are original artworks made for NitroPlayer in a soft, painterly style, in ten sets of ten: pastel, autumn, ocean, garden, lavender, winter, sunset, forest, citrus and retro. The other 36 are photos with free licenses, such as tulips, macarons, wisteria and cherry blossoms. Every picture you finish is added to your gallery, which shows how many of the 136 you have collected. Tap any picture to see it full size.

Daily puzzle and duels

Want a little more? The daily Picture Puzzle gives everyone the same six pictures, cut 2 by 2, and ranks results by time. In a duel you and another player race on the same six pictures for up to 5 minutes, with no Hint or Peek. Play a duel online with whoever is available, or send a private link to a friend. When you want to unwind, go back to the levels, where nothing is timed.