SquareBlocks (PuzzleMadness)

About SquareBlocks (PuzzleMadness)

A SquareBlocks puzzle gives you an irregular grid of squares, often with notches and holes, and a set of coloured pieces built from joined squares, from a single cell to long bent shapes. Every piece has to go into the grid. The pieces may not overlap and no cell may be left empty, so the finished board is one solid patchwork of colours.

The outline of the grid does much of the work: a one-cell notch or a narrow arm can only take a few of the pieces, and the holes in the middle split the board into areas whose sizes must match the pieces placed there. Today's Medium board, for example, has ten pieces to fit around three holes.

PuzzleMadness is a free puzzle website run by Dewi, a software developer who started out making games for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and DS and now builds the site as a hobby. It carries dozens of puzzle types, from classic sudoku to newer logic grids, and each one gets its own dated puzzle every day at each difficulty. SquareBlocks comes in Easy, Medium and Hard versions plus a Mixed page, and the same day's SquareBlocks puzzle is shared by everyone who opens it.

The site checks your grid as you go and tells you when it is finished; it does not publish solutions. Each completed puzzle earns a score, and scores feed a monthly and an all-time SquareBlocks leaderboard, where only your best attempt at a puzzle counts. Older days stay in the archive, so a missed puzzle can still be played later and still counts toward the current month. Playing needs no account; a free registration gives you a username on the leaderboards and a cloud save. The pages carry adverts.

How to play SquareBlocks (PuzzleMadness)

1. Open today's SquareBlocks page on PuzzleMadness and choose a difficulty from the menu above the grid.
2. Move a piece from under the grid onto the board; you can pick it up again if it is in the wrong place.
3. Place every piece so none overlap and none stick out past the edge of the grid.
4. Finish when every cell is covered and no piece is left over.
5. The site tells you when the grid is complete and adds your score; registered players appear on the leaderboards.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start with notches, single-cell gaps and narrow arms of the grid: only a few pieces can fill them.
• Place the big awkward shapes first; small pieces such as the single square are easiest to fit at the end.
• If a region is cut off, count its cells and check which combination of pieces adds up to that size.
• Missed a day? Earlier puzzles are in the archive, and finishing one still counts toward this month's leaderboard.

Questions