Sweeple

About Sweeple

Sweeple, by ChrisLHall, is a browser game made in GameMaker Studio, with its source code published on GitHub. The board is a small grid, such as 4x6 with two bombs or a larger one with four. On each turn you choose a set of squares equal to the number of bombs and press GO.

Every square you picked that is not a bomb shows a number: the taxicab distance, counted horizontally plus vertically, to the nearest bomb. Squares that are bombs turn green. You can press a square twice to mark it with an X once you know it cannot hold a bomb, which helps narrow the field. To win you must select all of the bombs in a single turn, and you have six guesses.

As in Wordle, a hard mode makes you keep selecting the bombs you have already found. Each day has a daily challenge that is the same for everyone, and the result can be shared as a short text with the board size, the number of bombs, your guess count and a grid of coloured squares. After the daily, the reset button gives you random boards to keep playing.

Sweeple is free on itch.io. The maker notes that on mobile you need to hold your finger down to select things in the game.

How to play Sweeple

1. Open Sweeple on itch.io and start the daily challenge.
2. Select as many squares as there are bombs and press GO.
3. Read the numbers: each one is the horizontal plus vertical distance to the nearest bomb.
4. Press a square twice to mark it with an X when you know it is safe.
5. Find every bomb and select them all in the same turn within six guesses, then share your result.

Screenshots

Tips

• Spread your first guess across the board to get distance readings from different areas.
• A 1 means a bomb sits directly next to that square, up, down, left or right, not diagonally.
• Cross out every square a clue rules out; the remaining candidates shrink quickly.
• On a phone, hold your finger down to select a square.

Questions