Ten new games in the bored arcade

We just shipped ten new games in the bored mini arcade. That is roughly double what we had a month ago. They split into three flavours: daily puzzles you do once a day, classics that eat a whole lunch break, and bite sized snack games for between meetings.

Quick tour, in the order we are most proud of them.

Five new daily puzzles

These all share the same idea. One fresh puzzle per day, the same for everyone, no progression, no points farming. Come back tomorrow for the next one. The arcade overview shows a small 'new daily' badge if you have not played today, and a green check once you have, so you can see at a glance what is fresh.

Word groups is our take on the Connections format. Sixteen words, find four groups of four with a shared theme. Easier than it looks until it is suddenly very hard, because of course one of the words fits two groups and you have to figure out which one is a trap.

Spelling bee gives you seven letters in a honeycomb, with one in the middle that has to appear in every word. Find as many four letter and longer words as you can. We swapped in a full English dictionary so it actually accepts the words you would expect, instead of getting cranky about basic vocabulary.

Letter box is the puzzle where you chain words around a square of twelve letters. Each word has to start with the last letter of the previous one, no two consecutive letters from the same side, and you want to use all twelve in as few words as possible.

Country guess picks a country every day. You type a country to guess, get back the distance to the target and a compass arrow that actually points the way you would walk on a flat map. Five tries to nail it.

Daily trivia is ten multiple choice questions, mixed categories, score and streak. The kind of thing you finish in three minutes and then immediately want to compare with a friend.

Three classics with long sessions

These eat real time on purpose. Open them when you have a coffee.

Stack is the falling block game you already know. Ten wide, line clears, level speed climbs. We rebuilt it on top of the canvas from our mini arcade prototype so the feel is right.

Mahjong solitaire is the classic 144 tile pyramid. Match free pairs, clear the board. Daily layout plus endless shuffle, with undo and shuffle buttons under the board for when you paint yourself into a corner.

Solitaire is the Klondike one your dad played on Windows. Seven columns, four foundations, draw three. Auto complete kicks in once the board is winnable, so you do not have to click ten thousand times at the end.

Two snack sized games

Higher or lower shows you two cards from the same category and asks if the next is higher or lower. We made the numeric value big with a coloured underline and kept the unit small underneath, so it is obvious that only the number counts. Build a streak in endless mode, or play the daily set of ten.

Match three is the gem swap classic. Sixty seconds, swap two adjacent gems, line up three or more, watch the cascade. Small floating combo numbers pop up on the board so you can see exactly how big a chain you triggered.

What else changed

We took the chance to tidy the entire arcade while we were in there. Every game with utility buttons, reset, undo, hint, shuffle, clear, now has them in a consistent action footer right under the play surface. That keeps the header clean on phones, where space is at a premium. Sharing also moved out of the game body completely. There is one share button in the header, and a 'challenge a friend' button on every end screen.

Smaller fixes worth mentioning: the spelling bee and letter box dictionaries are now massive, the country guess compass actually points the right way, the match three title is readable, and the daily badges on the arcade overview tell you what is new today versus what you have already played.

How to find them

All ten are listed on the arcade overview, sorted by category. If you only have a minute, try Higher or lower or Match three. If you have ten, try Word groups or Letter box. If you want a long sit, Mahjong and Solitaire are waiting.

As always, free, no sign up, plays in your browser. Tell us when something feels off and we will tighten it up.