Tile Tangle

Inspiration

My greatest inspiration for this little toy project is bound to the deep-seated frustration that minigames like it have stirred in me throughout my gaming life. Every time a challenge like this appeared in my path, i tapped at the screen in wanton disregard and hoped against hope that I might, through pure blind luck, make it through. Eventually I got tired of that, and told myself that there must be a better, logical way to approach these puzzles. I decided to make a game that, through daily practice, would hone anyone into a person capable of solving these things with ease.

What it does

It lets users try their hand at matching a target pattern by tapping on tiles and turning them on and off. There are multiple activation patterns, grid sizes and scramble levels that can make this task a real challenge. More than that, players can make their own devilishly challenging target patterns and post their own games, for anyone to try and solve.

How we built it

The project began with the React-based Devvit template and grew outward from there. The focus was mainly on building a clean, deterministic puzzle engine: tile activation rules, board state transitions, and a solver capable of providing decent hints. Visual Studio served as the main development environment, but most of the heavy lifting was architectural: making sure the puzzle logic remained consistent no matter the rule set or grid size.

Challenges we ran into

What appears simple on the surface quickly becomes complex once interactivity, persistence, and user-generated content enter the picture. The puzzle logic itself had to be well defined; different activation rules required a generalized solver that could adapt without breaking. Even small inefficiencies in state updates caused noticeable lag, especially when multiple instances of the game were visible in a scrolling feed.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that the core mechanic feels fair. Every puzzle is solvable. Every activation rule behaves consistently. The solver is smart enough to find the best path. Most importantly, the game does genuinely reward thinking logically and finding your way out of a confusing mess through reason.

What's next for Daily Tile Switch

Most likely future feature would be a leaderboard for players to compete in. Redditors love some competition.

Built With

• css3
• devvit-web
• express.js
• html5
• node.js
• react
• redis
• tailwind-css
• typescript