Springle Puzzle

Springle Puzzle is a jigsaw with a stopwatch attached. You pick the cut before you pick anything else: Classic gives you the interlocking tabs everyone grew up with, Irregular hands you edges that follow no pattern at all, Hexagon changes the geometry underneath the whole picture, and Wave curves every seam. The same image plays like four different puzzles depending on which one you take.

Piece count is the other dial. Sixteen is a couple of quiet minutes; thirty-two is a longer sit and a bigger score at the end of it. The clock is what turns either of those into a game rather than a pastime, and when it starts running thin you can watch a reward ad and carry on with the time topped back up.

How to play

Choose a cut style and a piece count, then start dragging pieces from the tray into the picture. Two pieces that belong together snap and stay joined, so build outward from small clusters instead of hunting one piece at a time. Corners and straight edges are the easiest anchors in Classic, but Hexagon and Wave give you none, so there you work from colour and pattern. Finish before the timer empties, or take the extra time on offer.

Controls

Dragging is the whole control scheme. Hold a piece down with the mouse or your finger on a touchpad, move it over to where you think it belongs and release; if it is right it locks into place, and if it is not it simply sits there for you to move again.