Eye-Comfort 2048: Merge Puzzle

Two tiles with the same number meet and become one worth double — the 2048 everybody already knows. The rules are left exactly as they are; what changed is the screen. Instead of a stark white background and a shouting orange ladder, everything is painted in warm paper tones and a muted botanical palette — easier on your eyes late at night and through long sessions.

■ Easy on the eyes
• A warm paper background with quiet sage green accents
• A tile ramp that steps one shade darker with every doubling — ivory, sage, eucalyptus, then moss, bronze, plum and brick
• A crowded board sorts itself before you have parsed a single digit
• Only the 2048 is gold, and it wears a ring — you can see the arrival from across the board
• A low-glare screen built to stay comfortable however long you play

■ The rules, unchanged
• Swipe in any of four directions and every tile slides as far as it can
• Matching tiles merge, and the merge is scored
• A tile merges at most once per swipe — 4·4·8 slid left is 8·8, never 16
• A direction where nothing can travel is not a turn
• The score is the canonical one — no combo multipliers, no bonuses

■ It does not end at 2048
• Reach the goal and a card comes up once; the board carries on
• Past it the ramp goes quiet again — deep teal, indigo, slate
• The goal stays at 2048 whatever the board size

■ Three board sizes
• 4×4 — the original
• 4×5 — one row taller, with the cells exactly the size a 4×4's are. The best fit for a portrait phone
• 5×5 — the roomiest game
• Each size keeps its own board in progress and its own record, so switching loses nothing
• Chosen from the pill on the board itself, which also lists the record held at each

■ Controls that stay out of your way
• The board answers the moment your finger commits to a direction, not when you let go
• Tilt to move — tip the phone the way the tiles should slide, then bring it back level. Switch it on in settings
• Undo takes back the last swipe
• A soft rim marks any tile with an equal neighbour — the next move on a full board, at a glance. Switchable in settings
• Reduce motion lands tiles in their new cells instead of sliding them
• Keyboard too: arrow keys or W A S D, Z to undo, R for a new game

■ Sound and touch
• The merged tile's value is the note — a run climbs audibly as the numbers grow
• Soft plucked-string cues, with a plain slide kept far quieter than a merge
• Four sound steps — off, soft, medium, full
• A light vibration on a swipe and on a merge — switchable in settings

■ Light and undemanding
• No timers and no lives
• The board saves itself — close the app and pick up exactly where you left off
• No sign-up and no login
• Plays without an internet connection
• Your score and settings stay on your device
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A number puzzle for thinking one quiet move ahead.