Joinery: Block Puzzle

Four to ten levels a day — same boards for everyone, a target set from your own best. Some days are four hard ones, some are ten quick ones. Plus a campaign

Joinery is a block puzzle that takes the fiddly bits seriously.

Eight by eight grid. Three pieces at a time. Nothing rotates, so the only question is where a piece already fits — and the board fills up faster than you'd think.

That's the game. Everything else is what you do with it.

THE DAILY Between four and ten levels a day, and everybody gets the same ones. Same boards, same pieces, same order — only the score you're asked to hit is yours, set from what you've already proved you can do.

Some days are four hard levels. Some are ten quick ones. You don't know which until you open it, and the day isn't done until every level is.

Miss a day and a banked freeze covers it. Freezes are earned by playing a full week, never sold.

The last twenty puzzles stay on the shelf. Play them whenever you like; they don't touch your streak in either direction.

THE CAMPAIGN 120 levels across 12 worlds, each with its own palette and its own weather. Meadow, where everyone starts. Glacier: quiet, and a long way down. Nebula, further out than the map goes.

A level ends the moment you hit its target, so a campaign run always knows what it's for. Fail one and you get another go at the same level. No lives, no timers, nothing to wait for.

HIGH SCORE No target, no clock, no end but the board's. Clear lines back to back and the streak bonus climbs — that's what turns a decent run into a good one. Break the chain and it's gone.

TIME TRIAL Three minutes. Same board, same pieces, and a countdown that changes every decision you make. Your best here is kept apart from your endless best, because they are not the same skill.

WHAT YOU EARN Every run pays XP whether it went well or not, so a bad session is still progress. Levels hand over block palettes and board surfaces: Riso, Dusk, Moss, Chalk, Graphite, Ember. There's no currency and no shop. Levels only ever give things away.

Seventeen achievements cover the long haul, from your first cleared line to a hundred-day streak.

DETAILS • Plays offline. No account, no sign-up. • iCloud sync across your devices. • Game Center leaderboards, including a daily board that turns over with the puzzle. • Light and dark, following the system or set by hand. • iPhone and iPad. • Undo and hints when a board goes wrong. • Remove Ads is a one-time purchase. Not a subscription.

The blocks are chamfered like cut timber, which is where the name comes from. Pieces fitting together exactly is the whole appeal of this genre — it seemed worth making it look that way.