Learn a casual game before you open it.

Why the notes are this short

Most guides bury the rules under a thousand words of preamble. We do the opposite. Every page opens with a spec strip — what kind of game it is, how long one round runs, what you tap — and then walks the loop. The step-by-step puzzles get numbered steps; the arcade titles get a couple of paragraphs, because a game with one gesture has nothing to number. If a step needs a diagram in your head, we describe the screen instead of assuming you already know it.

What we cover is ordinary casual games: a grid to match, a route to draw, a jam to unpick, a set of tanks to sort, and a handful of well-known titles most people already have installed. We write about the games we can open and play ourselves,

The rulebooks

Each one written from a cold start, by whichever of us plays that kind of game.

1. 01

   Chicken

   A farmyard match puzzle. Swap two neighbouring tiles to line up three of a kind, clear them, and meet the board's goal.

   Match puzzle
2. 02

   Airplane

   An air-traffic drawing puzzle. Draw a path from each plane to its runway and keep any two from meeting.

   Routing puzzle
3. 03

   Aviation

   A sliding-block puzzle. Slide the parked planes around a crowded apron to free the one that needs the exit gate.

   Sliding-block puzzle
4. 04

   Fishing

   A sorting puzzle. Move the top fish between tanks until every tank holds just one kind.

   Sorting puzzle
5. 05

   Ice

   A tap puzzle. Clear groups of matching ice blocks so a penguin can drop through to the water.

   Tap-to-clear puzzle

How to read a page here

1. 1

   Start with the spec strip

   The boxed rows at the top tell you the game type, the length of one round, the input you use and how much attention it wants. If the round length does not suit the ten minutes you have, skip to another page.

2. 2

   Read the numbered steps, where there are any

   The steps run in the order the screen presents them: opening screen, first input, what changes, how a round ends. They are deliberately blunt so you can hold all of them at once.

3. 3

   Check the controls

   Every page has a small table of inputs and what each one does. It is the part worth glancing back at mid-session, so it is always in the same position on the page.

4. 4

   Skim the pointers last

   The closing list is habits, not secrets: the small adjustments that stop a beginner from repeating the same avoidable mistake for an hour.

Well-known casual games

Bigger titles, same treatment. Start with the casual games overview if you are choosing rather than looking something up.

1. 06

   Fruit Ninja

   Swipe through fruit as it arcs across the screen and avoid the bombs thrown in among it. A run is under two minutes and asks nothing of you but reflexes.

   Reaction slicer
2. 07

   Cut the Rope

   Cut ropes so a sweet swings into the right place. Untimed, and the three stars on each level are the actual puzzle rather than the sweet itself.

   Physics puzzle
3. 08

   Doodle Jump

   Tilt the phone to steer a character that bounces upward by itself. Short, reactive, and over the moment you fall past the bottom of the screen.

   Endless jumper
4. 09

   Two Dots

   Join same-coloured dots on a grid inside a move limit. Closing a square clears every dot of that colour, which is what the late levels turn on.

   Connection puzzle
5. 10

   Sand Balls

   Dig a channel through sand so a cluster of balls rolls to the bottom without scattering. Levels are under a minute and there is no way to lose outright.

   Drawing puzzle