The Inkplay blog
How to actually get better at the classics, and how (and why) we build these games the way we do. Written by the team, no filler.
Mahjong Solitaire: Read the Board Before You Match
Matching the first pair you spot is how Mahjong Solitaire games die. Three questions worth asking before every match, and how to read a layout top down.
Spider Solitaire: Playing Around the Five Deals
Spider Solitaire is a countdown, not a card game: five stock deals, ten columns, and the habits that decide whether the board survives the fifth one.
FreeCell: The Solitaire You Only Lose by Mistake
Why nearly every FreeCell deal is winnable, the famous unsolvable deal 11982, and the strategy that matters: cells are debt, empty columns are wealth.
Rise Up: Survival Habits for Protecting the Balloon
How to last longer in Rise Up: shield positioning between threat and balloon, flicking versus carrying, triage by trajectory, and the deaths to unlearn.
Video Poker Holds: What to Keep, in the Right Order
A practical Jacks or Better hold guide: the decision ladder for every deal, why a low pair beats one high card, and the draws that fool everyone.
Capture Go: The One-Rule Door into the Deepest Game
How Capture Go works and why teachers use it: liberties, the first-capture win, ladders and nets, and the three instincts it builds for real Go.
Old Maid: The Card Game Built on a Single Bad Card
Where Old Maid came from, how the odd-Queen mechanic works, the tells that decide games between humans, and how to play the odds against a computer.
Suguru Techniques: Five Steps from Stuck to Solved
How to solve Suguru (Tectonic) puzzles without guessing: cage counting, the neighbor ban, pinch points, cross-cage pressure, and the endgame sweep.
Cribbage Scoring: Fifteens, Runs, Nobs and the 29 Hand
Every way a cribbage hand scores, taught through one worked example: fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes, nobs, pegging points, and why the count order matters.
Jungle Rules: A Field Guide to Animal Chess (Dou Shou Qi)
How Jungle works, feature by feature: the eight animal ranks, the Rat that beats the Elephant, rivers and leaping Lions, traps, dens, and opening tactics.
President Card Game Rules: How Scum Actually Works
The complete rules of President (Scum): card ranking with 2 high, sets and passing, how the pile clears, the role ladder, and the strategy that wins it.
Quoridor Strategy: Count the Race, Spend Walls Like Money
How to win Quoridor: count both paths every turn, know when a wall beats a step, stop wasting your ten walls early, and steer the endgame lanes.
Snakes and Ladders Began as a Map of the Soul
The real history of Snakes and Ladders: an Indian morality game about virtue and vice, its Victorian import to England, and what the math says about luck.
Tic-Tac-Toe Is a Draw. These Four Games Fix It
Why perfect tic-tac-toe always ends level, what a solved game means, and the ladder of fixes: Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four, Gomoku and beyond.
Why Every Inkplay Game Is Black and White
The real reasons Inkplay renders its games in grayscale: constraint as a design tool, contrast as interface, speed on weak hardware, and when we break the rule.
Chess Opening Principles: Play Well Without Memorizing Lines
Five opening principles that replace memorized lines (center, development, early castling) and why Scholar's Mate quietly stunts your chess.
The Sudoku Technique Ladder: Naked Singles to X-Wing
The sudoku technique ladder in solving order (naked singles to X-wing), plus a scanning routine that always finds your next move without guessing.
2048 Corner Strategy: One Corner, Three Directions
Why anchoring your biggest tile in a corner wins 2048: monotone rows, the snake build, the one direction you never press, and reading lost boards.
Closing the Gap to Klondike's 79 Percent Win Ceiling
Klondike is roughly 79 percent winnable in theory, yet most players win far less. Four concrete habits, plus draw-1 versus draw-3, close the gap.
Minesweeper Without Guessing: Patterns, Flags, Real 50/50s
How to read Minesweeper numbers as constraints, use the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 border patterns, subtract flags, and survive a genuine 50/50 calmly.
From Pentominoes to 2048: The Falling-Block Family Tree
Four decades of falling-block puzzles - Tetris on a 1984 Soviet terminal, Puyo Puyo chain reactions, the Threes and 2048 merge boom, and today's grid-fills.
How to Play Snake Past Length 100: Routes, Not Reflexes
Why greedy food-chasing kills long Snake runs, and how the lawnmower route, tail-following and disciplined shortcuts carry you past length 100.
Nonogram Techniques: From Overlap Counting to Never Guessing
A ladder of nonogram logic: overlap counting, edge anchoring, X-marking blanks and cross-referencing, and why a single guess wrecks the whole solve.
ETAOIN SHRDLU: How Letter Frequency Wins Word Games
E leads English at nearly 13 percent and S starts more words than any other letter. How frequency data shapes Word Master openers and anagram play.
Checkers Endgames: Shots, the Move, and the Double Corner
Checkers was solved in 2007 and perfect play is a draw, so casual games are decided by endgame mistakes: shots, tempo, the double corner and trades.
Gomoku Tactics: Open Threes, Double Threats, Forced Wins
Open threes and fours are gomoku's tactical alphabet. What Victor Allis proved about the first player in 1993, and how to defend by counting threats.
No Install, No Launcher: How Browser Games Came Back
Flash died in 2020 and took a generation of web games with it. HTML5 and WebGL quietly rebuilt the platform - and made instant play in a tab the sane default.
InkPlay Coins and the Trophy Leaderboard, Explained
What InkPlay coins are, how the trophy leaderboard works - weekly, monthly and all-time boards with country flags - and why guest play never banks a balance.
Every Inkplay Game Plays Without a Mouse
Arrows, WASD and space drive everything on Inkplay. Why keyboard-first design matters for laptops and motor accessibility, and how we stop games stealing keys.