From the garage
Notes from the team behind Match Heist — which car puzzles are worth your phone, how to get better at sliding and parking puzzles, why sorting games feel so good, and where the traffic jam and match-3 genres came from. New posts land here first, and every one links to a free browser game you can try in seconds.
All posts
- How to Solve a Sliding Puzzle: 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 Step by StepThe method for every square sliding puzzle in two sentences, then spelled out move by move for the 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5: the stacked-pair trick, the parity check that spots an impossible board, and why Klotski needs a different plan.11 min read · Read post →
- Games Like Ball Sort Puzzle: the Best Colour-Sort and Car-Sort PuzzlesSix colour-sort games for people who have run out of tubes: which one pours instead of stacking, which one swaps tubes for hexagons, which two are cars, and one catch each.10 min read · Read post →
- Games Like Triple Match 3D: the Best Triple-Tile Match GamesSeven triple-tile games for people who have run out of Triple Match 3D: which one keeps the clock, which one drops it, which one swaps the heap for shelves, and one catch each.10 min read · Read post →
- Games Like Parking Jam 3D: the Best Traffic-Jam and Car-Parking PuzzlesSeven car-parking and traffic-jam puzzles for people who have run out of Parking Jam 3D levels — what each one actually does differently, one honest limitation each, and which to pick for which itch.9 min read · Read post →
- Are Sorting Games Good for Your Brain? Why They Feel So SatisfyingSorting games are good for your brain in a modest, real way: focused attention, quick planning and a genuine break. Here is why putting things in order feels so good, and why the genre took over phones everywhere.7 min read · Read post →
- Are Brain Puzzles Actually Good for Your Brain?Puzzle games are often sold as workouts for your brain. The truth is more modest — and more interesting. Here is what matching, sorting and parking puzzles genuinely give you, minus the hype.8 min read · Read post →
- From Wooden Blocks to 3D Boards: A History of Traffic Jam PuzzlesThe car stuck in traffic on your phone screen has ancestors: a Victorian sliding-tile craze, a Chinese block puzzle about a fleeing general, and a plastic grid from 1996 that defined the genre. A short history of getting unstuck.8 min read · Read post →
- Car Match vs Block Pals vs Match Heist: Which Tap-to-Match Game Deserves Your Phone?Three games, one mechanic: tap pieces off a crowded board, fill a tray, match three of a kind before the tray jams. Here is how the traffic kingpin, the new kid with the friend group, and our own heist crew actually compare — from a studio biased enough to say so up front.8 min read · Read post →
- How to Get Better at Sliding Puzzles: Strategies That Actually WorkNothing is hidden, nothing is random, the exit is right there — and you still cannot reach it. Sliding puzzles reward a short list of learnable habits. Here are the ones that survive contact with a hard board.9 min read · Read post →
- From Bejeweled to Triple Tile: Why Match-3 Never Gets OldMatch three of a kind. That has been the whole rule for thirty years — through gems, candies, farm animals, souvenirs and cars. Here is how the genre got here, and why three is the number that keeps working.8 min read · Read post →
Rather play than read?
Six free browser puzzles are waiting on the Match Heist home page — matching, sorting, sliding and parking. No download, no sign-up.