What counts as a puzzle here

Puzzle games are chosen for one property: the board has to be readable at a glance. That means tile-sliders, 2048-style merging, match-3 boards, pipe rotation, jigsaws and hidden-object scenes — games where the next decision is visible rather than guessed. We skip anything that gates moves behind a purchase, and we watch the hint button: a game that can be finished by tapping hint forty times is not really a puzzle. Most runs last five to fifteen minutes, which is about one coffee.

Every game on this shelf opens in the browser with no download. Each title has its own note on why it is here — how we choose games.