Block Grid Puzzle is a free block puzzle game on an 8x8 board, in the same spirit as 1010! and Block Blast. You get three pieces at a time, drop them onto the grid and clear full rows and columns. It is calm enough to play over chai, and tricky enough that one more round always sounds like a good idea.
The board is an 8x8 grid that starts empty. Below it sits a tray with three pieces. Drag any one of them onto the board and let go where it fits. You can place the three in any order you like.
Fill every cell in a row or a column and that line clears away. Rows and columns clear at the same time, so one piece can finish a row and a column together. While you drag, the lines that would clear light up in the piece's colour, so you can see the result before you let go.
Once all three pieces are on the board, a fresh set of three is dealt. Pieces cannot be rotated. Each one comes in a fixed direction, so part of the puzzle is finding a home for the shape you were given.
There are 15 shape families, and many of them show up in different turns: a single block, straight lines of 2, 3, 4 and 5, a 2x2 square, a big 3x3 square, a 2x3 block, a small 3-block corner, a big 5-block corner, plus L, J, T, S and Z shapes.
A set never holds more than one big piece (five blocks or more). When the board gets crowded, small pieces turn up more often. The game also tries to deal a set that you can place, but it does not promise that every set will fit, so leaving open space is still your job.
On a phone, press a piece in the tray and drag it to the board. The piece floats a little above your finger so you can see exactly where it will land. Lift your finger to place it. On a computer, drag with the mouse in the same way.
You can also play fully from the keyboard. Press 1, 2 or 3 to pick a piece, move it with the arrow keys, and press Enter or Space to place it. Esc cancels the selection. U or Ctrl+Z uses your undo, R uses your refresh, and P pauses the game.
Every block you place is worth 1 point, so a 4-block piece gives 4 points just for landing. The real points come from clearing lines. One line is worth 80. Clearing more lines in a single move pays more for each line: 2 lines give 240, 3 lines give 480 and 4 lines give 800.
Combos multiply those line points. Your first clear starts a combo at x1. Clear again on the next move and it becomes x2, then x3, and so on up to x8. You do not need to clear on every single move. Up to two moves without a clear keep the streak alive, but a third move in a row without a clear resets it.
Empty the whole board and you get a 1,500 point Board clear bonus on top. Your best score is saved in your browser when a game ends.
Good block puzzle play is mostly about space. The board fills up fast if you place pieces wherever they happen to fit, so think about the next set, not just this one.
- Keep a 3x3 area open whenever you can. The 3x3 square and the 5-block corner need it, and they are the pieces that end games.
- Build along the edges and corners first. Pieces in the middle split the board into awkward gaps.
- Set up two or three lines that are almost full, then finish them with one piece for a multi-line clear.
- Protect your combo. If a clear is coming in the next two moves, it is often worth using a small piece to stay in the streak.
- Place the hardest piece of the set first, while there is still room for it.
- Avoid leaving single empty holes surrounded by blocks. Only a single block can fill them.
Each game gives you two helpers. Undo takes back your last placement once. Refresh swaps your three current pieces for a new set once. Use them carefully, because they do not come back during that game.
The game ends when none of the pieces left in your tray fit anywhere on the board. If you still have an Undo or a Refresh at that moment, the game pauses and lets you use it, or you can choose to end the game. The final screen shows your score, best score, lines cleared and your best combo.
Placing blocks to clear lines goes back to Tetris, but the no-gravity, place-anywhere style became popular with 1010!, released by Gram Games in 2014. Many similar games followed, including wooden block puzzles and Block Blast. Block Grid Puzzle is an original PlayNest game in that style and is not affiliated with any of them.