Playing HTML5 Games on a Desktop: Keys, Clicks and Full Screen
Our puzzles work on a phone, but a big screen and a real keyboard bring a few extras. A short guide to the ones that are easy to miss.
Every puzzle on GridPencil is built to work under a thumb on a small screen. That does not mean a desktop computer is second best. With a mouse, a keyboard and room to spread out, several of the puzzles are quicker and more comfortable. Here is what is worth knowing.
Use the keyboard where it helps
Three puzzles respond to keys, and each is better for it.
- Sudoku Six. Click a square, then type a digit from 1 to 6. Backspace or 0 clears it. With one hand on the mouse and the other on the number keys, you can fill a grid faster than on paper.
- Ice Slide. The arrow keys slide you around the board. It is far more precise than swiping, and the puzzle feels different when each move is a single key press.
- Mine Sweep. Right-click a square to plant or remove a flag. You do not need the Flag mode switch at all on a computer, which removes the commonest way of losing: tapping in the wrong mode.
Everything else is played with ordinary clicks. Untangle is the one that gains most from a mouse, since you are dragging dots to exact positions.
Go full screen
Beside every puzzle there is a Full screen button. On a desktop it does what it says: the puzzle takes over the whole monitor and everything else disappears. Press Esc, or the Close button in the corner, to come back.
It is worth doing for the bigger boards. Peg Solitaire, Colour Flood and Block Collapse are all easier to read when the pieces are large.
Keep the rules in view
On a wide screen, the four rules sit in a panel beside the board. You do not need to scroll to check them. The same panel shows the type of puzzle, the difficulty and roughly how long it takes. The longer guide, with solving tips, is below the board.
A useful habit: read the four rules, play one round badly, and only then scroll down to the tips. They make more sense once you have met the problem they solve.
Zoom is your friend
Browsers can enlarge any page. Hold Ctrl and press the plus key, or Cmd and plus on a Mac. Ctrl and zero puts it back. The puzzles grow with the page. If you play on a television or a monitor across a desk, a zoom of 125 or 150 per cent makes a real difference.
Light paper, dark paper
The round button at the top right of every page switches between light and dark paper. The site follows your computer's own setting to begin with, and remembers your choice after that. The puzzle changes with the page, so you are not left with a bright board on a dark screen late at night.
Where your ticks are kept
When you solve a puzzle, a tick appears beside it in the contents list, and the tally at the top of the page goes up. Those ticks are saved by your browser, on your computer. Nothing is sent to us, and there is no account. Three things follow from that:
- A different browser on the same computer starts with no ticks.
- A private or incognito window forgets them when you close it.
- Clearing your browsing data for the site removes them.
If you share a computer, each person can keep a separate set of ticks simply by using a different browser profile.
Keep a tab pinned
The home page shows a different puzzle each day and works through all twenty in turn. If you like a small daily routine, pin the tab in your browser. Right-click the tab and choose Pin. It shrinks to an icon and stays put, and today's puzzle is one click away.
When something looks wrong
Almost every problem with HTML5 games in a browser comes down to one of three things:
- The page did not finish loading. Reload it once.
- An extension is interfering. Try a private window, where most extensions are switched off.
- The browser is very old. Update it.
If a puzzle still misbehaves after that, we would like to know. Tell us which puzzle, which browser and what you saw, using the address on the contact page.
One last suggestion
Try the same puzzle on your phone and on your desktop on the same day. It is the same game, but your hands change how you think. We find Sudoku Six is a keyboard puzzle, Untangle is a mouse puzzle, and Pattern Recall is best with a finger. You may well disagree.