Game Glossary
Quick, plain-language definitions for terms you'll run into playing Checkers, Sudoku, Word Scramble, and Sliding Puzzle on Idle Hands Arcade. Jump to a section or scroll through the whole list.
General & Brain Game Terms
What is a puzzle?
A puzzle is a problem or challenge designed to test knowledge, logic, or ingenuity, usually with one correct solution to reach.
What is a brain teaser?
A brain teaser is a short puzzle or riddle meant to exercise logical or lateral thinking, often solvable in a few minutes.
What is a logic game?
A logic game is a game solved through reasoning and deduction rather than luck, chance, or reflexes.
What is a board game?
A board game is a game played on a physical or digital board using pieces, tiles, or markers moved according to a set of rules.
What is a word game?
A word game is a game centered on letters, spelling, or vocabulary, testing a player's language skills rather than numbers or strategy alone.
What are cognitive skills?
Cognitive skills are the mental abilities used to think, learn, and solve problems, including memory, attention, and reasoning.
What is pattern recognition?
Pattern recognition is the mental process of identifying regularities or repeated structures, a skill used heavily in puzzles like sudoku and sliding tile games.
What is problem-solving?
Problem-solving is the process of finding a solution to a difficult or complex issue, often by breaking it into smaller steps.
What is a casual game?
A casual game is a game designed for short, easy sessions with simple rules, meant to be picked up and played without a big time investment.
What is a browser game?
A browser game is a game that runs directly inside a web browser, with no download, installation, or app store required.
What does "no sign-up" mean for a game?
A no-sign-up game can be played instantly without creating an account, entering an email, or logging in.
What does free-to-play mean?
Free-to-play means a game can be played at no cost, with no purchase required to access its core content.
What is local multiplayer?
Local multiplayer means two or more players compete or play together on the same device and screen, rather than over the internet.
What is a single-player game?
A single-player game is designed to be played by one person at a time, without an opponent or teammate.
What is replayability?
Replayability describes how likely a game is to be played again, often because outcomes, puzzles, or layouts change each time.
Checkers Terms
What is checkers?
Checkers is a two-player strategy game played on the dark squares of an 8x8 board, where pieces move and capture diagonally.
What is draughts?
Draughts is the British English name for the same game known as checkers in the United States.
What is a king in checkers?
A king is a piece that has reached the opponent's back row and gained the ability to move and capture diagonally in both directions.
What does it mean to jump in checkers?
Jumping is moving a piece diagonally over an adjacent opponent's piece to capture it, landing on the empty square beyond.
What is a capture in checkers?
A capture is the removal of an opponent's piece from the board, achieved by jumping over it.
What is a diagonal move?
A diagonal move shifts a piece one square at an angle, the only direction checkers pieces are allowed to travel.
What is a forced jump?
A forced jump is a rule in some checkers variants requiring a player to capture a piece if a legal jump is available, rather than making a different move.
What is a double jump?
A double jump is a single turn in which one piece captures two or more opponent pieces in a chained sequence of jumps.
What is the back row in checkers?
The back row is the row of squares closest to each player, which a piece must reach to be crowned a king.
What does center control mean in checkers?
Center control is a strategy of occupying the middle rows of the board to limit an opponent's movement options.
What is a turn-based game?
A turn-based game is one where players alternate taking actions one at a time, rather than acting simultaneously.
What is a game piece?
A game piece is a physical or digital token, such as a checker disc, moved around the board according to the game's rules.
What is the endgame in checkers?
The endgame is the final phase of a checkers match, typically with few pieces remaining, where precise play often decides the winner.
Sudoku Terms
What is sudoku?
Sudoku is a logic-based number puzzle played on a 9x9 grid, solved by filling in digits 1 through 9 without repeating one in any row, column, or box.
What is the 9x9 grid in sudoku?
The 9x9 grid is the full sudoku board, divided into nine rows, nine columns, and nine 3x3 boxes.
What is a row in sudoku?
A row is one of the nine horizontal lines of squares across the sudoku grid, which must contain each digit 1–9 exactly once.
What is a column in sudoku?
A column is one of the nine vertical lines of squares down the sudoku grid, which must also contain each digit 1–9 exactly once.
What is a box in sudoku?
A box, sometimes called a block, is one of the nine 3x3 sections of the grid that must contain each digit 1–9 exactly once.
What is a given number in sudoku?
A given number, or clue, is a digit already placed on the board at the start of the puzzle that cannot be changed.
What is a candidate number?
A candidate number is a digit that could possibly go in a specific empty square based on the current state of its row, column, and box.
What is the elimination method in sudoku?
The elimination method is a solving technique where a player rules out impossible numbers for a square until only one valid option remains.
What is a naked single?
A naked single is a square with only one possible candidate number remaining, making it the certain answer for that square.
What is a hidden single?
A hidden single is a number that can only go in one square within a row, column, or box, even if that square has other candidates too.
What does difficulty level mean in sudoku?
Difficulty level refers to how challenging a sudoku puzzle is, usually based on how many given numbers appear and which techniques are needed to solve it.
What is an easy sudoku puzzle?
An easy sudoku puzzle has more given numbers and can typically be solved using simple elimination alone.
What is a hard sudoku puzzle?
A hard sudoku puzzle has fewer given numbers and usually requires more advanced logic techniques to solve.
Word Scramble Terms
What is a word scramble?
A word scramble is a puzzle where the letters of a word are shuffled out of order, and the goal is to rearrange them back into the original word.
What is an anagram?
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase using all the original letters.
What does it mean to unscramble a word?
Unscrambling a word means rearranging its mixed-up letters back into their correct, meaningful order.
What is a hint in a word game?
A hint is a clue provided to help a player guess the correct answer, such as a short definition of the scrambled word.
What is a vocabulary game?
A vocabulary game is a game designed to test or build a player's knowledge of words and their meanings.
What is a guess counter?
A guess counter tracks how many attempts a player has made at solving a puzzle before getting it right.
What is a spelling game?
A spelling game challenges players to arrange or identify letters correctly to form valid words.
What does skip mean in a word scramble?
Skip lets a player move on to a new scrambled word without solving the current one.
What are scrambled letters?
Scrambled letters are the individual letters of a word displayed in randomized, non-word order for the player to rearrange.
Sliding Puzzle Terms
What is a sliding puzzle?
A sliding puzzle is a tile-based puzzle where numbered or pictured tiles are moved into an empty space to reach a target arrangement.
What is the 15 puzzle?
The 15 puzzle is a classic sliding puzzle with fifteen numbered tiles in a 4x4 grid, solved by arranging them in numerical order.
What is the empty space in a sliding puzzle?
The empty space, or blank tile, is the one open spot on the board that allows adjacent tiles to slide into it.
What is a move counter?
A move counter tracks how many tile slides a player has made, often used to measure efficiency in solving the puzzle.
What does shuffle mean in a sliding puzzle?
Shuffle randomizes the tile positions at the start of a game to create a new, unsolved puzzle.
What is a solvable puzzle?
A solvable puzzle is one where the starting tile arrangement can actually be returned to numerical order through legal moves; not all random arrangements are solvable.
What does numerical order mean in a sliding puzzle?
Numerical order means the tiles are arranged from lowest to highest, left to right and top to bottom, which is the goal of the puzzle.
What is spatial reasoning?
Spatial reasoning is the mental ability to visualize and manipulate positions and movement, heavily used when planning sliding puzzle moves.
What is a best score in a sliding puzzle?
A best score is the fewest number of moves a player has used to solve the puzzle, typically saved for comparison against future attempts.