SHIFT

SHIFT is a daily 3x3 sliding puzzle: eight numbered tiles and one gap, placed on a page that contains nothing else. Above the grid run two counters, a stopwatch measured to the hundredth and a move counter, and the only concluding sentence of the rules is "Fastest time wins". Each puzzle carries a number. The menu has three entries: the game, the Leaderboard, and a Feedback entry.

1. Open the How To Play window, which shows the solved grid and the Play Today's Puzzle button.
2. Click a tile adjacent to the empty space to slide it, or use the keyboard arrows: the rules allow both.
3. Put tiles 1 to 8 back in order, left to right, with the empty space ending up in the bottom-right.
4. Watch the timer, which displays 0.00s and 0 moves until any tile has moved.

The sliding puzzle is a pocket toy everyone has handled, and that's precisely what makes the daily version interesting: the problem is known, all that remains is the execution. SHIFT removes everything else: no theme, no color, a timer and a leaderboard.

The rules end with a single line, "Fastest time wins". The only animated feedback on the page is the mini-grid in the help window, whose caption changes on its own, showing "SOLVED" and then "IT SLIDES INTO THE SPACE".

Core play

A single default daily 3×3 sliding puzzle: eight numbered tiles and one gap, timed with a stopwatch (to the hundredth) and a move counter. The How To Play window shows the solved grid and a Play Today's Puzzle button, and the menu carries three entries: Game, Leaderboard and Feedback. The rules stop with “Fastest time wins”.

• The keyboard arrows avoid having to aim at a tile with the mouse. In a game timed to the hundredth of a second, it's the easiest advantage to gain.
• The empty space must end in the bottom-right, it's stated in the rules: this dictates the usual order of solving the sliding puzzle, the first row first, then the left column, keeping the final four squares for last.