PopIdle

PopIdle's album round shows you a record sleeve that has been pixelated into coarse blocks of colour and asks which album it is. You answer by typing into a field labelled Search album list, so the answer has to be an album title rather than a song or an artist. Every wrong answer buys you a slightly sharper version of the same cover. Six attempts, and the picture is the only clue you ever get.

1. Look at the pixelated cover.
2. Start typing into Search album list. The field searches a list of albums rather than taking free text.
3. Press Guess to submit your answer.
4. If you are wrong, the cover redraws a little less pixelated. Try again from there.
5. Keep going until you find it or you have used all six attempts, then share your result.

Album art is a memory most people have without knowing they have it. You would not be able to describe the sleeve, but you recognise it across a room. PopIdle exploits exactly that. Starting from a handful of coloured blocks, the game turns recognition into a countdown: guess early on a hunch and you look brilliant, guess late and the cover has already told you the answer. Because it grades nothing and colours nothing, the tension sits entirely in when you are willing to commit, and the six-step reveal makes every wrong answer feel like a trade rather than a punishment.

There is no colour code and no row of tiles, because the picture itself is the feedback. The help panel says each incorrect answer shows a slightly less pixelated version of the cover. The cost of a speculative guess is not a red square, it is spending one of the six reveals you were going to want later.

Core play

A single core puzzle: the game shows a pixelated album sleeve and asks you to identify the album. You use the field labelled "Search album list" (which searches the game's list of album titles) and press Guess to submit. Each incorrect answer redraws the same cover slightly less pixelated, up to a maximum of six attempts. The picture is the only clue.

• You are naming the album, not the single. The field is a list of album titles, so a hit song that gave its name to nothing will not be in there.
• Answers go in through a search over the game's own album list rather than as free text, so use the field to shortlist the covers you are already half-considering.