Pixeldle

Pixeldle sits on a black screen, a logo with shifted colors and an input field: "Type a game…". The daily puzzle is numbered, and each guess is compared to the hidden game across five attributes: year, genre, platform, number of players and developer. A three-dot legend is placed under the field: exact, close, no match. The help panel adds two rules the legend does not state: in a column with multiple values, the bracketed values are those the target game shares with your guess, and for the year, amber means a difference of at most three years, with an arrow ▲ if the answer is later and ▼ if it is earlier. The description published on the site additionally advertises an unlimited practice mode.

1. Type a game title into the "Type a game…" field and submit it.
2. Read the five attributes on the resulting row (year, genre, platform, number of players and developer), each colored according to its proximity to the hidden game.
3. Spot the bracketed values in the amber columns: these are precisely the ones your guess shares with the answer.
4. Follow the arrow in the year column, up if the answer is later, down if it is earlier, bearing in mind that amber there means at most a three-year difference.
5. Repeat; the remaining-guesses counter counts down the ten attempts to zero.

Pixeldle makes the rare choice of explaining precisely what "almost" means. Three years' leeway on the year, a bracketed value to designate exactly the shared genre or platform: where many attribute games leave amber vague, this one puts a number on it, which changes how you play. You no longer open at random; you open wide, choosing a game that ticks multiple genres and platforms to maximize what the row will return. Ten guesses, five columns, a terminal aesthetic, nothing more. It's terse and well calibrated.

Three states named by the game's legend: exact in green, close in amber and no match in slate gray, with two refinements explained in the help. The first concerns columns that can contain several values, like genre or platform: the bracket marks the value exactly shared, so you don't have to guess where the amber comes from. The second concerns the year, where amber corresponds to a difference of at most three years, complemented by an arrow indicating the direction.

Daily Puzzle

A daily numbered puzzle, the same for everyone according to the game's help, with ten guesses.

• Start with a game that is multiplatform and multi-genre: the more values your guess covers, the more the amber brackets will tell you at once.
• Amber in the year column does not mean "roughly the same era" but at most three years. Combined with the arrow, it narrows the range much faster than the other columns.