Tile Shift

A closer look at Tile Shift

The goal

Tile Shift is our version of the familiar fifteen-tile sliding puzzle. Put 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the first row, then continue counting across each row. The last row should read 13, 14, 15, followed by the empty space. There is no countdown and no penalty for taking a moment to think. The move counter measures legal tile slides, not taps on tiles that cannot move.

How the controls work

Tap or click any tile directly above, below, left, or right of the empty space. Diagonal moves do not count. With a keyboard, Tab to a tile and press Enter or Space. New puzzle creates another board and resets the move counter. It does not preserve the current arrangement. Every starting board is built by making legal moves from the solved position, so every puzzle has a solution.

Start with a small, stable goal

Bring tile 1 into the top-left corner first. Think about where the empty space needs to go before moving the numbered tile. If tile 1 must move upward, the empty space must sit immediately above it. Once the first row is finished, try to work below it. The final two tiles of a row often need to be positioned as a pair; forcing one into its final square too soon can block the other.

A simple example

Suppose the bottom row is 13, 14, empty, 15 and every other tile is correct. Selecting 15 slides it left and solves the board in one move. If a tile is two squares from the empty space, you cannot jump over the tile between them. Move the nearer tile first to bring the empty space into position.

When a board feels stuck

A difficult position is not necessarily an impossible one. It can help to temporarily move a correctly placed tile so that another tile can pass. Work in loops of four squares and watch how a loop changes the order of the numbered tiles. The aim is to build a repeatable method, not to protect every correct tile on every move.