A free daily puzzle by Stringband Games.
Quadle is a single player puzzle game designed to be quick and moderately challenging. Building Quadle took about a week and was a fun project so I thought I'd end it by speaking very briefly as to its development. Thanks for playing.
Quadle is based on Triple Triad, a card game from Final Fantasy 8 that has two players (one AI) place cards one after the other on a 3x3 grid. Just like in Quadle, cards are flipped when a placed card beats the adjacent number. It's a fun game because it's simple, quick and satisfying. Triple Triad works because it's just a small addition to a much bigger world and lets you take a little break from the main game. While thinking of quick projects to complete, I thought of how much I liked Triple Triad and wondered what a truly solo version of it would look like.
When I thought about how I would adapt Triple Triad for solo play, I began to find it had some serious issues. Foremostly, the 3x3 grid means that the first person to lay a card is also the last person to lay a card meaning they generally have a huge advantage. Triple Triad's main value is how it integrates with the world, rather than it being a challenging game in of itself so it doesn't really need to be balanced. We don't have a world and characters to fall back on, and we don't get to go back to fighting monsters after destroying an opponent in the card game.
So 3x3 has big balance issues. It's also a very small game with limited moves. It has too few vulnerable spots and a big king-making central spot. All of these things kinda work for Triple Triad but I was surprised how bad they feel when making a more balanced version of the game. I didn't want a game where you just stomp an AI without thinking.
Moving to a 4x4 board immediately solves a lot of issues. You have more move flexibility. Each player plays an even number of cards (although I would say the second player still holds a small advantage). There's no king-making central spot. I actually enjoyed playing this vs the AI and in some ways that's a great game just on its own. But I wanted to move farther from the source of inspiration. And it still wasn't really a solo game per se... the AI was still an active participant. I wanted to push away just a little bit more and end up with something new.
Upon popular request, I did end up addinga 5x5 mode but I don't consider this to be the default mode.
For Quadle specifically I wanted a static puzzle that could be analysed and solved. Something more like a sudoku or wordle (from which it derives part of its name) where you could discuss an identical puzzle with a friend.
And so sealed moves were born. What if the AI took all of its turns at the start of the game? The difference is profound. It essentially changes the game's genre.
Quadle is now a game of planning several moves ahead and finding optimal solutions. I'm pleased with how unique Quadle feels over where it came from, even with quite small changes. Because you can flip your own tiles, it often feels a bit like you're playing against yourself and a lot of effort often goes into not sabotaging yourself.
I wanted a puzzle you could learn in half a minute but keep getting better at. Something that would help exercise the brain as you try to plan multiple moves ahead. Some Quadle layouts don't really need that and they feel like a pleasant break. Then you'll find a tough one and have to stare at it for a while. The rules fit in a sentence. The strategy does not.
Quadle is a game of perfect information and so every board has an optimal solution (or several). The trick to calculating this is to understand that sealed cards need an odd number of flips while your own cards need an even number of flips. This can help quickly cut down the tree of possible end states and find optimal solutions. It sounds like a detail but Quadle without a scoring system feels much flatter. Winning a game is sometimes simple compared to winning it optimally, especially when you have limited undos.
While we're on the subject, difficulty is a weird topic with Quadle. You can add more sealed cards... but that lowers the possiblilities for the player and often makes the game feel easier. You can raise the numbers on the cards but again, if you take options away from the player, the single solution becomes more obvious. It also feels kinda bland if cards don't have a good range of numbers on them. It's definitely possible to tweak the difficulty but I think Quadle exists in a bit of a sweet spot as it is. In the end, I added Blitz mode if someone really wanted to test themselves, which allowed the core game to remain the same.
Plenty of things didn't end up staying and the game changed quite a lot over the week. The UI was a constant issue as I'm very bad at them. I tried a version where existing cards on the grid could flip the placed card and it felt terrible. I tried a version where flips would cascade across the board which was just a disaster. It's easy to get a circular, endless flip cascade. It wasn't worth it.
One thing I am sad I didn't end up implementing was a seed system. I think it'd be cool to have boards numbered by seed; 1,2,3,4......349853920458209. And you could just see how far up you can go. I think Windows solitaire had something like that. Anyhow, maybe one day I'll implement that.
Quadle is a static website. There are no accounts, no logins, and no server quietly recording your games. Your wins, losses, streaks, and progress are stored locally in your own browser and never leave your device. That means your stats are private by default. Clearing your browser data will clear them, since there's no copy anywhere else. You can read exactly what is and isn't collected on our Privacy Policy page.
Because it's a plain web app, Quadle also installs. On most phones and desktops you can add it to your home screen or applications and play it like a native app, even offline, with no app store required.
Quadle is made by Stringband Games, a single-member studio in the UK formed by Tim Fletcher. I'm happy with how Quadle turned out and I hope you enjoy it.
I read all feedback. If you've found a bug, have an idea, or just want to tell me about a puzzle that stumped you, head to the Contact page or email stringbandgames@gmail.com.
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