Slatework Slatework
13 classic logic puzzles, made on your phone.
Every board is generated on the device the moment you ask for it, and checked by a solver before you see it: exactly one answer, reachable by logic alone, at every difficulty. Nothing to run out of, no account to make, and no network to wait for.
On Google Play now. The iOS version is in preparation for the App Store. No ads, no subscription, one purchase.
Thirteen types, all in one app
The pencil puzzles a newspaper prints, each with its own board, its own rules card and its own walkthrough. No packs, no levels, and no type held back for a later release.
One answer, and no guessing to reach it
A difficulty here is the hardest technique the solver needed to finish the board, not a count of clues. That is the difference between a puzzle that is hard and one that is only a coin toss.
- Every board is generated on your device and proved unique by a solver before it is drawn. There is no pack of a few hundred puzzles to exhaust.
- Easy and Medium ask for the rules of the type. Hard adds the reasoning a solver names. Nothing below Expert ever needs a hypothesis held and refuted.
- Grids from 4×4 to 20×20, each type at the sizes its own rules can carry.
- Two boards are built in the background for the sizes and tiers you have been playing, so the next one opens as fast as the screen can draw it.
- A completed board reports your time and your previous best, and then stops. No coins, no lives, no confetti.
The board is the app
Most of the one-star reviews these puzzles collect elsewhere are about input rather than logic. So a line is drawn by dragging, and the whole drag is one move and one undo.
- Drag to draw a loop, drag to paint a run of shading — never one tap per segment. A drag that starts on a line erases instead, so a wrong turn is taken back without letting go.
- Pencil marks in the fixed three-by-three you would use on paper, cleared from the row and column for you if you want that.
- Undo and redo as far back as you like, and every move saved as you make it. A board survives the app being killed.
- Mistakes your way: off, on Check, or marked as you make them. Nothing ever ends a puzzle.
- Pinch and double-tap to zoom on the big grids. Above 600 dp the pad sits beside the board, either way round for a left-handed player.
- A colour-blind palette over every theme, one screen-reader node per cell, and a full keyboard map.
A hint is the next real deduction
Not a revealed cell. The solver's own next step, written out in a sentence, with the squares it is about lit up — so the hint teaches the technique that found it.
- Look, then the reason, then the move. Three presses, and you can stop after any of them.
- A board carrying a wrong entry is told so, rather than being deduced from — the hint points at the mistake first.
- Every type has a rules card you can open mid-board, with the drawn figures and the controls under them.
- Every type also has a walkthrough: the real play screen with the clock taken off and a card under it, so what you learn is what you will do in a game.
A puzzle a day, in every type
Derived from the date rather than downloaded, so every device generates the same board offline. Same date, same seed, same puzzle, with nothing to fetch.
- One daily puzzle per type per day, at every difficulty, free.
- A streak counted quietly and never nagged about.
- An optional reminder at a time you choose. It is an alarm on your own phone; nothing leaves the device to make it happen.
- A month view of everything you have solved, filterable by type, and ten achievements derived from statistics you already have.
Measured on a cheap phone
Every number here is off a Redmi 9 running the shipping build — the phone this app has to be pleasant on, rather than the one it is developed on.
Six board palettes
Paper, Ink, Sepia, Slate, Forest and full-contrast black on white. Match device resolves to Paper or Ink, and never overrules a theme you picked.
Drawn, not shipped as pictures
Twenty-nine drawings, thirteen type marks, six board palettes and four empty states cost 80 KiB between them, because every one is a vector path.
Phone and tablet
Portrait and landscape, and a two-pane layout on a wide window with the board beside the pad rather than above it.
22 languages
The app and its rules cards, in the languages the store listing is written in.
Inside the app
Screens off a real device, nothing redrawn.
No account, and no server of ours
Puzzles are generated on the device and saved to a database on it. There is nothing to sign in to, and nothing a player types.
Offline at every moment
Not offline-capable — offline. Airplane mode changes nothing except that the store cannot be reached, and an unreachable store never locks anyone out of what they bought.
One file, yours
A versioned backup holds every puzzle, game, statistic and setting, written through the system file picker, and reads back on any device. No account, no cloud copy.
Two switches, both optional
Crash reports, and usage and speed. Both are in Settings › Diagnostics, both are honoured before anything is sent, and neither can carry a puzzle, a time or anything you entered.
The whole account is in the privacy policy.
Free, and what the unlock adds
One purchase, once, through the store you installed from. Not a subscription, and nothing that ships free ever moves behind the price.
Free
All 13 types, forever
- Every puzzle type, every one playable
- Unlimited generated boards at the free sizes and tiers
- The daily puzzle in every type, at every difficulty
- Undo and redo, autosave, pencil marks and every mistake mode
- Tutorials, rules cards and achievements
- 3 hints a day
- Light and dark themes, and the backup file
No ads. Nothing here is a trial.
Slatework unlocked
One payment, once
- Every grid size, up to 20×20
- The Hard and Expert tiers on every type
- Unlimited hints
- All six board palettes
- The whole daily archive
- The full statistics, and the charts behind your times
Held by your store account, restored on any device you sign into, and it covers every type added later.
What this app will never do
Eight promises. They are the product rather than decoration on it — a competitor copying them would have to give up their revenue model.
- No ads, everNot on opening, not between boards, and not in exchange for a hint.
- No subscriptionNo coins, no energy, no lives. One purchase, once.
- No account, no sign-inThere is no server anywhere in this app to hold one.
- No network neededEvery board is made on the device, and your progress never leaves it.
- Unlimited puzzlesGenerated as you ask for them, not a pack that runs out.
- Exactly one answerProved by a solver before the board is ever drawn.
- No guessingAt any stated difficulty. The tier is the reasoning it needs.
- Nothing taken awayNothing that has shipped free moves behind the price.
Questions
Where do the puzzles come from?
From your phone. A generator builds a board, a solver grades it and proves it has exactly one answer, and only then is it drawn. Nothing is downloaded, and no two players are handed the same board unless it is the daily, which is derived from the date so that everybody's device builds the same one.
Will I ever have to guess?
No. The difficulty of a board is the hardest technique the solver needed to finish it, so a board is only Hard if it can be reasoned to the end using the techniques Hard names. Below Expert, nothing in this app is ever assumed and refuted.
Does it work offline?
Entirely. The generator, the solver, the hints and the save file are all on the device. The only things that ever want a connection are the store, the update check and the optional diagnostics.
Do I need an account?
There isn't one. No sign-in, no profile, no leaderboard, and no server of ours for any of them to live on.
What does the unlock cost, and is it a subscription?
It is one purchase, once, priced by the store in your own currency, and it is not a subscription. It is held by your store account, so a new phone or a reinstall restores it without anything to type.
Can I move my progress to another device?
Yes, through the backup file: one versioned file with every puzzle, game, statistic and setting in it, written and read through the system file picker. It goes where you send it, and never through us.
Which puzzle should I start with?
Any of them, at the smallest size, with the walkthrough. It is the real board with the clock taken off, and it teaches the type rather than the app.
Which platforms is it on?
Android, on Google Play. The iOS build is finished and is in preparation for the App Store; this page is where it will be announced.
Open it, and start the board.
Thirteen classic logic puzzles, unlimited, generated on your phone, with one answer each and no guessing to reach it.
Questions? support@crackoncloud.com