Inkwell Games bills itself as “Daily puzzles worth thinking about” and that’s a great tagline. Right now they offer two daily puzzles: Stars and Fields. Both are enjoyable but I rank Stars as a bit above Fields but as I get better at understanding the patterns of Fields it’s growing on me each day.

Like the NYT, the puzzles grow in difficulty over the week and don’t feel bad if you miss a day because they’ll let you play any of other the puzzles from that week. I highly recommend Stars as a starter, it’s like Minesweeper meets Sudoku where each row, column, and box has two stars. It seems impossible at first, but over time you get a rhythm for cracking this cryptic.

One feature both Stars and Fields have that might be controversial to puzzle purists is a “Check” button. In practice this acts sort of like a “Guess” button where you’re at a dead end and have a guess, but don’t know for sure. It happens a lot in Fields where you’re staring at a grid of numbers with no clear move. Inkwell even wrote a blog post trying to de-stigmatize looking ahead which I appreciate immensely. The purist part of your brain feels guilty guessing at first, but in some ways it teaches you to trust your gut and intuition over time. I used to always need guesses in Stars and Fields but I’ve finished dozens on both now with zero guesses. That’s improvement and the wrinkles in my brain tingle with progress.

If you’re a fan of daily puzzle games, put these in your routine. The playful aesthetic of Inkwell Games’ games always bring a smile. I’m excited to try their upcoming puzzle Snakes and roll it into my daily routine.