Sliding Puzzle

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 3 November 2026 6 min read

Put the classic sliding puzzle on your website. Visitors slide the tiles back into order - numbers 1, 2, 3... or the pieces of a picture - in as few moves and as little time as they can, and the best go top of the leaderboard. Sliding Puzzle is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

3 x 3 to 6 x 6. 3 x 3 (8 tiles) takes a minute or two; 4 x 4 is the famous "15 puzzle"; 5 x 5 and 6 x 6 are for the patient.
Numbered tiles or a picture. Choose any picture in your Media and it is cut into square tiles from its middle. Picture tiles can carry a small number in the corner, and players can peek at the whole picture.
Always solvable. Every board is shuffled by the server and checked so it can always be solved - and never arrives solved or nearly solved.
Three kinds of board:
- The same board for everyone - the fairest leaderboard. You choose the board with Shuffle in the editor.
- A new board every go - nobody can learn the answer.
- A daily puzzle - everyone gets the same board each day, and a new one at midnight (your site's time). Nobody can see tomorrow's.
Every move is checked by the server, which keeps the clock and the move count. A puzzle only counts as solved when the server's own board is solved.
Play by tap, swipe or keyboard. Tap a tile next to the gap, or further along its row or column to slide several at once. Swipe the way a tile should go. On the keyboard, the arrow keys slide a tile into the gap.
Leaderboards for today, this week, this month and all time, best go per name, ordered by fewest moves (then time) or fastest time (then moves).
Optional time limit, opening and closing times, and a limit on goes per name. Personal best and a Share button on the finished screen.

Getting started

Switch Sliding Puzzle on in Tools.
Open Tools > Games > Sliding Puzzle and choose New puzzle.
Give it a title, choose a size and numbered tiles or a picture.
Press Test and play it yourself.
Set the status to Open and save.
Put it on any page:

[sliding-puzzle id="harbour" /]

Settings for each puzzle

The puzzle

Title, Short name (used in the shortcode; made from the title when empty), Status (Draft, Open or Closed), Introduction (shown before the game starts), Opens and Closes (optional).
Only an Open puzzle can be played on a page. A picture puzzle needs its picture in Media.

The board

Size - 3 x 3, 4 x 4, 5 x 5 or 6 x 6.
Board - the same board for everyone, a new board every go, or a daily puzzle (see above).
Shuffle (beside the preview) - another board. With the same board for everyone, the preview is exactly what players get, and the board is saved with the puzzle. For the other two, the preview is a sample.
Tiles - numbered tiles, or a picture from Media. For a picture:
- Choose a picture from Media. A picture that is not square loses a little from its long sides. Pictures with different colours in different places are easiest; sky and sea are hard.
- Describe the picture - read out to people who cannot see it.
- Numbers on the tiles - a small number in each tile's corner. Off is harder.
- Players can peek at the picture - a Peek button shows the whole picture over the board. It costs nothing, and the clock keeps running.

Rules and leaderboard

Leaderboard order - fewest moves, then fastest; or fastest, then fewest moves. A move is one tile slid one place, so sliding three tiles along a row at once is three moves. Changing it re-orders the leaderboard straight away.
Time limit (minutes) - 0 for none. Running out of time means not on the leaderboard.
Goes each (per name) - 0 for as many as they like. For a daily puzzle this is goes per day. With the same board for everyone, one go each stops people learning the answer and trying again.
Leaderboard size and Leaderboard opens on (which period it shows first). For a daily puzzle, Today is today's board only - choosing a daily puzzle sets it for you.
Show a leaderboard.
Animations - tiles slide and pop in. Visitors who have asked their device for less motion (or switched on the site's Reduce motion) see tiles move at once instead.

If you change the size or the kind of board (or Shuffle a board for everyone), the leaderboard starts again on the new board: earlier goes stay in the Plays list but no longer count for the leaderboard, places, personal bests or goes per name. Anyone part-way through is asked to start again.

Settings for the Tool

The cog at the top of Sliding Puzzle sets what a new puzzle starts with: size, tiles, kind of board, leaderboard order, time limit, leaderboard size, numbers on picture tiles, peek, leaderboard and animations. Each puzzle keeps its own copy, so changing these never changes a puzzle already made.

Testing a puzzle

Test (in the editor, on each puzzle in the list, and on its Plays screen) opens the puzzle right there, exactly as your players see it.

It plays the version you last saved. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test, and saves first.
It works whatever the status. A daily puzzle's test plays today's board.
A test go is never saved to the leaderboard, is not in the Plays list, does not count towards goes per name and raises no notification. When you finish, it tells you where you would have come.

Shortcodes

[sliding-puzzle id="harbour" /]

The puzzle, with its leaderboard below it.

[sliding-puzzle id="harbour" board="hide" /]
[sliding-puzzle id="harbour" board="only" /]

board="hide" leaves the leaderboard out; board="only" shows the leaderboard on its own.

[sliding-puzzle-leaderboard id="harbour" period="week" limit="5" title="This week's best" /]

A leaderboard on its own. period is today, week, month or all (left out: the puzzle's own setting); limit is how many rows; title is the heading.

Plays and leaderboards

Plays (on each puzzle) lists every go, newest first, with the moves beside each name (and, for a daily puzzle, which day's board). Hide takes a play off the leaderboard without deleting it; Show puts it back. Reset the leaderboard deletes every play of that puzzle.

The sidebar badge shows how many puzzles were solved today - or, if an open picture puzzle has lost its picture from Media, that first.

Notifications

Sliding Puzzle new bests (on by default) - someone has gone top of a puzzle's leaderboard (for a daily puzzle, top of the day).
Sliding Puzzle picture missing (on by default) - a player tried to start an open picture puzzle whose picture is no longer in Media.

Switch them on or off in your notification settings.

Moving puzzles between sites

Export a puzzle from its menu in the list (right-click it, or the ⋮), or from the download button at the top of its editor. Export all puts every puzzle in one file. The file holds the puzzles and their settings - never who played.

Pictures travel as their Media address, not as the picture file. Copy the picture into the other site's Media too.

Import… at the top of the list adds the puzzles in a file to this site:

Each arrives as a draft with no plays.
A daily puzzle gets its own new daily boards on the new site.
A picture this site's Media does not have is named in the message. Upload it to Media, or choose another, before opening the puzzle.
A puzzle whose short name is taken gets one of its own (harbour-2), so check the shortcode.
One that is not valid is skipped, and the message says which and why. Up to 50 puzzles at a time.

Gifting

Sliding Puzzle is a Pro Tool that can also be gifted to a site, for good or for a number of days.