Kaleido: a calm stained-glass symmetry puzzle

Kaleido is a quiet puzzle set in a rose window. The window is nearly finished, but a handful of glass panes are missing, and it is your job to work out what colour belongs in each gap. The one rule is that no two panes of the same colour may ever touch, and that rule is the whole puzzle: it is what tells you, gap by gap, which piece each empty socket wants. The lovely part is that you only ever work in one wedge. The rest of the window is a copy of it, so a single pane you place appears all the way round the wheel at once, and the figure resolves into full symmetry as you fill it in. It is gentle, unhurried and quietly satisfying, the kind of thing you can pick up for one window or twenty.

How to play

Pick a colour from the palette, then tap a gap. The pane appears in every wedge at the same time. Keep filling until the window is whole and no two touching panes share a colour.

• Pick and place: choose a colour, tap an empty socket. Tap the same socket again with the same colour to clear it.
• Read the neighbours: a gap cannot take a colour that already touches it. Once every colour but one is ruled out, that one is your answer.
• Watch for clashes: if two panes of the same colour end up touching, the lead between them goes dark and both panes pulse. Nothing is ever refused, so you can always try something and see.
• Hint, Undo and Restart: a hint fills the gap whose neighbours already rule out the most, so it shows you the move you were closest to making. Undo and Restart are always free.

Your progress is saved automatically, so you always pick up on the window where you left off.

Why it is clever

There is no guessing and no luck in Kaleido. Every gap has exactly one right answer, and every answer can be reached by reasoning from the panes already set. Each window is built complete and then has pieces taken out one at a time, and a piece is only removed if the gap it leaves can still be worked out, so a solution always exists and you can always find it. The depth comes from the symmetry: because your wedge is copied all the way round, the pane you place has to sit well with its neighbours in several places at once, and the colour that looks obvious in front of you is often ruled out by what its copy would do on the far side of the wheel. As you climb the hundred levels the window grows, the symmetry loosens from six wedges to three and then to two, and more of the glass goes missing, so the same simple rule keeps giving you longer and longer chains to follow.

Tips

• Start with the most crowded gap. The more panes already touching it, the fewer colours it can be.
• Work outward from a gap you have just filled. Placing one pane usually rules a colour out of its neighbours.
• Remember the copies. A gap in your wedge is also a gap on the other side, and both sets of neighbours have to be happy.
• If nothing is obvious, take a hint. It always picks a gap you could have worked out, so it teaches rather than skips.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kaleido free? Yes, completely free to play, with no account or download, in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop.

Does it work on mobile? Yes. Kaleido is built for touch as well as mouse, and the window is sized to fill a phone screen.

How do I win? Fill every gap so the window is complete and no two touching panes share a colour.

Is every level solvable? Yes, and without guessing. Each window is generated complete and then thinned, keeping only gaps that can still be reasoned out, so every single one has exactly one right answer.

Can I play if I am colourblind? Yes. Open Rules and turn on colourblind mode: it takes the colour out and cuts a distinct shape into each pane instead. Same board, same puzzle, and it is remembered.

How many levels are there? A hundred, and they get steadily harder: bigger windows, looser symmetry and more missing glass.

Stuck? Read the Kaleido strategy guide →

Enjoy a good thinking puzzle? Try Stained or Bloom, or browse all Zamborin games.