Wirework

A circuit puzzle you solve with your hands

Wirework is a puzzle game you play in your browser, on a phone or a computer. Each board is a small circuit with faint copper traces. Drag coloured jumper wires onto the board and lay them along the traces until every trace is covered. When the last wire snaps into place, current runs from the power terminal to the LED and the gadget comes to life.

The rule takes seconds to learn. The challenge is fitting every wire in without gaps or overlaps, because each wire has its own shape and there is usually only one way to make them all fit.

How to play

• Drag a wire from the tray onto the board. It snaps in when it fits, and turns itself if it only fits the other way round.
• Tap a wire to turn it, in the tray or on the board.
• Drag a wire off the board to send it back to the tray.
• Stuck? Hint shows where one wire goes, or points out a placed wire that can't be right.

What's in the game

• 72 boards in eight chapters, from First Sparks to the Workshop, each one a gadget to fix: a doorbell, a lighthouse, a jet pack.
• Three twists in later chapters: wires soldered in place, painted traces that only take one colour, and a spare wire that belongs nowhere.
• A Daily circuit, the same for everyone each day, with a streak to keep.
• The Workbench: endless fresh boards at four difficulties.
• Always solvable. A solver checks every board before you see it, and bots play-test each one to set its difficulty.
• Accessible: wire patterns for colour-blind players, a high-contrast board, reduced motion, and full keyboard play.

Where the shapes come from

The wires are polytwigs: shapes made of equal line segments joined end to end along the edges of a hexagonal grid. They are close relatives of the polyominoes behind falling-block games, but almost never seen in games. There are 4 polytwigs of four segments, 12 of five and 27 of six.