Lanternward

The pitch

Place lanterns in the night streets of Veldrenmar until every alley is lit. Lanternward is a logic puzzle in the classic Akari ("Light Up") family: a lantern lights its whole row and column until a rooftop stops it, numbered roofs say how many lanterns stand beside them, and no lantern may shine on another. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be solved by reasoning alone. No guessing, ever. • 300 graded puzzles across 10 districts, 6×6 to 14×14, then Endless Night • A new daily puzzle every day • Difficulty measured by the deduction it needs, not by a label • Four stars by time against each level's target, your best times, never a countdown • Stuck? A hint places one correct lantern and "Show my mistake" marks the wrong ones. Each costs one star, nothing else • Colour-blind palette • Progress is saved in this browser Free to play. This browser edition shows no ads.

Controls & how it runs

Desktop Left click a street = place a lantern Click it again = mark a dot (no lantern here) Click once more = clear Hold the button = mark a dot directly Goal Light every street. A lantern lights its row and column until a roof stops it. Numbered roofs say how many lanterns stand beside them. No lantern may shine on another. Every puzzle has one solution and needs no guessing. Hint and Show my mistake are under the board and cost one star each.

Getting a run going takes exactly one press: Press start, up top, and the game boots inside this page — nothing downloads in the background and no form wants your details before the first jump. The cabinet is drawn for a landscape (wide) screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. This cabinet runs wide: landscape screens flatter it, so tip a phone on its side or hand it a tablet or desktop and let it stretch out. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for arcade cabinets

Treat your first run as a scouting mission. Arcade cabinets hide their cruelty in the second minute, not the first — learn where the difficulty spikes before you start chasing numbers.
Small scores compound. Grab the easy pickups on every pass instead of gambling the whole run on one heroic line; heroes respawn, banked points don't evaporate.
Watch the edges of the screen. In classic arcade design the next problem almost always enters from somewhere you weren't looking — build the habit of scanning the borders.

Lanternward — quick-fire questions

Does Lanternward cost anything to play?

Not a token. The cabinet is free from the first run to the five-hundredth — no wallet, no sign-up, no toll booth hiding three levels in. The adverts around the page are what keep the floor's lights on.

What sort of game is Lanternward?

It stands on our Arcade row — that's the family it plays most like. The pitch above is the publisher's own rundown of what it throws at you and what it hands back.

Can I play Lanternward on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. This cabinet runs wide: landscape screens flatter it, so tip a phone on its side or hand it a tablet or desktop and let it stretch out.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Lanternward is an HTML5 game: hit the start button and it boots on this page, and shutting the tab sweeps the cabinet clean behind you.

Before you wander off

Personal best banked, or still chasing it? Either way the full Arcade row is powered on and waiting — The main floor: 415 cabinets of pure arcade stock — the quick, the loud and the gloriously unfair. If it beeps, flashes and dares you to beat a number, it lives on this row.