Review: Tetzle

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Everyone
Genre: Puzzle
License: Open Source
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2008
Reviewed Version: 2.1.2
Review Published On: February 28th, 2018
Played on: Martha

Available on:

Windows
Linux

Available from:

Gott Code.org

Linux users can find this game in their distro's repository.

Areas of Concern:
  • Nothing of note


How to Save and Pause:

Your current game will be saved automatically when you quit the program. You can then resume it at any time in the future.

Time needed per session:

The amount of time youll need to finish a jigsaw puzzle generally depends on the number of pieces, but youll be able to make good progress on any puzzle in about ten minutes, so use that as a rule of thumb.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

No - this is a great game for Christians
The only way this game will feature something objectionable is if you deliberately make a puzzle out of an offensive image.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
Selecting a puzzle

[view screenshot]
Solving a puzzle with the helpful overview window up

[view screenshot]
You can also remove the shadows and bevel effects if you want



Game Overview

Jigsaw puzzles are a good way to unwind after a long day, but it seems like everyone has a different idea of how they should be played on a computer. Most jigsaw puzzle games out there are limited to the premade puzzles they come with, and often they arent able to things like rotate the pieces. Tetzle, on the other hand, does things in its own unique way.

To start with, Tetzle doesnt come with any images. You need to provide those yourself. Theres no limit to how many puzzles you can play; a new puzzle is just a quick Google image search away. Additionally, just like in real life, the pieces are rotated randomly when theyre first scattered. You can rotate them yourself by right-clicking while dragging a piece.

But, while these are great perks, Tetzle does one other thing that makes it unique: it doesnt use traditional jigsaw puzzle pieces. Instead of cutting the image into your standard quasi-rectangular shape with blanks and tabs, your image will be broken down into tetrominoes. Hence the name -- its a tetromino puzzle.

This makes solving Tetzles jigsaw puzzles a bit more difficult, as your primary clue to where the pieces go is the image on the piece itself. If your image has large swaths of similar colors, assembling it will be rather hard.

Ultimately, this is a neat little game for those of you who want a different sort of jigsaw puzzle. Since its free and open source, theres no harm in trying it out.

Points of Interest

Play area expands as needed

Puzzles with a lot of pieces often need a lot of space to spread out. Fortunately, Tetzle automatically expands the playing field when the pieces reach its edge, effectively giving you all of the space youll ever need.

No sounds at all

Tetzle never makes any sound. This is ideal for a game you can sit back and play while watching your favorite show on Netflix or listening to an audiobook.

Unusual pieces make for a challenge

Normally jigsaw puzzle pieces have little knobs that makes it obvious when two pieces are neighbors or which pieces belong on the outer edges. This time, you need to look at the image on the pieces to work this out.

Puzzles are always different

Even if you pick the same image and the same number of pieces, the actual design of the puzzle is random. This means that youll never play the same puzzle twice.

The lack of tabs can be an issue

A lot of pictures out there have large sections with just a single color. This inevitably results in a lot of time spent working out where pieces go by trial and error, and its not all that fun when it happens.

Quiet games arent for everyone

This is just a matter of taste, but some people ( such as hardcore gamers ) dont like quiet games like this. Theyll see games like this as lifeless or boring. This isnt so much as problem with Tetzle as it is just a different opinion.

Concerns and Issues

Completely clean

The only way that anything objectionable can appear in this game is if you make a puzzle out of an objectionable picture. In other words, youll have to bring bad stuff into the game deliberately for there to be anything objectionable in it.

Artwork Credits

Tetzle dont provide any images for you to play with. Thus, Ive used several pictures from the internet to showcase the game in the screenshots above. Here are the credits and licenses for each of the six pictures:

All Saints church in Alburgh - stained glass window

Found at geograph
Copyright 2010 Evelyn Simak
Licensed for use under this Creative Commons license.

Agnus Dei, All Saints Church

Found at geograph
Copyright 2012 Maigheach-gheal
Licensed for use under this Creative Commons license.

Stained glass window, St Cuthberts ChurchFound at geograph
Copyright 2011 Maigheach-gheal
Licensed for use under this Creative Commons license. [*]Altar from the Rails

Found at geograph
Copyright 2014 Bill Nicholls
Licensed for use under this Creative Commons license.

Altar, St Giles Church, Imber

Found at geograph
Copyright 2011 Brian Robert Marshall
Licensed for use under this Creative Commons license.

Altar and bible st johns Lutheran public domain image

Found at Public Domain Images
Copyright 2014 Leon Brooks
Image is in the Public Domain.