Tiles is a colour and design matching game with grids of patterned rectangles and squares – that dares players to pick the possible running order of tile sets with allotted elements.

The game has different tile-sets identified after cities across the world. The “Kuala Lumpur” tile-set pattern in pink and green is inspired by Peranakan tiles found in Malaysia and Singapore. “Lisbon” is a tessellation-like tile-set of yellow and blue based on Parisian and Portuguese tiles. “New Haven,” a colour-block tileset, is based on the art of Josef Albers, a craftsman, and colour-theorist who practiced at Yale. This has majorly been inspired from “Mahjong Tiles” as well.

“Besides drawing influence from different optical styles and cultures, our tilesets also play around with diverse aspects of optical recognition and pattern matching,” said Robert Vinluan. “All the details in the Hong Kong-based tileset contain the same pattern and color and thus, the players just need to differentiate between the structure and lines,” he continued.

The game is free, but being a paid subscriber of NYT can have some additional benefits and extra features. Non-subscribers are provided with a different set of pattern and they get just six attempts Subscribers to get access to the professional level, i.e. the Zen Mode, that helps players pick their tile-set numerous number of times and infinite attempts.

The Times’ puzzle crew got the inspiration to build the game that is both convenient and comfortable. “One additional strategy around launching Tiles is the fact that non-native English speakers will also get the grasp of the game pretty easily. The NYT stated the same in its press release.