Sokoban meets jigsaw
The picture is nearly done. Walk the last pieces home.
Jigiban hands you a jigsaw that is already mostly built, and then makes you earn the rest. A little paper helper stands on the finished part of the picture, the last pieces lie loose on top of it, and you walk the board and push each one into the gap it belongs in. A piece can only be pushed, never lifted, so the crowded ones have to move in the right order. Every piece that drops home becomes new floor under your feet. It plays in your browser, and it is free.
free · no sign-up · in your browser · 25 to 150 pieces · every deal solvable
Where it came from
A tomato started it.
The founder had a Game Boy as a child, and on it a favourite: a tomato in sunglasses pushing blocks through rooms full of turnstiles. The game was called Kwirk, though the name took decades to come back. Years later came Sokoban proper, the old warehouse game the tomato had been quietly copying, and the pushing puzzle turned out to be one of those shapes a person keeps returning to for life.
This site, meanwhile, is a house of jigsaws. So the two loves got introduced to each other. Sokoban gives the walking and the shoving and the one-wrong-push dread; the jigsaw gives every crate a face and exactly one place it has ever belonged. The name is the honest sum of its parents, jig from the jigsaw, ban from the sokoban. The founder liked it, the founder’s kids liked it, and that was the playtest that mattered.
The rule
Push, never lift. Place, and the floor grows.
You may only walk on the finished part of the picture. The helper steps cell to cell, and when a loose piece is in front of you, a step becomes a shove: the piece slides one cell ahead of you, if the cell behind it is open. Push it over its own gap and it drops in, joins the picture, and the cell it filled is yours to walk on from now on. The board opens up as it gets closer to done, which is the pleasure of the thing: the endgame of a jigsaw and the endgame of a pushing puzzle turn out to be the same feeling.
Two tables, one difference. On the Nudge table you can pull as well as push, so a piece is never truly stuck; it is the calm one. On the Push only table there is no pulling, a careless shove can wedge a piece for good, and taking moves back is part of the game. Both tables give you unlimited take-backs, one move at a time, all the way to the deal.
Five steps
From a few strays, to as far as it goes.
A dial before you deal decides how much of the picture starts loose. The first stop is a few strays, a tidy evening. The last stop is called as far as it goes, and it is not a slogan: the board keeps pulling pieces loose until the field cannot hold any more for its size, then hands you the most tangled deal it found. On a small board that is forty percent of the picture lying loose and five free cells to stand on. Pieces sit behind pieces, and before your first push you will already be counting the order.
a few strays
A handful of pieces short of done. Room to walk, room to think, a warm-down rather than a workout.
a gentle mess
Enough loose pieces that two of them sometimes want the same corridor, and you notice yourself planning.
a real scatter
The old maximum. A third of your pushes now need a second push set up first.
a crowded floor
The pieces are in each other’s way as much as in yours, and clearing a path is its own small puzzle.
as far as it goes
The hardest field the board can physically deal at your size. Most pieces touch another piece. The order is everything.
Every one of those can be finished, and not because anyone checked afterwards. Each deal is produced by playing the finished picture backwards, so a forward path exists before you ever see the board. The dial moves how much of that path you have to find for yourself.
Build your own
Levels made by hands, not dealt by luck.
Endless deals are the daily bread, but the editor is where the mode is going. It ships in the game: pop pieces out of the picture where you want them, stand the helper where you like, and then prove your level the only way that counts, by solving it yourself. Only a solved level can be shared, so nothing you receive from a friend can waste your evening on an impossible board.
A shared level travels as a link. It carries the layout, your winning proof, and the painting you built it on, so your friend faces the exact board you faced. And there is a letterbox: send a level to the site, leave a name if you like, and the ones we love go on the menu shelf for everyone, with their maker’s name on them.
Questions
Before you push.
What is a sokoban puzzle?
A pushing puzzle. You move a figure around a grid, and the figure can shove one crate at a time, never two, never sideways around a corner. The whole game is working out the order, because a crate pushed into the wrong corner may never come out. Sokoban is Japanese for warehouse keeper, and the original is from 1982. Jigiban keeps the pushing and swaps the warehouse for a painting.
What is different from ordinary sokoban?
Three things. The crates are jigsaw pieces and every one has exactly one gap it belongs in, so the targets are not interchangeable. The floor you walk on is the finished part of the picture, and every piece you place becomes new floor, so the room opens up as you go. And the loose pieces themselves are in your way, which on a crowded table is most of the puzzle.
What was the Game Boy game with the tomato that pushed things?
Kwirk. A tomato in sunglasses working through rooms of blocks, turnstiles and holes to fill. The Game Boy also had Boxxle, which was Sokoban under another name, and Catrap, which let you rewind your mistakes. Jigiban is a descendant of all three, and it inherited the rewind: taking moves back is a button, not a shame.
Are the levels made by hand?
The endless supply is dealt fresh every time: the board plays each deal backwards from the finished picture before it hands it to you, which is how it can promise every deal can be completed. Hand-made levels come through the built-in editor. Build one, prove it by solving it, and share it as a link.
Can I build my own levels and share them?
Yes. The editor is in the game, free like everything else. Pop pieces out of the picture, place the helper, then solve your own level once to prove it is fair; the share sheet unlocks when you finish. A shared link carries the layout and, when you built it on a gallery painting, the painting itself, so your friend sees the board exactly as you did. There is also a letterbox for sending a level to the site; when it is open, the ones we love go on the menu shelf with their maker’s name on them, and when it is resting the sheet says so.
Is every deal actually solvable?
Yes, and not by testing afterwards. Each deal is produced by playing the finished picture backwards, so a forward solution exists by construction, at every size and every step of the dial. The demanding Push only table can still be wedged by a careless shove, which is what the take-backs are for.
How hard does it get?
The last stop on the scatter dial is called "as far as it goes", and it means it: the board keeps pulling pieces loose until the field literally cannot hold any more for its size. On a small board that is 40 percent of the picture lying loose with five free cells to stand on. Pieces end up behind pieces, and the order becomes the whole game.
Can I play it with a picture of my own?
Yes. Choose a painting from the museum gallery or upload a photo, and the pieces are cut from it in your own browser; the photo is not sent anywhere. The puzzle arrives mostly built, always upright, from 25 to 150 pieces.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Tap where you want to walk, tap a piece beside you to push it, and a pad under the board gives you held steps and a pull toggle. On a keyboard it is the arrow keys or WASD, Shift to pull, and Z to take a move back.
Can two people play Jigiban together?
Not yet at this table. The rest of the site seats two nearly everywhere, and the two-player Jigiban is designed and measured, two helpers building toward each other until a bridge meets in the middle. It comes after the solo table has had its season.
If you wanted the quiet one
The plain table is here too.
Some evenings nothing should push back. The classic table cuts a jigsaw from a painting or a photo of your own, from twenty-five to six hundred pieces, and every piece that belongs beside another will simply go there. Same gallery, same two seats, nobody standing on the picture.