About Prism Sort
A row of glass prisms, each holding a stack of coloured light, shuffled. Lift the top run of one colour and pour it onto its own colour or into an empty prism — that is the only rule, and the board teaches it to you on the first tap by lighting up everything that will accept what you are holding. Levels add colours, take spare prisms away or make the prisms taller, so the same rule goes from obvious to four moves of planning across thirty levels and then keeps going. There is no timer and no way to lose: the worst that happens is being stuck looking at a board you know can be solved, because every one of them was solved by the game before it was handed to you.
How to play
- Tap or click a prism to lift the run of one colour sitting on top. Every prism that can take it lights up.
- Tap a lit prism to pour. A run can only land on its own colour or in an empty prism, and only as much as fits goes across.
- Keep pouring until every prism holds a single colour or nothing at all.
- A cleared level pays coins and the next one usually adds a colour or takes away a spare prism. There is no timer and no way to lose.
Tips
- Undo is not a penalty. Undo (Z or Backspace) and Restart (R) are free and unlimited, and undoing a pour takes it off your move count, so trying an idea and backing out never costs you par.
- Guard the last empty prism. From level 12 some boards have only one spare. Fill it only when you can already see how to empty it again, or you can pour yourself into a board with no legal move.
- Know what a clean solve pays. Every solve pays 12 coins, plus 8 if you used no assist and 6 more for finishing at or under par. Par is the fewest pours the board could possibly need, plus two.
- Spend coins on the right assist. You start with 60 coins. A hint costs 25, a rewind 30, and an extra prism 40, once per level. On a stuck board, the rewind steps back to a position that can still be solved.
- Turn on symbols if colours blur. Each of the twelve colours also carries its own shape, such as a dot, ring or star. The symbols can be switched on or off from the menu.
Read the full Prism Sort guide (5 min read)
From the developer
Prism Sort is a colour-sorting puzzle I built on 10 September: lift the top run of one colour from a glass prism and pour it onto the same colour or into an empty prism, until every prism holds one colour. It is plain JavaScript on one canvas, with synthesised sound.
A solver is the backbone of the game. Every level is generated, then solved, and thrown away if it cannot be finished, so an unsolvable level never ships. Boards with only one spare prism are almost never solvable from a random deal, so those are built backwards from the finished board instead. Hints follow one cached plan. When I let each hint run a fresh search, consecutive hints could undo each other: on one level that the solver clears in 47 pours, following the hints walked a player in circles for 500.
There is no tutorial screen. Level one has two colours and two spares, picking a prism lights every legal destination, and a coaching line helps for three levels and then goes quiet. For colour-blind players each of the twelve colours also has its own symbol. The buttons, panels and stars are from Hyper Casual UI Pack by Smashy Tech, and the gems are rendered from the KayKit Platformer Pack by Kay Lousberg.
Son Hoang, who made Prism Sort
Update history
- Added looping music from Vasco Grossmann's Fantasy Music Lite.
- Removed the 'Watch a video' buttons, which could never pay out here; every assist can still be bought with coins at the same price.
- New buttons, panels and gem art, and results now award up to three stars.
- Real loading bar, and every screen fits phones, tablets and desktops without scrolling.
- Text now scales with the screen; on a laptop the smallest labels had been 8 pixels.
- First version: pour colours between glass prisms until each holds one colour, with every level checked solvable before you see it.
Questions
Does Prism Sort save my progress?
Yes, in your browser on this device. It keeps your level, coins, fewest pours per level, sound and symbol settings, and the board you left mid-level with its move history. Erase progress on the menu clears it.
Can every level actually be solved?
Yes. Each board is run through the game's solver before you see it and thrown away if no solution is found. One-spare boards are built backwards from a finished board, so a solution exists by construction.
Can I play it on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Tap a prism, then tap where it should pour. Undo, Restart and Stuck? are on-screen buttons, and prisms wrap into rows so they stay large enough to tap.
Is there a last level?
No. The difficulty ramp runs for thirty levels, then the game keeps generating hard boards of eleven or twelve colours. Stop whenever you like and pick up on the same board later.
