Simon Tatham’s Puzzles Pizza Edition
A red block. A locked exit. A board full of wooden pieces standing in your way. Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition is the classic unblock puzzle: slide the blocking pieces aside, clear a path, and guide the red block out through the gap on the right. The rules take ten seconds to learn. The hard levels will keep you thinking for ten minutes. This is pure logic with no timer pressuring you, just you against the board.
The Job: Free the Red Block
Every level of Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition presents the same contract. A 6×6 board holds the red block plus a crowd of wooden pieces. The red block needs to reach the exit slot on the right edge. You win by sliding pieces out of its way until the path is clear.
The board, the blocks, the exit
Pieces come in two orientations: horizontal pieces slide left and right, vertical pieces slide up and down. Nobody rotates, nobody jumps. The exit is always on the right side, marked clearly. Your red block moves only horizontally, so the entire puzzle is about clearing its row.
Pieces only slide along their length
This single constraint creates all the difficulty. A vertical piece blocking the red block’s row cannot move sideways to help you; it must slide up or down, which means something else must move first to give it room. Every puzzle is a chain of these dependencies.
Think Like a Locksmith: Work Backwards
Beginners attack unblock puzzles from the wrong end. They shove random pieces around hoping the path clears. Locksmiths do the opposite: they start from the exit and work backwards.
Start from the exit, not the mess
Look at the red block’s row. Which pieces sit between the red block and the exit? Those are your true blockers. Ignore everything else for now. Your whole puzzle is about moving those specific pieces out of the row.
Find the last move first
Ask: what is the very last slide before the red block exits? Usually it is moving one final blocker up or down. Then ask what must move to allow THAT slide. Chain backwards like this and the solution reveals itself as a sequence instead of a mess.
The Move Economy: Why 3 Stars Matter
Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition rates your solution with stars, and the currency is moves. Fewer moves means more stars. This transforms the game from “can you solve it” to “can you solve it elegantly.”
Every slide costs you
Each time you slide a piece, the move counter ticks up. Random shuffling that eventually works might solve the level but earns one star. Planned sequences earn three. Before touching anything, spend 30 seconds just looking. Planning is free; moves are not.
Planning beats speed
There is no timer in Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition, so speed is never the answer. The best players look slow: long pauses, then a burst of precise slides. If you find yourself sliding the same piece back and forth, stop. You are guessing, not solving. Reset your thinking, not just the board.
The Blocker Hit List
Not all pieces matter equally. In every level, a handful of pieces are the real obstacles and the rest are just furniture. Learning to tell them apart is the core skill of Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition.
Identify the true blockers
Trace the red block’s path to the exit. Every piece touching that path is a true blocker. Everything else only matters if it blocks a blocker’s escape route. Write this priority in your head: exit-row pieces first, their helpers second, everything else last.
Temporary parking spots
Sometimes a blocker has nowhere to go. You must first slide other pieces to create empty space, park the blocker there temporarily, then continue. Think of the board as a parking lot: you are always shuffling cars to free the one that needs to leave.
The Two-Step Shuffle Pattern
Most hard levels in Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition hinge on one recurring pattern. Learn to spot it and difficult puzzles get dramatically easier.
Move out, slide through, move back
The pattern: slide piece A out of the way, slide piece B through the freed space, then slide piece A somewhere new. It feels wasteful to move A twice, but that second move is often the key that unlocks the whole board. When stuck, look for places where this shuffle applies.
Recognizing it in the wild
You will know the shuffle is needed when a blocker is trapped between two pieces and neither can move far. The solution is almost always a temporary displacement: move one neighbor aside, let the blocker shift, then reposition the neighbor. Train your eye for this shape.
When You’re Stuck: The Reset Protocol
Everyone gets stuck in Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition. The difference between stuck-for-a-minute and stuck-forever is having a protocol.
Stop sliding randomly
Random slides feel productive but destroy your mental model of the board. If you have made five moves with no plan, stop. Take your hands off the mouse. A fresh look beats ten more random slides.
Rebuild from the exit again
Restart your thinking with the backwards method: exit first, blockers second, helpers third. Often the solution you missed was visible from the exit side all along. Many players solve a “impossible” level within a minute of re-reading it backwards.
Using hints without shame
If the game offers hints, use them as lessons, not crutches. Watch what the hint moves, then ask WHY that move helps. A hint you understand teaches a pattern. A hint you copy teaches nothing.
The Daily Puzzle Habit: Getting Better Without Grinding
Unblock puzzles reward consistency more than marathon sessions. Fifteen minutes a day in Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition builds pattern recognition faster than a three-hour weekend binge. Your brain consolidates spatial patterns between sessions, which is why yesterday’s impossible level sometimes falls in two minutes today.
Try this routine: warm up with two easy levels to wake up your planning brain. Then attempt one level at your current limit. If you solve it, push one level harder. If you get stuck for ten minutes, note what blocked you and move on. Forcing a stuck puzzle teaches frustration, not skill.
Keep a mental catalog of patterns you have learned: the two-step shuffle, the parking-lot clear, the backwards chain. Name them in your head. Named patterns are retrievable patterns, and retrieval is the whole game.
From Easy to Expert: The Difficulty Curve
Early levels of Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition teach the mechanics with obvious solutions. Medium levels introduce the shuffle pattern and multi-blocker chains. Expert levels combine everything: tight boards, long dependency chains, and move counts that punish waste.
The curve is fair. Every technique you need for expert levels appears in easier form earlier. If an expert level feels impossible, you probably missed a technique, not a miracle. Drop back to medium levels and practice the pattern you are missing.
Simon Tathams Puzzles Pizza Edition is one of those rare games that respects your intelligence completely. No reflexes required, no luck involved. Just a red block, a locked exit, and the satisfaction of a clean solution.
What is the hardest level you have cracked? Do you plan your moves or solve by feel? Share your approach and your star counts in the comments. I am always looking for new solving philosophies to feature.
