How the Arcade Works

Klondike solitaire played with a deck drawn for this site — four horror suits, and every court card its own piece of art.

• It plays the way solitaire always has. Build the columns down in alternating colours, build the four foundations up from the ace, and only a king can open an empty column.
• The suits are Blood and Bone in red, Claw and Blade in black, so the colours read the way a normal deck does.
• Every deal is checked before it ships, so the hand you are given today can definitely be won.

A daily mystery word game where every answer comes from horror. You get six guesses at one five-letter word.

• Answers are horror words, films, characters, filmmakers, creatures and places — SATAN, RABID, CRYPT, that kind of thing.
• Guesses have to be real five-letter words, so you can open with anything.
• Stuck after two guesses? Reveal the category for a nudge.

A 7×7 midi crossword you can finish with your coffee. Click a square, type, and the highlighted clue tells you what you are filling in.

• Click a square twice, or press the arrow key, to switch between Across and Down.
• Four to eight answers each day are horror. The rest is ordinary English, so the crossings always give you a way in.
• The … menu will check a letter, check a word, or reveal an answer outright. Revealed squares turn green.

Ten hidden words, one theme, twelve by twelve. Drag across a word to claim it.

• Words run forwards, backwards, up, down and diagonally.
• The theme changes daily — slashers one day, Universal monsters the next, then sci-fi horror, killer animals, haunted houses.
• Spaces in a title are closed up: Lost Boys hides as LOSTBOYS.

Guide the bat through the crypt gates. Tap, click or hit space to flap. That is the whole game.

• Every gate you clear is a point. Touch a gate, the ceiling or the ground and you are done.
• Everyone flies the exact same course on the same day, so a score is worth comparing.
• Fly as many times as you like — the course only changes at midnight.

Slide the whole crypt one direction at a time. When two of the same creature collide they breed into the next one up the chain.

• Arrow keys or W A S D on a keyboard, or a swipe in any direction on a phone.
• Twelve tiers, rat to the Devil. You score whatever a merge creates.
• Everyone gets the same crypt each day, so replaying it is practice rather than a reroll.