Context:

The New York Times' latest game, Pips, launched in August 2025, offers a modern twist on dominoes, creating an engaging single-player challenge. Players must navigate color-coded spaces with specific numerical conditions for tile placement, which can complicate gameplay. As players encounter difficulties, the game only permits a complete puzzle reveal, prompting them to start anew at a higher difficulty. To assist players, hints for each level are provided, detailing the necessary tile arrangements. Moving forward, Pips is poised to become a popular daily gaming staple among enthusiasts.

Dive Deeper:

• Pips was released in August 2025 and is designed as a single-player game that reinterprets traditional domino mechanics with added color-coded conditions.

• Players must place tiles in configurations that satisfy specific criteria related to numbers and equality, such as matching sums or ensuring tiles are equal or not equal.

• Hints are provided for three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard, with specific tile placements required to meet the conditions set by the color-coded spaces.

• For example, in the Easy difficulty, one of the hints states that everything in a space marked 'Number (4)' must add up to 4, with one solution being the tile arrangement 4-1 placed horizontally.

• The game is structured to encourage players to improve their skills, despite its challenge, and is expected to attract a growing base of daily players.