What are Reddit's favorite android apps in the category game puzzle?

More correctly, it's Puzzle & Dragons

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.gungho.padEN&hl=en

And yes, it's a great game. I burned out on it eventually, but it took more than a year, which is far better than 99% of games I play on any other system.

Fantastic games, usually about $5 each. Not sure how long this price change will last.

One:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ustwo.monumentvalley

Two:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ustwo.monumentvalley2

(Thanks to Android Police for the info)

If you feel the need to play minesweeper on android, Simon Tatham's Puzzles has a minesweeper in there that is always solveable, either through elimination or counting bombs or the like. The rest of the puzzle games in there are great too, but the graphics kinda suck. Which is a good thing as it is really easy on the memory and cpu load (and honestly, how fancy do you need graphics to be on a puzzle game?).

EDIT: I just noticed that /u/PSBlake made a similar comment in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/33haqt/welcome_to_the_minesweeper_app_where_the_numbers/cql0oyw EDIT2: it's also been ported to virtually everywhere else, so search your local app store and you'll find it probably.

Want a simple app for puzzles? Here's Simon Tatham's collection. Nearly 40 kinds of puzzles in one app. None are language-dependent, but some require math. Simple, clean interface, no hinky permissions or ads.

that game is actually part of a collection, there's a free app on mobile!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles&hl=en_GB

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/simon-tathams-portable-puzzle-collection/id622220631?mt=8

/u/House923 check it out in case you didn't know :)

Anyone ever play The Room (iOS, Android). This is so similar and really fun to solve. There are three versions so far and well worth the price

I don't know about iOS, but there's definitely an Android version https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles (not by Simon Tatham himself, if I recall correctly, but it works nicely.)

For those looking for a casual game to waste your time with, I'd recommend you Endless Loop. It's a simple, well made endless puzzle game. I'm on level 1638 right now and the game is still as fun as it was during the first 50 levels.

This looks like a very fun android game called loop. (not sure if against the rules for advertising, but fwiw I have nothing to do with this game, I just enjoy it)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.balysv.loop

> Who in their right mind would buy a 10+ year old port of a game for 16 fucking dollars? 5 bucks is reasonable, super reasonable. But for 16 bucks I'd rather play the original on an emulator for free.

If this is your argument, then we have Monument Valley for $3.99. An original puzzle game that's been universally praised and highly reviewed.

Comparatively, it has half a percent of the user base of Clash of Clans.

Not fair? Different genre? Okay. We also had Knights of Pen and Paper +1 for $4.99. Also universally praised, critically acclaimed. It has even less than Monument Valley.

If it keeps misbehaving, I'd reccomend replacing that with Simon Tatham's Puzzles, which includes infinite free sudokus ("Solo", it calls it), is free, and has no ads or IAPs.

Mini Metro is worth a look, i don't generally play mobile games but I find myself opening this one up occasionally when i've got time to kill.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.codepoint.minimetro&hl=en_GB

The Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic port is brilliant too, first time i've ever completed a mobile game, shame they haven't ported KOTOR2 yet!

In a completely different vein of thought, long train commutes go fantastic with audiobooks.

Whoa, some really cool stuff. I hope OEMs can make some cheaper standalone headsets cause 400 for the Mirage Solo is just crazy when you can get an Oculus Rift for that much. But this definitely makes Daydream a much more appealing platform and opens up AR experiences.

The gist for lazy readers:

• Experimental 6DoF Controllers
  • We've also created experimental 6DoF controllers that use a unique optical tracking system to help developers start building with 6DoF features on the Mirage Solo. Instead of using expensive external cameras and sensors that have to be carefully calibrated, our system uses machine learning and off-the-shelf parts to accurately estimate the 3D position and orientation of the controllers. We're excited about this approach because it can reduce the need for expensive hardware and make 6DoF experiences more accessible to more people.
• See-Through Mode
  • The combination of see-through mode and the Mirage Solo's tracking technology also opens up the door for developers to blend the digital and physical worlds in new ways by building Augmented Reality (AR) prototypes. Imagine, for example, an interior designer being able to plan a new layout for a room by adding virtual chairs, tables and decorations on top of the actual space.
• Smartphone Android Apps in VR
  • Finally, we're introducing the capability to open any smartphone Android app on your Daydream device, so you can use your favorite games, tools and more in VR. For example, you can play the popular indie game Mini Metro on a virtual big screen, so you have more space to view and plan your own intricate public transit system.

Linkme: Simon Tatham's Puzzles

By Simon Tatham (of PuTTY & NASM fame). An awesome collection of a ton of different puzzles, all open source and ported to Android. The names are different than some trademarks you may be familiar with, but the games are the same.

(direct link)

> It's a complete non-issue in everyday life.

Speak for yourself, it's been messing up my Flow games for weeks.

I do agree that Red/Green contrasts are never an issue for me. Multiple close shades of red or green on the same page/graph? Frequently causes me confusion. Don't do that.

It's pretty rare that you can cause anyone with colorblindness serious issues on the internet, if I can highlight whatever you've made or download it to my computer and manipulate it I won't have an issue. I might be annoyed that I had to do it but I think it's unlikely to cause people to send you angry emails.

Mobile games would be my first guess. The Room was basically nonfunctional on the X Pure until the devs pushed out an update, but my Galaxy S6 handled it just fine. I also play MARVEL Future Fight and the 808 occasionally gets overwhelmed when there's too much action on screen.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles&hl=en_GB

By far my favourite app, I've had it since Android 1.1 on my T-Mo G1. It's now 39 self-generating puzzles, simple interface, no ads, no fremium, nothing to pay, no network access, very low power drain, just infinite great puzzles in a small footprint.

Hitman GO and GTA Chinatown Wars are also on sale and not listed on the article.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenixmontreal.hitmango

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rockstargames.gtactw

If you like this, try the game Infinity Loop (Android, Apple).

In Mini Metro muss man ein U-Bahn-Netz designen, das ständig anwächst und ständig mehr Fahrgäste befördern muss. Ganz einfaches Spielprinzip, aber jede Runde ist anders, da die Stationen immer an unterschiedlichen Orten auftauchen.

Simon Tatham's Puzzles - 39 games in a single app!!

EDIT - bot got the wrong app. Here is the correct link

Mezorama - Great puzzle game. Awesome graphics and visuals despite being 4mb. You can create your own levels. Can be played offline. Highly recommended.

Dash for reddit - A reddit client which looks like a combination of relay and boost. It has bugs and lacking in features since it's in the early stage of beta. Looks promising.

Link me: Dash for reddit , Simon Tatham's Puzzle , Mekorama.

Simon Tatham's Puzzles.

All the traditional and modern logic puzzles you know, infinite generation with adjustable size/difficulty, clear and clean UIs, and free as in free. This is basically the only puzzle game you'll need if you're not specifically looking for cartoon mascots selling you value gem packs.

If you're quick at the match 3 mechanic, give 10000000 a try. If, like me, you're not, give Puzzle Quest 2 a shot. Pretty sure it's a pay once to unlock sort of IAP.

It gets mentioned to death, but I always come back to Monument Valley.

Such a lovely and chilled game with very clever mechanics. Love it.

The Android version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles&hl=en_IN&gl=US

This has been my goto for years now and Tangled is one of my favorites (among Loopy and Towers and Blackbox).

This is such a small and elegant app, I wish more apps were developed this elegantly.

If you like puzzles games with simple graphics and lots of options and you don't know of this one, I am about to change your life.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles&hl=en_US

Mini-metro. Bon ça reste une copie d'un jeu PC. Mais elle est aussi bien faite que la version PC et ça passe super bien le temps. Que demande le peuple ?

Gacha is a disease.

The only mobile game I really like is a port of <strong>Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection</strong>. Just some nice puzzles with no bullshit.

Try <strong>Mini Metro</strong>

I bought it on iOS because it's currently on sale in the app store for $0.99. It's a nice calming time waster that I think looks very good.

Definitely The room and its sequel which is on special at the moment so buy buy! It's not quite "escape the room" but it's essentially the same in my eyes.

Simon Tatham's Puzzle app {Google Play} {Apple} is free and ad-free and has a whole list of puzzle games.

Puzzle and Dragons

According to in-game records, I've been playing it for over 5 years. I don't play it as often as I did before, but I still log in almost every day to play a couple rounds. I'm fairly sure it was the first game of its kind on release, and everyone else just copied the matching mechanic.

Power creep is ridiculous compared to what we had when the game first started, but almost all content can be beaten by a F2P team/player.

&#x200B;

/r/PuzzleAndDragons

PSA to those who play android games Monument Valley can be downloaded for free atm

Check out Simon's puzzles for this and other similar puzzle games. They're open source and no ads.

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles

Best I found is Simon Tatham's puzzles :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles

It's free, open source, offline, no ads, no dubious permission required, no downside whatsoever and lots of randomly generated puzzles you can play.

Get Simon Tatham's Puzzles, which includes minesweeper and a whole bunch of other puzzles to scratch similar itches. Free and ad-free. And I think it requires zero permissions too, which is always nice.

If you're on Android, Simon Taham's Puzzles has this under "keen." It may not be the prettiest app, but it has an amazing number of randomly generated Sudoku-like puzzles.

Simon Tatham's Puzzles - an offline, ad-free collection of all manner of logic puzzles generated algorithmically, so there's a truly endless supply. It's always been my go-to time waster/commute companion. Clean and simple but with real substance to the puzzles.

If you're into puzzle games, Monument Valley by Ustwo Games is a really well polished and relaxing game! It's a nice isometric 2.5D series of levels where you have to find your way from the start of the puzzle to the end. It has a great soothing soundtrack, a nice soft color palette and it really creates a calming ambience as you tinker your way through the levels.

It's currently $3.99 on the Google Play store but I picked it up for free during some sort of promo sale they were having a few weeks ago. Definitely check it out!

Simon Tatham's Puzzles includes that and more than 30 more logic puzzles. It's playable offline, free, no ads and has varying difficulty and map sizes

Dos que me permiten relajarme y gozar (?)

• Infinity Loop

• Orbit

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles

Simon Tatham puzzle collection!! 100% free, 39 puzzle games to enjoy

Here's his page for the windows version, it explains each game in details

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/

It's not so bad. Looks like it could be a cute farming "plat your crop" or gardening kind of game, with some graphical updates.

> The objective is not as obvious as I thought it would be.

Plant all of your flowers/crops so they are connected and will have the largest yield.

> Ten cells across is too cramped for touch manipulation on a small screen;

There is plenty you can fit into 5x5, 6x6, ect grids

> most of my board is really, really boring. It's just an inert, dull and gray space waiting to be painted. That was part of my initial vision, a dull world that you liven up and fill with color as you paint flowers. But the reality fell far short from the vision. I wanted a relaxing game, not a mind-numbingly boring one!

Make them actual flowers or plants, or better images of flowers on the tokens? Have the starting spots be seed bags and the final spot a full/largers image of the flower?

The grey box is probably the worst offense in the gif. It's just... there. No theme, no flavor, no juice. Even something as simple as a garden plot needs something to it. And browns and greys of dirt are still 'bare' and dull enough to have a good effect when livened up with plants.

>Backtracking is also not very intuitive. You can click on a colored spot to return the bag to that spot, but I don't know how to teach the player or help them discover that. Drawing a line from to help the player visualize the path taken by the bag should help that, and that's probably the next thing I'm implementing.

Make it a shovel. Boom, instant intuitiveness. Maybe a one-time popup or something that says it is to help rearrange the plants. Once they use it once, and their whole line of flowers are gone, the reasons to use it and the mechanics are solidified.

I've got this game called ∞ Infinity Loop where you connect different shapes to end in a loop. It's very simple, but also quite nice to play when not being able to whip out your phone

I believe it's Flow Free?

Also, in the play store app you can access your library of apps, so if you downloaded it onto an android device with the same account, it'll be listed as off-device, toward the bottom of the list.

Simon Tatham's Puzzles.

There is a huge selection of puzzles, there are many options for most puzzles, and the AI that creates puzzles is good.

On Android, there's this great pack of puzzle games. It includes a version of Minesweeper with that feature.

Play Store link

Monument Valley's inspiration.

For Android and iOS

The Room https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FireproofStudios.TheRoom

If you like lifelike graphics, realistic sounds, great physics gameplay, mystery, and solving puzzles, get The Room. It's fantastic.

Congrats at releasing a game! That alone is a huge accomplishment!

Something to think about, all your screenshots and text don't tell me how the game is actually played

For instance: >Tricky Twists is a multiplayer body-twisting game, and it's completely FREE! This is a Live Multiplayer Social Game, which means you have to have everyone in the same room with you to play.

There should be a sentence in that first paragraph that actually describes what the goal player's are trying to accomplish is. I just know it involves body-twisting, but why am I doing that.

As a good example see the first sentence of Monument Valley's Google Play store page: >In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ustwo.monumentvalley&amp;hl=en

I know exactly what I am doing (manipulating architecture) and what the goal is (guide the princess through the world).

I Love Hue The gameplay is simple, but very satisfying! The controls are perfectly suited to mobile and the progression allows you to move to more difficult levels even if you haven't completed all the easier ones

The only bad points are the energy system and the adverts between levels.

Bad bot.

The correct link is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.gungho.padEN&amp;hl=en

It's an old gacha game with generous rate. It's so old that it never hold any IAP discount bundles like newer gacha games nowadays. Content is challenging once you reach end game territory and actually need player skills on top of good cards to clear.

Simon Tatham's puzzles

Google Play version

If you like sudoku, solitaire, etc, you'll love this.

If you have android, infinity loop is a timeless classic. Super simple just connect all the lines, but it has over 600 levels and is often updated! Its super pretty and has chill music, too.

LinkMe: Puzzle and Dragons

One of the better F2P games I've tried. You have to use the in game currency to get most of the better monsters, but they're pretty generous with it in game (you get one stone for clearing a dungeon the first time, and they usually give 1 stone per day during events, which happen every week or two).

Edit: <em>Sigh</em> If you want something done right...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles

Chris Boyle: Also a nice guy, we shared codes between our different ports of this.

My go-to is Simon Tatham's Puzzles.

It has many different types of puzzles which the app randomly generates, giving it infinite replayability. As a bonus, it is free and has no ads.

Doing sudoku just makes me overthink (anxiety) but if you are alright in that department, it should just be a nice way to pass time and train yourself to be better at well, sudoku. If you are interested & on android, I use this one that has not only sudoku but many brain games, is free and has no ads, or one from Genia that is specifically for sudoku and has tournaments sometimes, but also ads (but can be played offline-no ads then.)

Although I found out that solving sudoku on phone make me feel like idiot then I solve on paper, cause there is no highlighting/error notice/easy to edit hints.

Check out the game Flow Free on App Store or Google Play if you want more of these puzzles on your phone/tablet.

The Yalp Store let's you filter out games with in-app purchases, as well as ads.

Better yet, get Simon Tatham's Puzzles Collection, the best open-source puzzle collection ever made.

The Room and its two sequels are excellent if you like puzzles or escape games. They are definitely best in class.

Have you tried 10,000,000?

EDIT: Sorry, please ignore. You requested for a free game.

EDIT: Try Puzzle Forge 2 instead.

Any change you got inspired by I Love Hue, or Blendoku? Just saying, "unique" might a little strong word here.

The only game I play on android is the port of Simon Tatham's Puzzles. It's very barebones, and the ui is ugly. But there's no ads or any bloat. Just endless randomly generated puzzles.

u/PilipinoAko 's answer is satisfying but I'd also like to share a game that illustrates how difficult it is to lay down infrastructure and improve it to fill ever growing needs.

If you have 60php to spare, the game is Mini Metro, it's actually pretty fun and challenging. Otherwise at least watch a gameplay vid on youtube.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.codepoint.minimetro

Fantastic games, usually about $5 each. Not sure how long this price change will last.

One: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ustwo.monumentvalley

Two: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ustwo.monumentvalley2

(Thanks to Android Police for the info)

Here, called mines, if you click the is link you can play it in a browser, the mines.exe link downloads a Windows version and there's a port of all of the guys puzzles to Android here(free, no ads).

The first click is always safe and it should always generate solvable boards that should not require you to just randomly pick a square the uncovered numbers should allow you to figure it out, but in some cases you will have to use your knowledge of how many mines are left, for example in a corner you may have 2 separate locations that each have to contain 1 mine and the numbers don't tell you which space in each location has the mine but there are uncovered areas behind the potential mine spaces and there are only 2 mines left you know all the other spaces other than the 2 locations are safe.

Maybe it's not like Pokemon Go, maybe it's like Hitman GO or Lara Croft GO:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenixmontreal.hitmango&amp;hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenixmontreal.lcgo&amp;hl=en

Skullgirls, Vampire Savior, Lethal League - blah blah fighting games blah blah hitting buttons blah blah

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Trying to get sub-9 Cadence, keep getting dunked from pushing too hard. I did get this wacky RNG today and actually finished that run, but it was pretty far behind pace.

2064: Read Only Memories - Only just started on this, hasn't quite hooked me yet but I'll see if it gets more interesting soon enough.

Lots of great stuff on 3DS, I'm not even gonna bother rattling off a big list. I just hope the Switch has enough battery life to fill the same role. Still sucks that I can't have a proper d-pad on the go though...

As for phones, eugh. It's all trash, all of it, the race to the bottom utterly destroyed the platform. The only thing that's any good is the port of <strong>Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection</strong>, because it's just some nice puzzles with no nonsense attached.

Monument Valley ihan nätti ja rento puzzle peli, sen kyllä vetäsee läpi melko nopeaan.

Badlands muistaakseni suomalaisen tekemä tommonen 2D lentelypeli missä on semmosia fysiikkapohjasia esteitä ja visuaalisesti kanssa hieno. Suht haastavia jotkut tasot.

Muutaman vuoden vanhoja taitaa molemmat jo olla, mutta suosittelen jos ei ole vielä pelannut.

> Is that really the issue?

Well, yea.

Because if RPGs is the issue, we have short time investment games that people also aren't buying. I mentioned Thomas Was Alone earlier for 20 cents. It's a platformer.

There's also Monument Valley at $3.99. Puzzle game. Well reviewed. Doesn't even come close to the freemium games.

If you're like me and you really enjoy puzzles, Simon Tathum's Puzzles is the single greatest puzzle games app I've ever found and I've searched a lot. It has almost every kind of small repeatable randomly generated puzzles like Sudoku and Flood-it! and Mastermind plus tons I'd never even heard of before.

Absolutely my favorite app on my phone and I use it every single day... highly recommend. The one thing I wish it had but it doesn't is Kropki, which is like sudoku but significantly more difficult.

Here's what I got:

• AdAway
• DosBox Manager
• Flashify
• Godville
• GravityBox [MM]
• Greenify
• Imgur
• MinMinGuard
• OneDrive (lol, OneDrive backs up to Google Drive)
• Puzzles (these puzzles, specifically)
• Rondo
• Shooty Skies
• Slide
• Takser
• Tip-Off (Basketball)

God, my favorite game is Monument Valley, but it's just so gosh-dang short. I really wish they made more chapters, but it's a game that is truly quality-over-quantity, which is refreshing to see in the mobile-gaming market.

That is Ida the main character in Monument Valley. Great little puzzle game.

I absolutely adore I Love Hue. It's just a simple colour organisation game and there's a sequel now as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zutgames.ilovehue

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zutgames.ilovehue2

Misschien vind je deze app dan ook wat. Ik gebruik hem al jaren om puzzels te doen. Er zitten ook puzzels bij die je niet in een boekje tegenkomt.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles

Do you mean Flow Free? If so, then yes its the same basic idea: connect up two points without overlapping the joins.

The difference in Synapse is that the layout of the puzzles can vary hugely, and incorporate all kinds of geometry! The puzzles can loop around in circles and warp around the space, while Flow Free is largely grid based.

I'm a huge fan of Flow Free, and I wanted to create something that shakes up their formula a bit.

Discussion: I love this app! It's Chris Boyle's Android port of a collection of free and open-source puzzles by Simon Tatham, the creator of PuTTY.

I'm not associated with Simon Tatham or Chris Boyle, I just really appreciate the app. :)

I think designing a solid standard set of levels is a good choice for this. You probably don't even need any additional mechanics, just good level design. It reminds me of the android game Flow, which had really minimal mechanics but got HUGE mileage out of them. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.flow&amp;hl=en

If you want to remove the "blind luck" part, try this: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/mines.html

> The first square you open is guaranteed to be safe, and you are guaranteed to be able to solve the whole grid by deduction rather than guesswork. (Deductions may require you to think about the total number of mines.)

I never really liked the default minesweeper due to seemingly being a puzzle game, but then often ending up in a situation where you need to guess stuff - I just don't think that a 50-50 coin toss belongs in a puzzle game. In this edition there will be no guessing and everything can be solved by logic, the result is actually pretty nice.

The same non-guesswork edition is available in Simon Tatham's Puzzles for Android.

Not sure how challenging you'll find it, but there's a series of puzzle games called the room that I've found to be very worth their price. Fun little puzzle games.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles

This has minesweeper, and a few good other puzzles too.

Το μόνο που έχω να προσθέσω σε αυτά που είπαν τα άλλα παιδιά είναι το Ι love hue. Μεγάλο κόλλημα, χαλαρό, χωρίς χρόνους, το βγάζεις με την ησυχία σου.

If you have an Android phone, I believe Monument Valley is free at the moment. Not sure about the iOS version.

It's beautiful. You wander through some funky locations, navigating around levels that can twist and turn in impossible ways, and you manipulate them to reach your location. It's not the hardest game in the world, and you'll have it beat in a matter of hours, but it's well worth the experience.

it's like this bot isn't even trying anymore

Puzzles and Dragons

Terra Battle

I know myself well enough, so I use YouTube videos, specifically long-form criticism, usually of film. These are ideal for me as they are always accessible via my phone or computer, can begin immediately after I complete the task, and end conclusively to help me avoid clicking to another. I also use the Pomodoro system and most of them fit well within my long break section (though I have modified the times from stock Pomodoro). For small breaks I use a mobile puzzle game called Infinity Loop that is relaxing and almost meditative. It provides a helpful break from work and working through the puzzles is a light reward.

I have also tried using Magic Online (an internet-enabled version of Magic the Gathering) to get a quick match in after a lengthy work session or the completion of a project. They have an upper time limit to ensure I don't spend longer than intended. I've recently attempted using food as a reward system, but given numerous personal mental issues with eating, this turned out disastrous.

Overall, I'd recommend trying to find an activity like those above where it's easy to end, provides a direct contrast to your work, and is tied to your outside interests. Good luck!

I'm sorry to say it has nothing to do with Pokemon go if that's what you're thinking.

Actually more of a Puzzle game

The version of minesweeper (called “Mines”) in Simon Tatham's Puzzles (desktop, Android) always guarantees an unambiguous solution, so that this never happens.

Why not both? Endless levels, but with a set variety and randomness. As they progress they can run different endless courses. In my mind I'm thinking about a cross of 10,000,000 or Super Hexagon with your more typical endless game.

10 Million and YMBAB are both good games with some hectic action filled matching style puzzle game play. They are also both inexpensive, so you'd have lots of your credit left. Both games are premium, no ads, no IAP, no stamina/energy/timers limiting how long you can play.

If you like that, Hitman GO and Deus Ex GO are very similar. I thought Lara Croft GO had by far the best puzzles, though.

So I'll immediately deviate from your criteria by suggesting a non-free game. But it costs about $1, and is to date the only game I've played where the tablet feels like exactly the right interface for the gameplay. It won loads of awards and I think it's phenomenal.

The Room. It's a moody puzzle-box solving game, and made to be very "hands-on" and tactile. Check it out. There are now two sequels as well.

if you're looking for a pencil-less app that gives the same feeling(to me at least) as an adult coloring book, try infinity loop

i had an eight inch tablet once and came to a conclusion:

most mobile games are made for devices with a smaller screen and less weight and are a chore to play on a big and heavy tablet; i was sad (then i got a slightly old laptop and gifted the thing to my sister and am happy ever after :3 )

back then i was not really into idle games and this might be slightly off-topic, but if you are into logic puzzle games i recommend Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, sometimes i spend hours on one game type scolding myself each time i hit 'new game' yet again; also: googleplay

Well, just allowing pressing in the general direction the character should move to is quite viable for some gridded top-down games, I reckon, particularly if not too fast-paced?

I don't mean full press-here-to-move-here pathfinding (though that's presumably a reasonable option for some game types, particularly rpgs/adventures), just some zones around the character in which if you press it means move in the relevant cardinal direction (these wouldn't need to be visible buttons, as it's fairly intuitive to press a point ahead of where you want the character to move - see the likes of the "inertia" game in the well known simon tatham's puzzles collection for a small example of something similar (in that case the point of the puzzle is it doesn't stop until it hits something, so you don't hold down to keep moving though)

\ ↑ // \ / ### ← #O# → ### / \ // ↓ \

Have you ever heard of "The Room" or one of its successors? If not, I'd urge you to try the first one, if you don't mind paying for quality.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FireproofStudios.TheRoom

Can we assume that the words won't require sharing letters? Do we care about the complexity of the finding the words? If not, simply Snake the words along columns or rows?

If you don't mind ignoring diagonal crossing then you can simplify it down to creating a Flow Free level which is discussed on StackOverflow

Play the smartphone game "Flow". Really! It's the essence of PCB layout, turned into an amusing pastime. And it's free.

Android link

iPhone iPad link

In fact, I believe that it's the game that spawned all of these rip-offs. Flow Free is already bad enough in that it requires you to fill in all the cells (not something that Arukone ever asked you to do), and has multiple solutions for some puzzles. The rip-offs are even worse!

Android

iOS