Stitch

Stitch (2022) is an embroidery puzzle game where you fill in numbered areas of the right size to create pictures. While it sounds simple, the limited ways you can add yarn to the hoop creates a head-scratching challenge. This slow, thoughtful, and relaxing play, paired with the countless colourful designs you create, makes for a uniquely meditative experience with some collateral mathematics learning along the way.

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You pick the difficulty, size, and pattern of the design you want to make. You add thread by dragging it across a grid to create different shapes. The grid has numbers on specific squares that denote the area of the shape that must cover it. Once all the hoop has been filled and all the numbers satisfied, you end up with the completed pattern, which you can then go back to at any point and colour however you want.

Although the sound of the maths-based puzzles is a little daunting, and indeed, some of the later challenges can be extremely difficult, it's actually a surprisingly intuitive system to get to grips with and can even be a great way for young children to begin understanding the topic.

The result is a game that offers a simple challenge that can provide the first steps into maths for younger children and a fiendishly challenging puzzle for older players, thanks to its various difficulties and designs.

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Stitch 18 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 8 days ago.