One Line Weekly is an indie game that quickly earned a spot on my list of the best puzzle games for Android. It's a very elaborate puzzle game built around a simple concept that's wholly explained in the title. All you need to do is rotate the pieces around until you create a single line, but you only have a week to work on it before the puzzle resets — and it'll probably take you the full week to actually finish it or get as far as you can.
The best puzzle games offer a simple premise that belies how challenging it actually is to solve the damn thing. Some great examples would be The Room (opens in new tab) or Monument Valley (opens in new tab), which are both celebrated for having simple controls that are accessible to new players while providing a mind-bending experience that tests your mental dexterity.
This is a puzzle game that resets itself to offer a fresh challenge every week.
One Line Weekly offers a similarly simple concept that essentially combines a complex Rubik's Cube with Pipe Dream (if you're old enough to remember that puzzle gem) where you're working on a multi-sided 3D shape covered with different-shaped line pieces that you tap to rotate until you've connected everything into a single unbroken line.
Navigating around the puzzle is as easy as swiping to rotate the puzzle and using two fingers to pinch zoom in and out. You'll definitely want to be zoomed right in while you're working on a particular area of the puzzle because it's easy to accidentally tap an adjacent piece. Then, you'll want to zoom out to see how your work is fitting in with the rest of the puzzle pieces. Presumably, each puzzle has at least one solution, if not multiple configurations, but even if you're unable to complete the puzzle before it resets on Saturday, the game gives you a progress bar in the pause menu that tracks your longest line so you can work on improving your personal best until the week you manage to complete it.
Given this is a brand new game from an independent developer there is definitely some room for improvement and further development of the core concept. For instance, it would be nice if you were given one piece of a different color to act as a jumping off point to start building your single line out from, because it can be very overwhelming when you load the puzzle up for the first time. it would also be nice if the progress bar included a breakdown of the number of pieces that are connected on the single line over the total number of pieces in the puzzle.
The best news of all about One Line Weekly is that it's a free game with no annoying ads or in-app purchases (for now), while obviously promising weekly updates with a brand new line puzzle delivered every Saturday.
Each week, One Line Weekly offers a brand new 3D puzzle where you must tap to rotate pieces until you've connected everything into a single, unbroken line. Easier said than done.
Marc Lagace was an Apps and Games Editor at Android Central between 2016 and 2020. You can reach out to him on Twitter [@spacelagace.
