Equation Cages | HTML5 Puzzle Game

A complete, production-ready HTML5 math-puzzle game built for commercial distribution. Zero external JavaScript dependencies. Runs on any modern browser straight from a static file host with no build step required.

Overview

Equation · Cages bundles three separate math-puzzle modes in one package: Cage Puzzle (a Sudoku-style grid where cages of cells must solve a printed equation), Equation Match (a tile-swapping grid where equations and answers must be paired up), and Number Crossword (a crossword grid filled in by solving Across/Down equations). Every puzzle in all three modes is generated procedurally at play time — there is no bundled puzzle list. The game features Easy/Medium/Hard difficulty tiers plus a seeded Daily Challenge (shared across all three modes), five selectable board themes, an XP progression system with seven rank tiers, eight achievements, a local best-times leaderboard, an optional Time Attack countdown for Cage Puzzle mode, a Cage Puzzle solved-grid import tool, a configurable hint system, and a full sponsor/ad integration framework — all in a single self-contained HTML5 package.

About the Game

• Entry point is index.html — no build step, no CLI tools, no package manager required
• Pure vanilla HTML5, CSS3, and ES6+ JavaScript — zero libraries, zero frameworks
• Game engine and UI for all three modes are contained in a single IIFE in scripts/js/game.js
• There is no bundled puzzle or word-list file — cage layouts, match tiles, and crossword grids are all generated algorithmically at runtime, for all three modes and all difficulty tiers
• All CSS lives in scripts/css/style.css; sponsor/ad placeholder in scripts/sponsor/sponsor-placeholder.html
• Ads are switched on or off from a single file: config/ads.js
• Two bundled image assets: scripts/images/background.jpg (shared background texture) and scripts/images/favicon.jpg
• Procedural Web Audio API sound engine — no audio files bundled
• All game state persisted to localStorage with graceful degradation when storage is unavailable
• Browser support check on boot — displays a dedicated “Browser Not Supported” screen if requirements are not met

Game Modes

Mode is chosen right after the lobby, on its own dedicated screen, before difficulty. Each mode has its own generator and grid renderer, but all three share the same header, sidebar actions, themes, XP system, and complete screen.

• Cage Puzzle (flagship mode) — A 9×9 grid where every row and column must contain the digits 1–9 exactly once (there is no 3×3 sub-box constraint, unlike classic Sudoku). The grid is divided into bold-outlined “cages” — irregular groups of 1 to 4 adjacent cells — and each cage carries a small equation in its corner (e.g. 20+, 294×) that the digits placed inside it must solve. Single-cell cages are pre-filled “givens.”
• Equation Match — A grid of square tiles (3×3 on Easy, 4×4 on Medium, 5×5 on Hard). Every internal edge between two neighboring tiles shows a two-step linear equation on one side (e.g. “4x + 9 = 5”) and its numeric answer on the other (e.g. “x = -1”). Tiles start shuffled; clicking two tiles swaps their positions. Clicking a single unselected tile first opens a detail popup showing all four of its edges.
• Number Crossword — A crossword-style grid of intersecting numeric entries, listed as Across and Down clues in a panel below the grid. Each clue is a two-step linear equation (e.g. “6n + 7 = 529”); solving for the unknown and typing its digits into the matching run of cells shares digits at every intersection with a crossing entry.

The Import Puzzle field on the difficulty screen (paste an 81-digit solved grid, digits 1–9, no zeros) is only available for Cage Puzzle mode — it builds a fresh cage layout on top of the grid you provide. Equation Match and Number Crossword are always freshly generated.