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Creating a Jigsaw

Objective

Learn how to create a jigsaw using PuzzleMe.

Getting started:

  1. On the PuzzleMe dashboard, click Create in the navigation bar, then click New game and select Jigsaw
  2. Enter your game title
  3. In the Jigsaw options panel, enter your puzzle details. Upload your own image or enter the image URL and specify the number of rows and columns fields a little bit. We'll discuss these in greater detail below.
  4. Click the "Create Game" button on the bottom right of the page.
Jigsaw creation options
(1) Image URL, (2) Background color, (3) Dimensions (Rows and Columns)

Image hosting​

  • If you are on a premium plan, you can upload your own image for jigsaw.
  • If you are a free user, PuzzleMe expects a URL that links to an image on the internet. This means your image must be hosted somewhere online, either on your website or some other platform that allows a direct image file to be served. Please refer to the guidelines below on hosting your images externally.
Image Hosting Guidelines
  • You can host the images with any image provider that allows you to use directly link to the images.
  • Please ensure you use secure image URLs that start with HTTPS:// .
  • Ensure that the link you paste into PuzzleMe editor ends with an image extension (eg. PNG, JPN, JPEG, GIF etc). For example https://i.ibb.co/18NqXVN/bell-pepper.png
  • Please ensure that wherever you host the images allows direct linking (hotlinking) to the images. Some image hosts might not allow direct linking to the images. Here is a list of free image hosting services that allow hotlinking.
  • If you copy image URL from Google image search results, you may sometimes get an image URL like this :

    data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAoHCBUWFRgWFRYYGRgZGRg

This kind of URL is not compatible with PuzzleMe. Please get the link to the original image that starts with https:// and ends in a suitable file extension.

  • On the web, you can often right click an image and copy its address.
Copying image URL
Become a Partner

If you use our Professional and Enterprise plans, you can upload your media directly to PuzzleMe, without needing to host it on a public website or insert a link.

Recommendations​

Best Practices

  1. We recommend using a high-quality image that is at least 200kB in size and no larger than 3MB. In terms of dimensions, the height should be less than 800px and the width less than 1200px. The PuzzleMe platform will compress the image you use to ensure that your jigsaw can be played smoothly across different devices.

  2. Images with vibrant colors and strong contrast work well for jigsaw puzzles. This will make it easier for your players to differentiate between pieces and sections of the puzzle. However, ensure that the colors aren't so similar that it becomes confusing to distinguish between pieces.

  3. An image that is too busy or overly intricate might make it excessively challenging for the solver. Similarly, an image with excessive empty space might make it too easy. Look for images with a variety of details, textures, and colors that will translate well into puzzle pieces.

Background color​

Your jigsaw puzzle will be laid on top of a background. The PuzzleMe platform allows you to choose the color of this background.

Best Practices

Pick a background color that has a gentle contrast with the color palette of your chosen image. High contrast can be visually jarring, whereas low contrast can make your jigsaw difficult to play.

Dimensions (rows & columns)​

The PuzzleMe platform slices up your image horizontally and vertically to create a rectangular puzzle grid. The dimensions determine how the image will be divided into pieces.

There's no exact formula for determining the dimensions. It is a matter of your desired look and feel. A jigsaw puzzle will look visually appealing if the individual pieces are approximately square. Too many rows will make your puzzle pieces vertically thin; too many columns will make the pieces horizontally thin.

Best Practices

To achieve roughly square pieces, you can use the following formula as a good approximation:

  1. Find the height and width of your chosen image. If you're not sure, you can use a free online tool such as this.
  2. Set the number of columns. This is a matter of choice. For the jigsaw in this example, we set the number of columns at 6.
  3. To get the rows so that your pieces are roughly square, substitute Height, Width and Columns in this formula:
    Rows = (Height / Width) * Columns
    For our example above, this turns out to be (796/594) * 6 ≈ 8 rows.

So using 8 rows and 6 columns, we get a set of jigsaw pieces that look good for our image.

Scoring and Hints​

Scoring​

Jigsaw puzzles don't have an explicit system of points, but the time to solve a jigsaw can be used as a proxy for that.

Hints​

Jigsaw hint: the matching puzzle pieces jitter

Jigsaw supports hints, which are represented through a shaky gesture between matching puzzle pieces. Jigsaw hints are enabled by default, but they can be disabled under the game editor's Scoring tab.

Steps to disable jigsaw hints

  1. Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard
  2. Find the relevant jigsaw and enter the game editor by clicking the Edit Game button
  3. In the game editor, view the Scoring tab.
  4. Toggle jigsaw hints on/off.

Contest Mode​

Jigsaw supports contest mode. This disables the help features (reference image, edges-only options) for your players. It also allows you to collect your player's personal data when they finish their puzzle, which you can use to identify winners and contact them.

You can read more about contest mode here.

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