Tyle

“Tyle” is a tile-shifting puzzle game designed for one to four players, and it was played by Jack (8.) and myself. In this game, the objective is to flip, rotate, and slide tiles to create a path for your counter to traverse from one corner of the map to the other.

The game begins by creating an 8×8 grid of tiles, ensuring that the corner tiles have two exits and are fixed in place. Each player then removes two tiles from the grid, creating gaps. On your turn, you can take three actions, which can include rotating a tile by 90 degrees, moving your counter along available paths, or sliding a tile into a gap and flipping it over, as each tile has different patterns on each side. The goal is to be the first player to successfully navigate from one corner of the grid to the opposite corner.

It’s a straightforward yet engaging game that is quick to play. There are two layers of strategy at play here – planning your route to minimize moves and, if possible, sabotaging your opponents to improve your own chances.

Jack and I played five games of “Tyle,” and each game lasted just a few minutes. It’s a game reminiscent of “Tsuro,” and we had a lot of fun with it.

In terms of production quality, “Tyle” is a bit of a mixed bag. The tiles themselves feel quite cheap, with a shiny printed covering on what can only be described as beer mat cardboard. Additionally, the cutting of the tiles in the set I received wasn’t perfect, with some tiles appearing not to have been cut very smoothly. The artwork is extremely basic, and there are instances where there’s very little contrast between the colours on the tiles, including one tile with red and pink that is almost indistinguishable in warm lighting.

The relatively low quality of the main game components becomes even more puzzling when you see the effort put into the packaging. The game is housed in a cube made of sturdy cardboard, with a triangular section cut out of the edge (which, as a Design and Technology teacher, I can tell you would be a production challenge). The box itself has been screen-printed to give it a premium appearance. Furthermore, inside the box, all of the counters are stored in a fairly decent drawstring bag, just in case one layer of packaging isn’t enough. From a manufacturing point of view, the packaging makes up a good 90% of the product cost.

Overall, I found “Tyle” to be quite enjoyable, but I wish it had slightly higher quality components, a less unconventional box shape, and perhaps better artwork or theme.

I purchased “Tyle” for £4.75 at a game store, and if you can find it at that price, it’s definitely worth a buy, even if you’re only planning to play it a few times.