Minesweeper Light
Minesweeper Light is an accessible take on the classic minesweeper formula, optimized for browser play. The game presents an 8x8 grid containing 10 randomly placed mines. Your goal is to reveal every cell that does not contain a mine without triggering any of the mines themselves. When you click a cell, one of three things happens: if the cell contains a mine, the game ends immediately; if the cell has adjacent mines, it reveals a number showing how many of the eight neighboring cells contain mines; if the cell has no adjacent mines, it automatically reveals all connected empty cells in a cascade pattern. This cascade mechanic is the heart of minesweeper strategy — a well-placed first click can open up a large portion of the board instantly.
The game includes a flagging system for marking suspected mine locations. On desktop, right-click places a flag. On mobile, a toggle button switches between "dig" and "flag" modes. We added this toggle specifically because our mobile playtesting showed that long-press gesture detection was unreliable across different phone brands. The first click is guaranteed safe — mines are placed after your first click, not before. This eliminates the frustration of losing on the very first move. A timer tracks your completion time, and your fastest solve is saved to localStorage. The number grid uses color coding (1=blue, 2=green, 3=red, 4=dark blue, 5=dark red) that matches the traditional minesweeper color scheme most players recognize.