Lights Out: my 2D Rubik's Cube-like Game
"Lights Out" is a mathematical puzzle that lives on an grid where each cell of the grid is one of two colors: either red or white. The goal is to eventually get all the cells in the grid to be red. What's the catch? Clicking a cell will not only flip its color, but also that of all cells sharing the same row or column as it. To me, this game feels like playing with a Rubik's cube --- every time you think you are fixing one cell, you mess up its neighbors! There are many ways to arrive at a solution... some mathematical (linear algebra, or combinatorics), others more logical,... and yet…
Lights Out: my 2D Rubik's Cube-like Game launched on October 10, 2025 with 82 votes, #354 of 8,178 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
Lights Out is a 2D puzzle game where players flip cells on a grid between red and white, with the goal of making all cells red. Clicking a cell flips not only that cell but also all others in the same row and column, creating a Rubik's Cube-like challenge where fixing one area disrupts others. The game offers multiple solution approaches, from mathematical methods using linear algebra to logical or trial-and-error strategies. It's designed for puzzle enthusiasts who enjoy grid-based brain teasers.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
My CV and Projects
Lights Out is a mathematical puzzle that lives on an $n \times n$ grid where each cell of the grid is one of two colors: either red or white . The goal is to eventually get all the cells in the grid to be red. You can play the game below: The original setup involves a $5 \times 5$ board, on whose cells a user may “click.” Clicking a cell will not only flip the color of that cell, but also flip the color of all the neigbors to its north, east, south, and west (call this rule Adjacent ). But the original variant of the game introduced to me followed a different rule Same Row & Col : any click flips the color of all cells sharing the same row or column as the clicked cell. Another variant…from raymondtana.github.io
In the maker’s words, at launch
"Lights Out" is a mathematical puzzle that lives on an grid where each cell of the grid is one of two colors: either red or white. The goal is to eventually get all the cells in the grid to be red. What's the catch? Clicking a cell will not only flip its color, but also that of all cells sharing the same row or…
Does a similar job
all alternatives →- LFLight Flip – A cell inversion puzzle game2017 · play.google.com · ▲20
Swapple, a little daily puzzle on linear reversible circuit synthesis2025 · swapple.fuglede.dk · ▲72Swapple - A daily puzzle game where you transform patterns by swapping rows and columns. Challenge yourself to solve it in as few moves as possible!
- IWI wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle2024 · hidden-mirrors.com · ▲126
I’ve been working on a puzzle game for a few years as a side project. The game is based on a small region of tiles in a grid that is mirrored, modified, and mirrored again. It’s based on a novel phenomenon I noticed where, once these mutations happen a few times, the original region can be hard to recognize. You have a feeling there are symmetries in the image, but they are just out of grasp. Going further, if only part of the region is visible, such as mirroring off the edge of the board, it adds to the feeling and it becomes a satisfying puzzle to solve. I originally published this on the…
SlideCross – a combination of a crossword and Rubik's Cube2024 · slidecross.io · ▲58Hello! Try out a 3x3 puzzle and click the question mark in the top right for a tutorial. I'd really appreciate any feedback! Thanks
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