Daily Brains · push the words, change the rules. One hand-made rule-pushing board a day, Gentle on Monday to Fiendish on Sunday.
Bobo is the rule-pushing puzzle in Daily Brains (/daily), a rule-pushing puzzle in the tradition of Baba Is You. Every rule of the level is written on the floor in chunky word tiles, and the words are pushable: line up NOUN IS PROPERTY across or down and it becomes true, knock a word out of line and it stops being true. Bobo, a round pink blob in shades, has to touch whatever is WIN. One board a day, the same for everyone, each one solved by computer for its exact par.
STORY & LORE
How the boards are made
Every board is hand-drawn in scripts/bobo/levels-src.mjs: the walls, the water, the rules that matter and the one idea the board is about. A breadth-first solver (the same rules engine the game runs, plus a fast flat-array kernel that is cross-checked against it turn by turn) finds the exact par. Each board also declares its trick, such as 'form STAR IS YOU', and the solver re-runs with that rule change forbidden: the board must become unwinnable, or (where the space is too big to exhaust) have no solution within par plus 40 percent. Some boards are re-deals of a hand-made board (scripts/bobo/variant.mjs moves the loose pieces and keeps the deal only if the trick is still proven and the solution changes), each with its own title.
The weekly ramp
Monday boards teach one trick: break WALL IS STOP, build STAR IS WIN, make yourself WIN. Tuesday adds a twist (become the star, make lava melt itself). Wednesday mixes two rules and turns nouns into nouns (rocks into keys, skulls into flowers). Thursday asks for coordination: two things that are YOU, sacrifices, one IS shared by two rules. Friday is about becoming something else (Bobo turns into a rock to cross lava, skulls turn into Bobos). Saturday and Sunday are the longest and combine two ideas. The average par climbs every day of the week, and the test checks it.
Look and feel
Everything is drawn in code on a 24 by 24 pixel grid, three times over with a little jitter, so the sprites wobble like a flip book. The word tiles use Bobo's own 5 by 7 pixel font: nouns in their thing's colour, IS in white, properties as solid colour blocks. Words that are part of a live rule are bright; loose words are dimmed. When a rule forms, its three tiles flash and spark; when one breaks, they shudder. The board turns itself to whichever orientation fits the screen (rules still read left to right and top to bottom), so a wide board stands up on a phone.
HOW IT PLAYS
A turn
Everything that is YOU moves one square (or nothing moves, if you Wait). Then everything that is MOVE walks a square, turning round when blocked. Then NOUN IS NOUN transforms happen (NOUN IS itself locks a noun). Then each square resolves: SINK takes everything on it, DEFEAT removes YOU, HOT removes MELT, OPEN and SHUT cancel out. Finally, if anything YOU shares a square with anything WIN, the board is solved. Rules are re-read after every step, and the edge of the board is a wall.
Controls
Swipe on the board, use the on-screen d-pad, or the arrow keys / WASD. Wait is Space or the middle of the pad. Undo (Z or Backspace) is unlimited and repeats while held; Restart (R) is itself undoable.
Scoring
A solve in par (the fewest possible moves) scores 1000. Each move over par costs a share of 400 points, down to a floor of 600 for any solve. Undos and restarts are free; only the moves in your final line count. Solving in par counts as a perfect day.
THINGS
Things do nothing until a rule says so.
PROPERTIES
Property tiles are solid blocks; noun tiles are letters.
GALLERY
THE WEEK
127 boards, 18 or more per weekday; no board repeats within 120 days.
| Day | Level | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Gentle | One trick |
| Tuesday | Easy | One trick with a twist |
| Wednesday | Steady | Two rules at once; nouns into nouns |
| Thursday | Tricky | Two YOUs, sacrifices, shared words |
| Friday | Tough | Become something else |
| Saturday | Hard | Long boards, two ideas |
| Sunday | Fiendish | The longest boards, two phases |
VERSION HISTORY
- First release: rules engine with YOU, WIN, PUSH, STOP, DEFEAT, SINK, HOT, MELT, OPEN, SHUT, MOVE and NOUN IS NOUN.
- 127 hand-made boards (18+ per weekday), each with an exact par and a proven trick (scripts/test-bobo.mjs).
- Wobbly three-frame pixel art and Bobo's own pixel font, swipe and d-pad controls, unlimited undo, sound and an optional music loop.