Cozy Puzzle

Pie Perfect

A slicing puzzle in a farmhouse kitchen: each order gives you a pie, a few cuts and a row of plates, and every slice has to come out fair.

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Pie Perfect pie slicing puzzle cover artwork

What you do

A cozy geometry puzzle for the Thanksgiving table. Clementine the badger has the knife, and the family waits behind the counter with empty plates. Each order sets out a pie, the number of plates and how many straight cuts you may make, and the family cheers when every plate gets a fair slice. There are 30 hand-designed orders in five courses. Pumpkin Pie starts with halves, quarters and thirds. Apple Pie adds pastry leaves, square slab pies and a sheet pan pie. Pecan Pie tops every pie with pecans. Cherry Pie brings heart-shaped pies, cherries and cream. Sweet Potato Pie asks for more slices than the cuts seem to allow, from pies that already have a slice gone. There is no timer, and undo, hints and starting over are free.

How to play

Press Start slicing on the title card. The order card at the top shows the order’s name, a knife for every cut you have left, the plates with the fair share for each, and any toppings or pastry leaves.
A cut is always a whole straight line across the pie, so even a short swipe cuts all the way across, and cuts that cross make more slices than cuts that do not. A dashed line shows exactly where the cut will go before you make it.
Cuts snap to the middle of the pie, and to the point where two earlier cuts cross, when the line passes close by. A gold ring shows the snap.
When the last cut is made, the slices slide apart and each one gets a paper flag with its share. The order is served when there is one slice per plate, every slice is close enough to a fair share, and every slice has the toppings the order asks for. The more even the slices, the more stars.
Pastry leaves stay whole: a cut that would cross a leaf turns red and is not made. With toppings, every slice needs exactly one of each kind on the pie.
Serve 4 orders in a course to open the next one. Press Orders to see every course and replay any open order.

Controls

Touch or mouse: press on or beside the pie, drag across it and let go to cut. If the line turns red or misses the pie, move it before you let go. Undo, Hint, Clear and Orders sit under the pie on phones held upright, and in the column on the right when the phone is turned sideways.
Keyboard: an arrow key shows the keyboard cut, a dashed line through the middle of the pie. Arrow keys move it (Shift moves it further), Q and E turn it by a degree (Shift turns it 15 degrees), and Enter or Space makes the cut. Z or Backspace undoes, H shows a hint, Escape hides the keyboard cut, and Enter goes to the next order once one is served.
Toolbar: pause, help, restart (clears the cuts on the pie on screen; stars and open courses stay), optional sound and fullscreen.

Tips worth knowing

Two cuts through the middle of a round pie make four equal slices at any angle, so turn them to sort the toppings and miss the leaves.
Two parallel cuts make three slices. On a round pie, the cuts for thirds sit closer to the middle than you might think: about a quarter of the way from the middle to the edge.
Three cuts can make up to seven slices on a round pie, but four or six often suit the plates better. Count the crossings before you cut.
Hint draws one of Clementine’s own cuts in gold. Her plan starts from a whole pie, so undo cuts that do not match it first.
A heart or a pie with a slice gone is not convex: one straight cut can split it into three pieces.

Accessibility

Everything can be played with a keyboard: the arrow keys and Q and E place a cut, Enter makes it, and every button is reachable with Tab.
There is no limit on tries. Undo, Clear, Try again and Hint never cost anything.
Every slice’s share is written on it as a number, and slices outside the range, or with the wrong toppings, get a colored flag that also lists their toppings in words.
Cuts, refused cuts and each order’s result are announced to screen readers, and the pie has a spoken summary of the order, the slices and their shares.
Reduced motion moves the slices into place without bouncing and turns off the falling leaves and the family’s hops. Sound is optional and never needed to play.

Questions

How are stars decided?

By the slice that is furthest from a fair share. Each order lets a slice be a little bigger or smaller than a fair share: up to 15% of a fair share on most orders, 18% on the eight slice pumpkin pie and 20% on four of the hardest sweet potato orders. A slice within a third of that allowance earns three stars, within two thirds two stars, and anything else that is served one star. When four plates share a pie at 15%, three stars needs every slice from 23.8% to 26.3% of the pie. After each order, the message gives your smallest and largest slice and how they compare with the three star range.

Can every order earn three stars?

Yes. Every order comes with at least one way to serve it with three stars, and the game’s checks play each one through the same rules the game uses.

What does Pie Perfect save?

On this device: the best stars for each order, which courses are open, and the pie on the counter with the cuts you have made, so you can pick up where you left off. If the browser blocks saving, you can still play, and the game says your progress lasts only until you leave the page. If saved data ever cannot be read, it is kept aside as a backup and a fresh save starts.