A day of light on a stone terrace
Sunstep is a mahjong-style solitaire game set on a stone terrace in the sun. You clear the terrace by taking matching tiles in pairs, the way you would in any tile matching game. The twist is the light. A tile can only be taken when nothing sits on top of it and it is in the sun. Taller stacks and stone posts cast shadows, and every pair you take moves the sun half an hour across the sky. So the same tile can be free at ten in the morning and in shade at three in the afternoon.
Each board is one day, from sunrise to sunset. There is no timer. The clock only moves when you take a pair or choose to let the sun move.
Taking a pair in the sun
- Look for two tiles with the same face. Each face is on exactly two tiles.
- Both tiles must be on top of their stacks and in the sun. Tiles in shade look dim and violet. Tiles in the sun are bright, with a warm edge on the side that faces the sun.
- Click or tap the first tile, then its twin. The pair lifts away and the sun moves on.
- Clear every tile to finish the day.
The tiles come in three suits, dots, bamboo and rays, numbered 1 to 9. There are also four wind tiles marked N, E, S and W. A dots 7 only matches the other dots 7.
When the last pair lifts, the empty terrace becomes a dial. It shows the arc of your day, the time you finished and how many waits you used, and the buttons beside it change to your next steps.
How the shadows move
The sun rises on the left side of the terrace. It stands above the top edge at noon and sets on the right. Shadows fall the other way. In the morning they stretch to the right. Around noon they point down and grow short. In the evening they stretch to the left. As the terrace empties you can watch every shadow turn across the bare stone.
A stack of tiles throws a shadow on lower tiles nearby. The taller the stack and the lower the sun, the longer the shadow. Stone posts never move, so their shadows turn with the sun like the hand of a sundial: to the right in the morning, down at noon and to the left in the evening. A post shows its height in rows of stone, the same way a stack shows blue stripes, and clicking a post tells you how tall it is.
A sunny tile with a small dark corner will be in shade in the next half hour, so take it while you can.
Rest the pointer on a tile in shade, or click it, to see when the sun will reach it, for example "In shade until 1:30 pm". The words appear in the line under the clock (on a phone, just above the buttons), and the stack or post that blocks the light gets a dashed outline. A click also writes the time on the tile for a moment, when the tile is big enough to hold it. Move the pointer along the hour scale at the top to preview the light at a later time. The preview assumes nothing else changes, so taking a tall stack early can bring the light sooner.
When nothing is lit
While a pair is in the sun, Let the sun move moves the clock half an hour without taking a pair. That counts as a wait.
Sometimes every matching pair is in shade. Then the same button turns blue and shows when the next pair will be lit, for example "until 4:30 pm". Press it and the sun moves on to that time in one step. Each half hour it moves counts as a wait. If only one tile is in the sun, waiting is the only way forward.
When the sun sets, the lanterns are lit. From then on, every tile with nothing on top of it is free, so every board can be finished. There is no more sun to wait for, so Let the sun move rests until the next board.
Three helpers are always there. Undo takes back your last move, and the sun moves back with it. Hint shows a pair that keeps your day on track; with the keyboard, the cursor jumps to the first tile of that pair, so Enter takes it. Reshuffle gives the tiles that are left new faces, so a pair in the sun turns up as soon as the light allows. The tiles stay where they are.
The Daily Day
The Daily Day is one board for everyone on the same date. It uses that date's real sunrise and sunset times for Kansas City, Missouri, from a table built into the game. Winter days are short, so the board is small and the low sun throws long shadows. Summer days are long, with larger boards and short shadows at noon.
A cleared Daily Day also shows your last seven days on the dial, each finish as a dot that sits higher the more daylight you had left. You can copy a short result line to send to a friend, like "Sunstep, Oct 21: cleared by 5:00 pm, no waits". Your run of Daily Days and your sundial log of finish times are saved on this device. We count rounds and the days you come back with a random ID kept in this browser, never who you are.
Thirty terraces, and the calm boards
The terraces are a path of 30 named boards. They start on the first day of autumn and end on the shortest day of December. On the first two, a low post stands among the tiles, so you can watch its shadow swing from one side of it to the other. As you climb, the posts grow taller and some terraces have two, while the days grow shorter and the low sun throws longer shadows. Clearing a terrace opens the next one. You can play any open terrace again, and each try brings new faces on the same layout.
Calm boards never run out. They use long summer days, low stacks and no posts. They are made for a quiet few minutes.
Habits for a bright day
- Take tiles on the left side of tall stacks in the morning. They lose the sun in the afternoon.
- Save twins that sit on opposite sides of a stack for midday, when both sides can be lit.
- Clear tall stacks early. They shade their neighbors, and they hide tiles underneath.
- A wait is not a mistake. Sometimes letting the sun move opens two pairs at once.
Making the shade easier to see
Open the settings to make the shade darker and add stripes to tiles in shade. This helps if the violet tint is hard to see. You can also stop the sun from gliding on screen, so every change happens at once. You can play Sunstep with a mouse, a touch screen or the keyboard.
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