How to play
ONE TILE is a pixel heist seen from above. Every level is one room: a bank, a museum, a casino or a penthouse. To win you do three things in order: reach the safe, crack it, and run out through the EXIT. The exit is padlocked under a red sign until the safe is open; then the door slides back, the sign turns green and an arrow bounces over it.
Hold W A S D or the arrow keys to run. The thief dashes tile to tile for as long as a key is held, and if you hold two, the one pressed last wins. To crack the safe, stand on a tile directly above, below, left or right of it and keep still. It cracks in three clicks, a little under a second in all, and if you leave halfway the clicks you made are kept.
Guards, cameras and lasers run on fixed loops the whole time, the same way on every attempt. Guards walk about three steps a second; you run more than twice as fast. Each guard and camera throws a coloured cone showing what it can see. Most guards see four tiles ahead, one tile wide right in front of him and three wide after that; the two head-turning guards in Heads Up and High Roller see five, and their cone is five wide at the far end. Cameras see six to eight tiles and can look diagonally. Lasers are red lines that switch on and off on a timer.
Stand in a cone or on a lit laser for more than a split second, or run into a guard, and you are caught. The alarm goes off and an exclamation mark pops up over whoever saw you. Press any key, or tap, and you are back at the door. There are no lives and no step limits.
Tips and strategy
- Watch first, but not for long. Every patrol repeats exactly, so a gap you saw once will come round again. The tile by the door is safe when the level starts, but in seven rooms (Glass Cases, Potted Ferns, The Diamond, Eye in the Sky, Sky Lobby, Infinity Pool and Rooftop Garden) a guard's cone reaches it within a few seconds, so be ready to move.
- Walk behind guards, not in front. A guard only looks the way he faces, so one tile behind a walking guard is often the safest place in the room. Some guards stand still and turn their head, and one in the penthouse looks back over his shoulder: stop following before he turns.
- Know what blocks a cone. Walls, pillars, statues, slot machines, the safe and the coloured doors stop a guard's view. Glass cases, card tables and water do not. They stop your feet, but he sees straight across them.
- Use the hiding spots. Plants, lockers, closets and hedges hide you from every cone while you stand in them, and guards never step onto them. They do not save you from a laser or from bumping into a guard.
- Crack the safe in pieces. If a patrol passes the safe, take a click or two, slip away, and come back. The safe remembers.
- Mind the tile under a camera. The tile right in front of a camera is always watched, whichever way it points.
- Lasers are a rhythm. Be between the beams when they switch on and cross while they are dark.
What's in it
Twenty-four jobs across four buildings, six each, unlocked one at a time: the Bank (First Job to The Vault), the Museum (Say Cheese to The Diamond), the Casino (Red Lines to House Edge) and the Penthouse (Sky Lobby to The Big One). Each building brings something new: a guard who turns his head, cameras, glass cases, plants and lockers, lasers, coloured doors, a guard who checks behind him, and a pool you cannot cross on foot. The last job puts a gem, two guards, a camera, two lasers and two doors in one room.
Each level has three stars, 72 in all, each won on its own: one for escaping, one for every gold coin on the floor, and one for the optional loot, a cash bag or a gem, usually parked somewhere awkward. Night Shift and Locker Room have no loot, so that star comes with the escape. There are 388 coins across the game, from 4 in one room to 26 in another. Your best time on each level is saved and shown on the job list. Every level opens with a short tip, and the pause menu has a How to Play page and switches for the music and sound.
Questions
Is it a puzzle game or an action game?
Both. The rooms are built like puzzles, with one or two safe paths through the patrols, but you play them in real time. Most levels take well under a minute once you know the route.
What happens when I get caught?
Press any key or tap and you start again from the door. You lose the coins from that attempt, nothing else. R restarts at any time.
Do I need all the coins and loot?
No. To escape you only need the safe open and the exit reached. Coins and loot are for the other two stars, and you can earn those on separate runs.
Does it save?
Yes, in your own browser: unlocked levels, stars, best times and your sound settings. Clearing your browser's site data clears the save.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes, held sideways. Put your finger on the side of the thief you want to go and keep it down to keep running; slide it round to turn.