Zellige: The Maalem's Apprentice — a calm Moroccan tile puzzle

The Maalem's Apprentice

In a workshop in Fes, an old maalem cuts zellige by hand. You are his apprentice, and every commission is a panel waiting to be finished.

Get the game Lay a panel now

The maalem, an old craftsman in a striped djellaba and a work apron

The apprentice, a boy carrying a tray of cut tile pieces

The rule

Same colours never touch

That is the whole game. This little panel is yours to finish: the tray holds exactly the pieces it needs.

Pick a colour
Tap a column of the tray.
Tap a place
The piece flies in, and its mirror images with it.
Mind the neighbours
Two pieces that touch can never share a colour. Tap a laid piece to take it back.

Moves 0

Pick a colour, then tap the panel

The craft

Every piece has a name

A maalem does not say “the star”. He has a word for every shape his hammer cuts, and the game teaches you his words as you lay them.

Khatemخاتم

The eight-pointed star: two squares, one turned an eighth of a circle. The heart of a thousand walls.

Crosses, octagons, diamonds, squares: each cut by hand, each learnt at the table.

Sixteen commissions

From the work table to the old hammam

The first panels teach. The later ones make you think several pieces ahead. And in the hardest, the maalem has already laid a few pieces: work out the rest.

Commissions 1–4
The work table
Squares, then your first khatems. One new thing at a time.
Commissions 5–8
The riad courtyard
Octagons and diamonds, mirrored in four directions.
Commissions 9–10
The maalem's drawing
He lays a few pieces himself. The rest is yours to work out.
Commissions 11–12
The garden path
Bigger panels, fewer mirrors, more to hold in your head.
Commissions 13–14
The fondouk yard
Seven stars across, and every colour counted.
Commissions 15–16
The old hammam
No mirror at all. More than thirty pieces, laid one by one.