Connect The Dots

The board opens as a scatter of numbered points, and the drawing stays invisible until your line starts moving between them. For the rule in plain words, see Types of Mahjong.

Order is the whole puzzle: the points must be taken in sequence, so the shape only appears if you read the numbers instead of guessing at the outline. FG Studio sizes the drawing surface at 800 by 600, which spreads the points far enough apart on a desktop monitor that a slightly loose mouse hand rarely costs a link. Feed tags point at animals and arcade-flavoured art, so most boards resolve into a creature rather than an abstract shape. Spartan Mahjong is two clicks away in the same section.

Beginners tend to stall in the crowded middle of a drawing, where four or five points sit within a thumb’s width and the next number hides behind the segment just drawn. Working slowly through those clusters is the difference between a clean animal and a tangle of crossed lines. Another entry from the same shelf is the Halloween board.

1. Look over the scattered points and find the one marked 1.
2. Draw the line from that point to the next number in the sequence.
3. Keep following the numbers in the right order, working through tight clusters one point at a time.
4. Close the last link to conquer the image and start the next drawing.

• Read the numbers first — sweeping the pointer at the nearest dot is how most Connect The Dots boards go wrong.
• Slow down on clusters — where four points crowd together, the next number is usually the one furthest from the line you just drew.
• Steady hand on the drag — the 800 by 600 canvas gives generous spacing, so slow movement lands every point.
• Let the animal guide you — once an ear or a tail is recognisable, the remaining sequence becomes easy to predict.