A small puzzle game, made properly
ZooBreak is an independent browser game. It has no ads, no trackers, no accounts and no server. It is a single static site that loads fast, works offline and respects the device you are playing on.
What we set out to build
The tile-matching puzzle genre is good. Stacked tiles, a small holding area, and the slow realisation that you need to think three moves ahead. Most implementations of it are interrupted by adverts between levels and energy timers that punish taking a break.
ZooBreak was built to remove all three problems. The game is one static bundle of HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no external dependencies, so it works as well offline as it does online. Every animal is an original SVG drawn for this project, which means the collection looks identical on an iPhone, an Android phone and a desktop.
The theme is the reason the game exists. Matching three identical animals opens a cage and lets them out. It is the same three-in-a-row rule that every version of this puzzle uses, but it gives each match a small payoff, and it gives the game a collection to fill.
How the game is built
No framework, no build step
The game is plain JavaScript with a small DOM renderer. No framework means a fast first paint, a tiny download and code you can read in one sitting.
Every board is verified
Before a level reaches you, an automatic solver plays it. If the board cannot be cleared, the level is regenerated with a different seed and checked again.
Original vector artwork
All 30 animals are hand-authored SVG in a single consistent style, so they scale to any screen without blurring and carry no licensing obligations.
Progress stays on your device
Stars, unlocked levels and your collection are stored in your browser's local storage. There is no account, no login and nothing transmitted anywhere.
Made for touch first
The layout is designed for a phone and scaled up for desktop rather than the other way around, including safe-area insets for notched screens.
Accessible by default
Tiles are real buttons with labels, the board is keyboard-operable with shortcut keys, and all animation respects your system's reduced-motion setting.
Colophon
| Game | ZooBreak, a three-in-a-row tile puzzle |
|---|---|
| Levels | 16, across five habitats, up to fifteen layers deep |
| Species | 30 vector illustrations from the Microsoft Fluent Emoji set (MIT) |
| Stack | HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No frameworks, no bundler, no third-party libraries |
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages, served as static files |
| Data | Local storage only. No analytics, no cookies, no accounts |
| Monetisation | None. The game is free and always will be |
Try it
Sixteen levels, no ads, no sign-up.
Play ZooBreak