Player's Guide
This guide is the practical companion to the how-it-works page. It covers what you actually need while playing: how to start a game, the handful of control styles the games share, the keys that pause and restart, what an account adds, and where your best scores are kept.
It describes the games as they are built today, and it points you to each game's own page for the details that differ from game to game.
Step One
Open the game library, choose Arcade, Puzzle or Strategy, and open a game. The game page shows the cover art and a Play button; press it and the game loads on the same page. You do not need an account, a download or an install.
Below the player, each game page explains the game: what it is about, how to play it with the exact controls, tips and strategy, how it was designed, and a few frequently asked questions. Reading the How to Play section once saves a lot of trial and error, especially for the strategy and puzzle games, where the rules matter more than reflexes.
The games are designed portrait-first, so they fit a phone held upright, and they run in a desktop browser too. Touch works in every game, and most also respond to a mouse; Snake is the exception and is steered with the keyboard or by swiping. On a phone, a game that feels cramped usually plays better with the browser in fullscreen (see the keys below, or use the game's own fullscreen button where it has one).
Nothing beyond a current browser. Several of the games use WebGL graphics, which current desktop and mobile browsers provide; if hardware acceleration is switched off, those games can show a blank screen.
Step Two
The games fall into five broad control styles. Knowing which one a game uses tells you most of what you need before the first round. The lists below name the games that use each style and the input each one expects; every game page has the full detail.
A single tap or click does the work, and two of these games ask you to press and hold instead. Success is about timing, not about speed.
You move something continuously, with the mouse, a dragging finger or keys, and the game reacts around you.
You set up a shot by dragging, then let go. Power and direction come from how far and which way you drag.
Your finger or mouse draws directly on the play field.
You act on one object at a time by tapping or clicking it.
Step Three
Many games share the same few keyboard shortcuts on a desktop: P or Esc pauses, F toggles fullscreen, and Enter restarts after a crash or starts the next board after a result screen. Some games use R to restart the current board or hole. On a phone the same actions are on-screen buttons, such as a pause icon in the corner or a row of buttons under the board.
Not every game has every shortcut, so the How to Play section on the game page is the authority for that game. If a key does nothing, click or tap inside the game once so it has keyboard focus, then try again.
Step Four
Most of the games keep a best score or level progress in your browser's local storage, on the device you play on. The games do not send scores to our servers, and your YoyoArena account does not store them either. Gravity Rush, for example, remembers level progress and star ratings, while Brick Breaker and Orbit Rush keep a score table. Not every game saves something: Trench Dive, for instance, starts from zero each visit.
Signal Grid and Neon Match offer a Daily Puzzle. The board for a given calendar date is the same for everyone, and your result for that day is stored in your browser like any other save. Each also has a second mode for unlimited play: Quick Play in Signal Grid and Endless in Neon Match.
Step Five
An account is optional. Everything on the game pages works without one. If you want one, registration takes about a minute with an email address and password, and no payment information is collected. We may ask you to confirm your email address, which is also the address we use for account notices. If you forget your password, use the Forgot Password link on the login page; if reset by email is unavailable, write to info@yoyoarena.com from the address on the account and we will help.
An account does not change how any game plays, and there is nothing to buy. Account holders are responsible for keeping their password private; the Terms of Service have the details.
Fair Play
Because scores stay on your own device, there is no shared ranking to climb by tampering with them. The Terms of Service still apply to the site: they prohibit cheat tools, memory editors, bots, macros and auto-clickers, and deliberately abusing bugs. Found a bug? Please report it through the contact page instead of exploiting it.
When Something Goes Wrong
The cover art and a Play button are all that loads with the page; the game itself only loads when you press Play. If you pressed it and nothing happens, reload the page, make sure hardware acceleration is switched on in your browser, and try again, or try a different browser.
Click or tap once inside the game area so it has keyboard focus, then press the key. If the game is not meant to use that key, check its controls in the How to Play section.
Close other tabs and apps, and try the same game on a laptop or desktop once; some of the 3D games ask more of a phone than the simple 2D ones. If one game is slow while the others are fine, tell us which one through the contact page.
Guide FAQ
Yes. Every game page has a Play button that opens the game on the page for every visitor. A free account is optional and adds a personal dashboard with every game in one list, plus a profile page.
In your browser, on the device you play on. The games do not send scores to YoyoArena's servers and your account does not store them, so they do not follow you to another device or browser.
No. Saved progress exists only in your browser, so there is no copy on our side to restore. A game that kept a best score or level progress starts again from zero.
Many do. Snake, Rollout, Trench Dive and Beatline Dash can be steered with keys, Orbit Rush and Cube Jump respond to the Space key, and several strategy and puzzle games add shortcuts such as 1, 2 and 3 to pick a turret or P to pause. The How to Play section on each game page lists that game's keys.
Press the Play button on the game page, since the game only loads after you do. If it still does not start, reload the page, check that hardware acceleration is switched on in your browser, or try another browser. If the problem stays, tell us the game, your device and your browser through the contact page.
Use the contact page or write to info@yoyoarena.com. Include the game's name, your device and your browser if you are reporting a problem.
Pick a category and press play. If you want the short overview of how the site works first, the how-it-works page has it, and the contact page is the place for anything this guide does not cover.
