A simple puzzle game that’s incredibly satisfying to master, Paper Fold is all about folding up pieces of paper in the right order to reveal cute artwork. Get it wrong? Don’t worry - each failed guess reveals a little more about the true solution.

Paper Fold Description

Imagine, if you will, a piece of paper. Take your imaginary piece of paper and fold the edge inward however you’d like. You might fold one edge in from a third of the way, fold in a corner, then fold the other edge inward. After you’ve done this, draw a picture on the folded-up piece of paper, then unfold it.

What you’re now imagining is the starting point of every Paper Fold puzzle. In Paper Fold, you’re presented with a sheet of paper with artwork on the backside. Your goal is to fold the paper along the visible dotted lines to re-create the initial artwork. If you fold in the right order, you’ll get the art in its complete form. If you get the order wrong, however, you’ll get blank spots on the art where blank paper covers up the neat artwork.

The biggest draw of Paper Fold is not the game itself. Instead, the big draw is seeing someone else playing the game. Within a few seconds of observation, you’ll go “hey, I can do that!” as the concept clicks in your head. There’s more, though. Chances are, the person you’re watching isn’t perfect. This means that within a few puzzles, they’ll inevitably forget where a blank spot was or make another error. Thanks to the simplicity of Paper Fold, you’ll almost invariably have a moment where you think, “I’m better than this person at Paper Fold. I should download this game and show off my mastery.”

While Paper Fold claims to be free, it’s crawling with advertisements and shady practices. You’ll have to watch lengthy video ads every time you solve one or two puzzles, which gets old, fast. Worse, the app practically forces you to give it a five-star rating in the app store. Paper Fold is fun, sure, but it’s not the perfect work of art that you would assume based on its incredibly high rating. If you do want to play this game for any length of time, be sure to purchase the microtransaction that turns off ads. Otherwise, you’ll probably spend more time on ads than you do playing the game.

That said, Paper Fold’s simple gameplay is not the sort of thing that you’re likely to spend hours on. This is definitely a game that gets boring after 20 or 30 levels for most people. The premise is interesting at first, but the challenge doesn’t necessarily ramp up in a way that’s satisfying or interesting. Your task is simply to check various folds and remember where the blank spots are, giving you important clues about how to order your actions. Once you’ve memorized the basics and you’ve gotten a few minutes of experience, it’s easy enough to blast through even the most complicated levels the game has to offer.

In other words, be wary about jumping in. While it’s easy to get the Paper Fold bug after watching someone else play the game, it’s also not a game that has a lot of longevity for most people. Due to the intrusive ads, you’ll want to purchase the ad-free package, so you might wind up paying a few dollars for a game you put down after just a few minutes. It’s fun, sure, but with so many apps in the store, it’s not hard to find something that’ll last longer than Paper Fold.

The key to Paper Fold is to embrace failure. At the start of each Paper Fold level, the picture is on the back of the paper. It’s impossible to know which flaps to fold over first. This means you’ll have to reveal each flap, which means you’ll very likely “fail” the puzzle.

When you flip over flaps, you’re looking for two things. First, are there any sections of blank paper where the image should extend? This means that the flap you folded over has to go below sections of the paper that cover up those sections of the image. Second, are there sections of the image that will get covered by subsequent folds? This means that the flap you folded over has to go on top of sections of the paper that would otherwise cover up the image. This rule is a lot more nebulous - there are plenty of times in Paper Fold where the image is reprinted on multiple flaps - but if you’re looking at a complete part of the picture and you’ve got lots of folds to go, you probably uncovered the wrong flap.

Once you’ve acquired this information, all that’s left is to put it to use. Do your best to remember which parts had to be folded before which other parts and fold up the paper. Don’t be afraid to adjust as you go. There’s nothing wrong with folding, realizing you made a mistake, and then unfolding to continue via a different route. With a bit of practice, you’ll be a Paper Fold master in no time!

Are you a Paper Fold master? What were your favorite levels? Do you have any tips to share? Let us know in the comments below!