Introducing Zip, LinkedIn’s latest logic game

Welcome to Gametime, a weekly newsletter recapping the past week of games on LinkedIn, what’s new in the puzzles space, and more — brought to you by LinkedIn Games Editor Paolo Pasco. Click 'Subscribe' to join the community and be notified of future editions.

NOTE: The Gametime newsletter will take the week of 3/29 off. We'll be back on April 5, 2025!

If you played LinkedIn Games this past Monday, you may have seen something unusual while you were waiting for your game to load:

There was a lot of discussion about what this could mean — luckily, people didn’t have to wait long, since the next day, we rolled out the latest LinkedIn game: Zip! The rules of the game are simple: create a path that connects the numbered circles in the given grid in numerical order, traveling over every square in the grid along the way.

The initial Zip grids, like many of the Queens and Tango puzzles you know and love, are written by logic puzzle master @Thomas Snyder, and they’re extremely well-thought-out and high quality. I’ve set up the schedule for the first month of Zip games, and I can tell you that there are some great puzzles coming up.?

Puzzle design aside, I also want to spotlight the aesthetic design of the game — there’s a hint of the streamlined nature of the NYC subway design, complete with colored routes. Our design team did a great job with this game. It’s a treat to look at, and a treat to play. More on Zip, including some tips and tricks, below!

?? Pinpoint: You might have noticed a common thread in the puzzles leading up to the Zip launch. To start things off: the last clue in the Monday, March 17 things that come in sets of five puzzle hinted that a new game might be coming to LinkedIn (this is slightly beside the point, but some people expressed confusion at Y being considered a vowel; this article should clear things up).?

Then, on launch day, the Tuesday, March 18 words that come after “drive” puzzle started with the clue “Zip” (as in “zip drive”).?

Play today’s Pinpoint?

?? Crossclimb: The Crossclimb puzzle also had a few teasers. The Monday, March 17 puzzle, ending with a two-word phrase indicating that there’s additional information to come momentarily (MORE/SOON), was another fairly direct hint that there’d be another game on the way.

As a subtler tie-in, the Tuesday, March 18 puzzle, ending with a mathematical word for numerical average, and a mathematical term for the most frequently occurring member of a dataset (MEAN/MODE) started with a clue that prominently featured the word “ZIP.”

Play today’s Crossclimb?

?? Queens: The Monday, March 17 puzzle, titled “Trail,” featured a single, unbroken path formed by all the three- and four-square regions, much like the path traced out when playing Zip.

The Tuesday, March 18 puzzle, titled “plz,” featured two identical groups of three regions. Using the conventions for naming pentominoes, the first and third regions in those groups can be assigned the names “Z” and “P.” The middle region has the shape of an “I” pentomino, so you can say those groups spell out the word ZIP!

Play today’s Queens

?? Tango: The Monday, March 17 Tango puzzle, titled “Window,” featured an alteration of the sun emoji to resemble the ?? face. I’d say this was the change that tipped off the most people — I enjoyed reading all the theories as to what it could mean, from predictions that a new game was coming to the theory that it was a rogue disgruntled employee sending a silent message. I assure you that it wasn’t the second!

Finally, the Tuesday, March 18 puzzle, titled “Long Path,” featured emojis that evoke racing, like a stop light and a checkered flag.

Note that the edge clues form an uninterrupted path from the red circle to the checkered flag, just like a Zip path.

Play today’s Tango

?? Zip: Finally, let’s look at the Zip game itself! The game is simple: you get a grid with a series of numbers in circles (1 to 9 in the grid below).

Your goal is to draw a path from the lowest number to the highest number, passing through every number in order along the way, and traveling over every square in the grid. The rules are simple, but the puzzles can get deceptively difficult. I’ll be sharing tips for harder Zip puzzles here, just like I normally do for Queens and Tango puzzles, but it’s a tougher puzzle to explain, since you can make a large amount of progress through intuition. If you’ve drawn a path from 1 to 3, and need to get to 4, you can probably sense just by looking that a path like this isn’t very effective:

Meanwhile, a path like this might “feel” better (and, certainly, is correct; see if you can finish the rest of the puzzle from this point):

Ultimately, as with anything, skill comes with experience, so the best way to become good at Zip is to play Zip!

Play today’s Zip

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This week’s topic: A shortcut to LinkedIn Games, right on your phone

An item from a few weeks earlier: there’s now a LinkedIn Games widget for your home screen! Now, you can see which games you’ve played, and what your streak numbers are looking like — the perfect widget for someone (like me) who’s terrified of letting a streak reset to zero.

What do you think of the widget?

Share your thoughts in the comments below??

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