How to play Lie of Sight

How it works, in a minute

1. Read each storyEvery person has a card. It shows what they say they noticed: an eye for “I saw it”, a crossed-out eye for “I didn’t see it”, a nose for Rex. Some cards say more than one thing.
2. Move the familyDrag them onto squares. A card turns green when its story is true where everyone stands, and red when it’s false.
3. Accuse the liarWhen everyone but one can be green at once, that one is lying. Tap Accuse on their card, then tap again to be sure.

The board is your scratchpad. You win by catching the liar, not by placing everyone perfectly.

Meet the Fibbersons

Each of them notices things by one rule. That rule is the whole puzzle. The shaded squares are what they’d see, or smell, from where they stand.

• Dad

  Sees his whole row and column. Walls and tall things block what's behind them.

• The Kid

  Sees his whole row and column, but he's short: low things block him too, like tables, sofas, the cake and the vase. He can crawl under tables and sofas, but others still see him there.

• Grandma

  Sees all 8 directions, but only 2 tiles. Walls and tall things block her. She can peek around a corner only if she could step around it.

• Rex

  Can't see. Smells the 8 tiles around him, through walls and furniture.

• Fibs

  Fibs never looks at anything straight on. She watches along her four diagonals, as far as they go. Walls and tall things block her; low things don't.

Not sure how someone sees? Tap their picture on their card: their view lights up on the board. Tap ⓘ for their rule.

Fibs and her diagonals

Fibs is the family cat, named for how little she can be trusted. She only ever looks sideways.

• She sees along the four diagonals from her square, corner to corner, as far as the room goes.
• Her own row and column are blind spots. Straight ahead, she sees nothing.
• Low things like tables don’t stop her look. Tall things and walls do.
• At a corner she follows Grandma’s rule: she can look past it only if she could step around it.

Fibs is in the Cat Files. Her first case, Side-Eye, is free and teaches her rule in a minute.

What blocks who

Everything in a room is flat, low or tall. A long shadow means tall. A short one means low. No shadow, flat.

• Walls block everyone who sees, like tall things. So does a room’s edge, in an odd-shaped room. Nobody stands outside the room.
• Some low things have no room underneath, like the toy chest and the bathtub: nobody stands there.
• A marker means it’s evidence: nobody stands there.
• Rex sniffs straight through everything.
• Two people can’t share a square.

Tap anything in the room to see how tall it is and who it blocks. Hold someone: a ring shows where they can stand, a bar where their view stops.

Reading a card

A card shows whose story it is, what they say they noticed, and whether that’s true where you’ve put them.

Solid green is true. Dashed red over stripes is false. Dotted gray means it can’t be known yet, because someone in it isn’t placed. A card with more than one thing on it is green only when all of it is true; one false part makes it red. Every state has its own border, so you never need to tell red from green.

Moving the family

• Dragsomeone from the tray onto a square. Drag them again to move them, or off the board to put them back.
• Tapsomeone in the tray, then tap a square.
• KeysTab into the board, arrows to move, Enter to pick up and put down. Press ? for every key (see Keys).

• Some people start already on the board and can’t be moved. Their story still counts.
• Someone can’t stand there? They give a little shake and go back.
• Tap the case clock to pause. The board hides while the clock is stopped. Leaving the page pauses it too.

Try ideas freely. Moving people costs nothing.

Checks

Accusing the liar

How to catch the liar

• Start with the tightest story. If Grandma saw something, it was at most two squares away, in a straight or diagonal line. If Rex smelled something, he was right beside it.
• “Did not see” is evidence too. If Dad didn’t see the clock, he isn’t in its row or column unless a wall or something tall stands between them.
• Make everyone green at once. When you can do it for all but one, with everyone placed, that one is lying.
• A story that can’t be true anywhere is your answer. If no way of placing them turns a card green, stop looking.
• On Check cases, check before you accuse. A Check shows which cards are really true where everyone stands.

Hints

Score and the scene bonus

Every case starts at 1,000. Catch the liar to keep what’s left.

The scene bonus: accuse with everyone placed, every honest card green and the liar’s card red. Your board proves the case, so your score goes up by a tenth (×1.1).

The score never goes below 0. Tap your score on the result to see how it adds up.

The case file, and who had to move

When a case ends, it’s stamped and filed: CAUGHT in brass, or GOT AWAY in ink. You see who lied, and one line on why: the part of their story that couldn’t be true.

The room plan shows where everyone really was, with the liar’s impossible line drawn on it. It’s solid as far as they could really see (or a dotted ring around Rex’s nose), and crossed out where it breaks.

The daily, streaks and replays

• A new case every day at midnight, your time. Everyone gets the same case that day, wherever they are. It’s free, with four of the family and green and red cards, at the same gentle-but-thoughtful level every day.
• Your streak grows when you solve the daily on its day. A daily you don’t solve, or miss, starts it again tomorrow.

• The week row under today’s door shows the last seven days. Any of those days is free to play.
• Play the days you missed. Late plays are fun, but they don’t count for your streak.
• Past dailies shows every daily on a calendar, back to Daily #1. Older days come with the unlock.
• Replay today’s case once you’re done. Only your first try counts for your streak, rank, boards and shares.
• Carry on: leave a case halfway and your board is just as you left it.
• Remind me, after the daily: a nudge in your browser when the next one opens, or a reminder in your calendar.
• Detective mode works on the daily too, with its own players to compare against.

Practice, Case Files and Tricky Cases

All free, any time.

• PracticeThree tiny cases with no score. The first two coach you step by step. The third is yours alone. A brand-new player’s first Play starts with a 30-second warm-up, then goes on to what they tapped.
• 15 Case FilesGentle cases that build up slowly. The first seven show green and red as you go. From Case File 8 you use Checks.
• 10 Tricky CasesHarder rooms, all with Checks. When you finish the Case Files, the game asks if you’re ready for harder.

After each case, Next case takes you to the next one you haven’t solved.

Detective mode

For when you know the family well. Part of the unlock.

• The cards never turn green or red. You read the stories and the room yourself.
• No Checks and no hints. Two accusations.
• Turn it on with the Detective switch beside the tray, before your first move. It works on any case except practice.
• It has its own rank. On the daily, you’re compared with other Detective players.
• In the Cat Files, a Detective solve earns that case’s third star.
• A day of Detective: when a friend plays a daily you shared, Detective mode is yours for 24 hours, even without the unlock.

The Cat Files

35 cases with Fibs the cat, in five chapters around the Fibberson house: Downstairs, Upstairs, Outside, Attic and Cellar and Full House. They go from gentle to the hardest cases in the game. The last chapter brings in all five suspects.

• Side-Eye, the first, is free. The rest come with the unlock.
• Every chapter is open from the start. Follow Fibs takes you to the case where she’s hiding next.
• A friend can open a Cat File you share. Without the unlock, they get Side-Eye free.

Your Case

A case of your own each day, picked for your rank.

• Your first 3 days are free. After that, it comes with the unlock, along with One more whenever you want another.
• It plays in the mode you start it in. You can Give up (tap twice): the case is shown to you, and it counts like a wrong first guess for your rank.
• Played every case at your level? New ones arrive on Monday.
• Your Case can’t be shared: nobody else gets the same one.

What’s free, and the unlock

It’s paid once, with no subscription. You sign in first, so the unlock is kept on your account. During the Founder’s price, buyers also get a Founder badge.

Ranks, badges and the Family House

Ranks. There are five: Rookie → Sleuth → Private Eye → Inspector → Chief Inspector. You climb one step at a time by solving well, especially catching the liar on your first guess. Each step also needs enough good solves: 10 for Sleuth, then 30, 75 and 150. Ranks never go down. Case Files and Tricky Cases can take you as far as Sleuth; the daily and Your Case take you higher. Detective mode has a rank of its own.

Your stats (Account menu) is your notebook: your rank, streak, solves, best score, badges and the house.

Badges are earned quietly, with no pop-ups: Key to the house (sign in), First case, First daily, A friend played, Part of the family (link your Discord), 3 days in a row, 7 days in a row, 30 days in a row, Caught them all (catch each of the family as the liar), No hints needed (10 cases), A Tricky Case, Whole house and Founder.

The Family House. Solve a case in a room and its lights come on, on a map of the Fibbersons’ house. Light every room for the Whole house badge. A few bonus rooms from the Cat Files light up too, but you don’t need them.

Saving your progress

• You never need an account to play. Your progress lives in this browser and is backed up quietly to an anonymous account.
• Sign in (Google, Discord or email) and it follows you to any phone or computer. Look for Save progress at the top. Email sends a link and a 6-digit code: open the link, or type the code.
• Signing in earns the Key to the house badge.
• Added the game to your iPhone’s Home Screen? That app keeps its own storage, so sign in there to bring your streak along.
• You can sign out, or delete your account and data, from the Account menu.

Groups and boards

Play the daily with people you know and see how everyone did.

• Sign in, then Start a group and send the invite link. Only people with the link can join. You can make a new link any time, and the old one stops working.
• Got an invite link? Play today’s case first. After your result, Put your time on the board: joining asks you to sign in, and your result comes with you.
• Pick the name your groups see (3 to 20 letters, numbers or spaces).
• Today shows everyone’s daily once you’ve played it yourself, so nothing is spoiled. This week adds up each placed daily, and starts again on Monday.
• Board times come from our server. Pauses count after the first 2 minutes.
• Not placed: a solve with a hint, a late play, or one under 15 seconds. Detective-mode results are marked.
• Groups hold up to 50 people. You can be in 10. A name that’s rude can be reported; the person who started a group can remove someone.

How everyone did

After today’s daily, see how the day went for everyone:

• Who people blamed first, and how many went straight to the liar.
• How many solved it, and the middle time.
• How you compare: “You beat 62% of today’s players so far.”
• It opens from that line on your result, from “Everyone” after a loss, or from today’s count on the door. It shows once 20 players have finished.
• It’s always anonymous: shares and totals only, never a name or anyone’s own score. Detective players are their own pool. The “You beat” line skips a day with a hint, a loss or a late play.

Sharing and challenges

• Share, right under today’s result (on a phone it also waits in a slim bar at the bottom), sends a few words: the daily number, faces, your tries, time, hints and streak, and a link. It never says who lied, so it’s safe to post before your friends have played. Save image gives you the case-file picture.
• After a win, your time to beat goes on top (“Can you beat me?”). Your friend sees your result on their door, and how you both did once they’ve played.
• You can share any Case File, Tricky Case or Cat File too. The link opens that case for your friend.
• Your links brought N players, in Your stats, counts friends who played from your links. Names are never kept.
• Spoilers welcome in today’s thread on our Discord.

Night, seasons and the house

• Look: Auto, Light or Night, in the Account menu. Night is the parlour by lamplight. Auto follows your device.
• Seasons: in October the rooms dress for fall, so some things get new looks and names: the vase is a pumpkin and the cake is a apple pie. In Halloween week (October 25 to 31) the family dresses up. The rules never change: a new look keeps the height of the thing it replaces.
• The house keeps your clock: the room’s light follows your time of day, and the window shows the day’s weather. It’s the same for everyone on the same day, and it’s never a clue.
• The opening: the first time you open a case, its room folds up like a pop-up book. The clock waits until it lands. Tap or press a key to skip it.

Keys, and playing your way

Check, Hint and Accuse stay buttons: Tab to reach them. Everything works with a screen reader, every button is big enough to tap, and the game follows your device’s reduced-motion setting.

Questions people ask