How this polyomino puzzle generator works
A polyomino is a shape made of equal squares joined edge to edge. Classic free sets include five tetrominoes (order 4) and twelve pentominoes (order 5). This tool turns those pieces—and any custom shapes you draw—into a packing level on a wooden-style grid.
Choose a preset for a quick start: Tetromino · 5 free uses a 7×3 board with one hole (20 open cells — a plain 4×5 is impossible by chessboard colouring because of the T), and Pentomino · 12 fills a 6×10 board (60 cells). Switch to Custom / maker to mix letters, change width and height (3–12), or tap cells to dig holes. When open cells equal the total piece area, press Check solvable. A background worker builds an exact-cover matrix and searches with Dancing Links until it finds one tiling or proves there is none.
If a preview appears, every open square is covered by exactly one piece letter. If the tool reports no solution, the area rule may still hold while colouring or connectivity forbids a tiling—change holes or drop an awkward piece and try again.
Polyomino maker: draw your own piece
The maker mode is the H2 path for people searching a polyomino maker. Tap the 5×5 pad to paint squares, clear mistakes, then add a connected shape of two to eight cells. Custom pieces join the same checklist as the standard tetromino and pentomino letters, so you can build hybrid levels (for example four tetrominoes plus one pentomino on a 5×5 with no holes).
Maker pieces stay in this browser session until you remove them. Export with Copy level JSON if you want a portable snapshot of width, height, blocked indices and cell lists for each piece id.
- Edge-connected only—diagonal touches do not count as joins
- Keep custom pieces small (≤8 squares) so mobile phones stay responsive
- Match open cells to piece area before you trust a “solvable” result
- Use Hide preview to keep editing the empty board without losing the piece set
Generator vs solver vs play pages
Use this page when the intent is to create a level. Use the pentomino solver when you already have a 6×10, 5×12 or 8×8-with-holes board and want many solutions. Use the packing puzzle solver for PuzzlePave’s eight rectangular blocks on an 8×8 tray. When you want to play instead of design, open the tetromino puzzle, polyomino puzzle, wood block puzzle or the main packing puzzle.
Background reading lives on polyomino tiling (definitions, free vs one-sided counts, area and colouring arguments) and the 12 pentomino shapes. Teachers who prefer paper can print tetrominoes or pentominoes and still use this generator to vet a homemade board before class.
Practical tips for solvable custom boards
- Start from a preset that already tiles, then dig one hole and remove a same-size piece (or dig five holes and remove one pentomino)
- Place awkward shapes (X, V, U, straight I) mentally near edges before you lock the hole pattern
- If search runs long, Stop, shrink the board, or drop a high-order custom piece
- Area match is necessary but not sufficient—trust the DLX result over gut feel
- Export JSON after a green solvable status so you can recreate the same layout later
Why PuzzlePave ships a generator
Search demand for a polyomino puzzle generator and polyomino maker often lands on small personal pages. PuzzlePave already ships wooden packing games and exact-cover solvers in the same visual language, so a create-and-verify tool fits the product loop: learn the shapes, generate a fair level, solve or play related boards, then print cut-outs if you want a tabletop set.
Everything on this page is free, runs offline after load, and keeps ads below the tool—never over the board—so phones and tablets stay usable while you tap holes or paint a maker piece.