How to Play Frame Games
Your guide to reading visual word puzzles
The Core Concept
In a frame game, the way text is arranged within a frame IS the puzzle. Every visual detail is a clue: where words are positioned, how large or small they appear, whether they overlap, and the direction they face all hint at a familiar phrase or expression.
The answer is almost always a common idiom, proverb, or well-known phrase — something you say every day without thinking about it visually.
Visual Clue Types
Position Clues
- Word above another word = "over"
- Word below another = "under"
- Word inside a shape = "in"
- Word to the side = "beside"
- Words with a gap between = "between"
Size and Style Clues
- Small text = "little" or "small"
- Big text = "large" or "big"
- Word backwards = "reversed" or "back"
- Word repeated = "double" or "twice"
- Word cut off = "half" or "partial"
Step-by-Step Strategy
- Read all the words in the frame aloud, as written.
- Notice the visual relationship: is anything above, below, inside, backwards?
- Convert the visual into a preposition: over, under, beside, within, between, across.
- Combine the words and the preposition into a common phrase.
- If stuck — think about idioms that include the words shown.