Fact sheet
Zen Ten Match is a calm daily number puzzle that doubles as meditation: one new board a day, the same for everyone, played over quiet nature photographs and recorded nature sounds.
- Developer
- Zenscape Labs, Los Angeles
- Platforms
- iPhone and iPad, Android, and the web at zentenmatch.com
- Release dates
- iOS: September 22, 2026
Android: October 2, 2026
Web: playable now - Price
- Free to play. Optional Zen Pass: $2.99 a month or $9.99 a year.
- Zen Pass
- Removes all ads and adds unlimited hints and undos, the entire puzzle archive, and streak-repair tokens.
- Ads
- A player's first fifty boards have no ads. After that, no ads ever interrupt you while you're solving: any ads appear only before or after clearing a board, and there are never banner ads. Videos for extra hints are always optional.
- Modes
- Daily (one board a day, the same for everyone), Classic (board after board, five adds per board) and Zen (endless play with unlimited adds)
- Progression
- 100 ranks, from Curious Student onward. No coins, gems or XP to buy.
- Also
- Plays offline after first launch. No account needed. Calm nature photographs and recorded nature sounds, each credited in the app.
- Language
- English
- Press contact
- [email protected]
- Founder
- A solo developer in Los Angeles
Screenshots
Tap any image for the full-resolution file, or download them all as one .zip. Free to use in coverage of Zen Ten Match. Where a background photo is credited below, please keep the credit with the image.
Landscape
Wide 1920×1080 shots of the game as it plays in a browser, for sites that use landscape header images.
Trailer
A short look at the game on YouTube.
About the game
Zen Ten Match is a calm daily number puzzle that doubles as meditation. It's a cozy version of the pencil-and-paper number match puzzle played decades ago by students all over the world in their school notebooks in the back row of a boring class. Nobody knows who invented the original game, which is a simple, challenging puzzle you can learn in ten seconds: write rows of digits, cross off pairs that match or add up to ten, copy what's left to the bottom when you get stuck, and try to clear the entire board. Zen Ten Match keeps those rules and builds a calm app around them.
How it plays
The rules you'll learn in ten seconds. The puzzle you'll think about for ten years. Match two equal digits, or two that add up to ten, as long as nothing but cleared cells sits between them. They can connect across a row, down a column, along a diagonal, or wrap from the end of one row to the start of the next. When you run out of moves, you add the remaining digits back as new rows, but you only have five "adds" to clear a board. The skill is figuring out which pairs to match in which order.
There are three ways to play. In the Daily Game, you try to clear just one board in the fewest possible moves to earn the Zen Master title. In the Classic Game, you clear board after board, and the run ends when you fail to clear a board with the five adds you're given. In the Zen Game, you get unlimited adds, so you play an endless game of clearing boards, and aim to reach higher and higher levels.
The daily ritual
There's one new board every day, and everyone gets the same one, so you can compare your results with friends. The fewer moves you take to clear the board, the higher your title, from Seeker and Disciple up to Zen Master, which goes only to those skilled enough to clear it in the fewest moves possible. But whatever title you earn, you can share your results using a small, spoiler-free result card showing your title, number of attempts and current streak. The card links straight to today's puzzle, so whoever you send it to can try to beat you.
Calm
There's no stressful timer, and none of the coins raining down, and no "MEGA-COMBO!" pop-ups common in puzzle apps. Behind the game board are calm nature photos taken by photographers from around the world, like snowy Himalayan peaks or Mount Fuji at sunset. The soundtrack is relaxing nature sounds recorded by independent sound artists: night rain at a mountain temple, a spring forest in the Netherlands, a small babbling brook. When you clear a board, the game asks you to breathe in slowly before you move on, and a new scene fades in as you breathe out. For five minutes, the puzzle has all of your attention, and then... it lets you go. It's the rare game that's happy when you put it down.
And if you want just the calm, a separate screen plays the relaxing scenes and sounds with no game at all, allowing you to just breathe, meditate, or "Zen out".
Progression
Every board you clear moves you one step further up a 100-rank path, from Curious Student through ranks like Humble Apprentice and Weekend Wanderer. It makes the game feel like a journey, not a grind. There's no XP to earn, no coins or gems, and the ranks don't unlock anything. It's simply a fun, quiet record of showing up on your own path, and part of the pleasure is finding out what rank comes next.
The ad rules
"I built this app to get away from ad-stuffed puzzle apps, so the ads here have rules," says founder Marc Fienberg. Your first fifty boards have no ads, so your first impression is the puzzle, not a commercial. After that, no ads ever interrupt you while you're solving. Any ads appear only before or after clearing a board, and there are no banner ads ever. Everybody starts with 40 free hints and they slowly refill. Want more hints? Watch a short video for three extra, or buy a pack, but only if you want to. Zen Pass ($9.99 a year or $2.99 a month) removes all ads, and adds unlimited hints and undos, the entire puzzle archive, and streak repair tokens.
Try it now
Zen Ten Match is free on iPhone and iPad and Android, and plays in any web browser with no signup at zentenmatch.com/today, so you can try today's board right now without installing anything.
Press release
For immediate release
Zen Ten Match, a calm daily number puzzle that doubles as meditation, is out now on iPhone, Android and the web
An independent developer rebuilds the folk pencil-and-paper puzzle kids played in notebook margins as a daily mindfulness practice: calm because it takes focus, not because it's easy.
LOS ANGELES, October 2026 — Zen Ten Match, a daily number puzzle designed the way a meditation app would design a game, is now available on iPhone and iPad (since September 22, 2026), Android (since October 2, 2026) and the web. The game is built on a folk pencil-and-paper puzzle that nobody owns, known in English as Take Ten or Ten Pair and in Russian as "Seeds", and the puzzle behind the old number match game. Players clear a grid by matching pairs of identical numbers or pairs that add up to ten. Nobody knows who invented it. Zen Ten Match rebuilds it around one board a day (the same for everyone, and tested by a solver so it can always be cleared), a 100-rank zen progression, and a design philosophy drawn from mindfulness apps rather than casual games.
"My wife's favorite puzzle game had a countdown timer, and it left her more stressed than when she started," said Marc Fienberg, the founder of Zen Ten Match. "So the first rule here was simple: no clock."
Every player receives the same board every day, and can share a small, spoiler-free result card showing their title, attempts and streak, which links straight to that day's puzzle.
Made for his wife
The founder built the game on his own, originally for his wife, who wanted a puzzle that was relaxing without being mindless, and challenging without a stressful timer. After a stressful day, she had reached for her favorite puzzle game, which has a countdown timer, and ended up more stressed than when she started. He searched for a puzzle that was calm but still made you think, and found the number match game he remembered from school, but every app version was buried in ads and felt like a Vegas slot machine: flashing, noisy, overstimulating. So he built the opposite. He first programmed in BASIC on an Apple II, and 40 years later, Zen Ten Match is his first published game. His wife now plays it every morning with her cup of tea.
A puzzle that is never interrupted
Zen Ten Match is free to play. A player's first fifty boards have no ads. After that, no ads ever interrupt a player while they're solving: any ads appear only before or after clearing a board, and there are no banners. Every player starts with 40 free hints and undos, which slowly refill, and videos for extra hints are always optional. A Zen Pass subscription, at $2.99 a month or $9.99 a year, removes all ads and adds unlimited hints and undos, the full daily puzzle archive, and streak-repair tokens.
"Most games want you to keep playing for hours and hours," Fienberg said. "I wanted one that's happy when you put it down."
One hundred ranks, one daily ritual
Players progress through 100 ranks named after stages of a student's journey, starting at Curious Student and moving through titles like Humble Apprentice and Weekend Wanderer. The ranks don't unlock anything and can't be bought; they are a quiet record of showing up. Where the ladder ends is left for players to discover.
Built for people who want a calmer kind of game
The game has three modes: Daily, Classic and Zen. Behind the board sit real photographs of quiet places (misty lakes, forest streams, snowy peaks, quiet beaches) by photographers credited in the app, and the soundtrack is real nature and ambient recordings by independent sound artists, also credited in the app. After each cleared board the game invites one slow breath before the next scene fades in. It plays offline after first launch and needs no account.
Availability
Zen Ten Match is a free download on the App Store and Google Play, and plays in any browser at zentenmatch.com. Zen Pass is $2.99 a month or $9.99 a year.
About Zen Ten Match
Zen Ten Match is a daily number puzzle for iOS, Android and the web from Zenscape Labs, an independent developer in Los Angeles. It launched on iPhone on September 22, 2026 and on Android on October 2, 2026. The game offers three modes (Daily, Classic and Zen), a 100-rank zen progression, real photographs of quiet places and nature recordings from independent sound artists. It is free, and supported by an optional Zen Pass at $2.99 a month or $9.99 a year.
Press contact: Marc Fienberg, Founder · [email protected]
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Founder
Zen Ten Match was made by its founder, a solo developer. It launched on iPhone in September 2026 and on Android in October 2026. Originally from Chicago, he lives in Los Angeles. He spent his career building software as the person leading it, and made Zen Ten Match over about eight months. It is his first published game.
In his words
After a stressful day, my wife reached for her favorite puzzle game, which has a countdown timer, and ended up more stressed than when she started. I searched for a puzzle that was calm but still made you think. I found the number match game I remembered from school, but every app version was buried in ads and felt like a Vegas slot machine: flashing, noisy, overstimulating. So I built the opposite, on my own. I've wanted to publish a game since I first programmed in BASIC on my Apple II, and 40 years later, I've finally done it. My wife now plays it every morning with her cup of tea as her daily puzzle meditation.
Interviews and review access
The founder is available for interviews in English by email or video call. We're happy to send a Zen Pass code so you can fully review the game with unlimited hints and no ads.
Icon & art
Free to use in coverage of Zen Ten Match. Everything here is also in the .zip.
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Contact
Marc Fienberg, Founder, Zen Ten Match
Email: [email protected]
Web: zentenmatch.com
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