Daedalian Opus

The game is essentially a series of 36 puzzles with pentominos that must be rotated, flipped, and assembled to completely fill a specific shape.^[1][2] These puzzles have been compared to tangram puzzles.^[2] The puzzles start off with rectangular shapes and simple solutions,^[3] but the puzzles quickly grow more complex,^[3] with odder shapes like a rocket ship, a gun, and even enlarged versions of some of the pentominoes themselves.^{[citation needed]} A lot of trial and error is required.^[2] Each level is timed, and once the timer is started it cannot be stopped until the level is finished.^{[citation needed]}

Each level takes place on its own island, and solving the puzzle will build a bridge that allows the player to cross to the next island.^[1][3] The levels begin by providing only 3 or 4 pieces, but more are acquired over the course of the game,^[2][3] until all 12 pieces are acquired.^[1] You do not always need all of the pieces to finish a level.^[3] At the final level, the player is given a 13th piece,^[1] and must complete a 8x8 square puzzle.^[2] The 13th piece is the 2x2 square tetromino.^{[citation needed]}

After completing each level, the player was given a password to access that level at a later time. Each password was a common English four-letter word, so that by guessing common four-letter words, players could potentially access levels they had not actually reached by playing the game.^[1] The word ZEAL would unlock a level selection screen;^[1] this was given to the player after completing the final level.^{[citation needed]}

According to Jeux Video, there are 36 levels but 42 islands.^[1]

The name of the game, "Daedalian Opus", refers to Daedalus, the mythical character of Greek legend who created the labyrinth.^[2] The game contains no labyrinths whatsoever.^[2]

A faithful fan version was later coded for the MSX computer system by Karoshi Corporation in 2006 for the game development contest MSXdev'06.^{[citation needed]}

The game has been ported to different platforms, such as PC and GP2X.^{[citation needed]}

The 2012 game Puzzle Fever has very similar gameplay.^[4]