Comedy puzzle
The Password Game
Choose a password. Then satisfy rule two. Then rule seventeen, which needs today's weather. Then watch rule five break again.
- Made by
- Neal Agarwal
- Released
- 2023
- Shelf
- The long line · 30 minutes and up
- One session
- Twenty minutes, or the rest of your evening
- Account
- No account
- Connection
- Live multiplayer: a dead spot ends the round
- Controls
- A keyboard and a great deal of patience
- Pays its way with
- Adverts on the site
- Last retested
- 22 September 2026
Opens the developer's own site in a new tab. The link is editorial: nobody paid for it, and we get nothing if you click it.
- To start
- £0, nothing to install
- Most it will sell you
- Nothing — adverts on the site
- Paid random items
- None
Every price, with its source: what each cabinet really costs.
The first five minutes
Rule one wants five characters. Rule two wants a number. By rule eight you are adding a chess move, and you have started talking to the screen. Nothing warns you that you are twenty minutes in.
A joke with an engine behind it
Every rule you satisfy summons another, and the later ones reach outside the browser — today's weather, a live puzzle, a video of a specific length. Satisfying one usually breaks an earlier one, which is the entire comedy.
It was made by Neal Agarwal, released in 2023, and it went everywhere for good reason: it is a perfectly aimed satire of every password policy anybody has ever been forced to follow.
Why it scores badly on our sheet
This is the cabinet that most disagrees with our marking. It is very good and it is very nearly the worst possible thing to start on a short journey: breaking a late rule can send you back to the beginning, and there is no save to come back to.
It also wants a full keyboard. On a phone, with a cramped field and a soft keyboard eating half the screen, the joke stops being funny around rule twelve.
What it costs
Nothing. The site carries light advertising and the creator takes voluntary support; there is no paywall, no account and nothing to buy inside the game.
The tone is comic and occasionally macabre — one late rule is built around losing something you have looked after. It is a joke, but it is a slightly dark one.
What works
- Free, no account, and the best-written joke on this floor
- Genuinely surprising: the rules keep going somewhere you did not expect
- Nothing to buy, nothing to unlock, no progress to monetise
What grates
- Breaking a late rule can cost you everything — the cruellest stop on the site
- Needs a real keyboard; a phone makes it miserable
- Some rules need live data, so a dropped connection stalls you
- The humour turns dark near the end
The verdict
A brilliant thing that our marking sheet is wrong about, and we are keeping the score anyway: for short, interruptible play it is the worst cabinet here. Save it for an evening, a desk and a stubborn mood.
Questions we get asked
Is The Password Game free?
Yes, free in the browser with no account. The site runs light advertising.
How long does it take to finish?
Most people who finish take a few hours, spread over more than one attempt. Many never finish.
Does it work on a phone?
It loads, but the input field and the soft keyboard fight each other. A desktop is much better.