Best colour-mixing puzzle games for Android and iPhone
Last reviewed: 20 September 2026. Store facts checked on that date. Kalabux is our own game — read the recommendation knowing where it comes from.
If you want to actually mix colours — put red and yellow together and get orange — the choice on phones is short: Kalabux (ours: pipe paint through a steampunk factory, free on Android and iPhone), Splotches (route paint along conveyors, iOS and Android, £2.99 to unlock after 30 free levels) and a few small Android-only mixers. The best-known "colour games" — I Love Hue and Colour Puzzle — never mix anything: you arrange tiles into gradients, which trains your eye rather than your understanding of pigment. Blendoku, which started the genre, is no longer on either store.
Two different things get called "colour mixing"
Most lists lump them together, and the difference decides which game you'll enjoy.
- Sorting games give you a scrambled set of coloured tiles and ask you to put them back in order, so each row and column becomes a smooth gradient. They are calm, pretty, and about perceiving colour. Nothing is combined; every colour you need is already on the board.
- Mixing games give you a few base paints and a target colour, and the puzzle is working out what to combine, in what proportion, to get there. This is the paint-box version of colour theory: red + yellow = orange, red + blue = purple, all three = brown, a drop of white for a tint, a drop of black for a shade.
If you liked mixing paints as a child, or you're learning colour theory, you want the second kind. If you want something meditative for a train journey, the first kind is hard to beat.
Games that really mix colours
Kalabux (Android, iPhone, iPad)
Our game, so take this with the appropriate pinch of salt. You inherit a closed-down steampunk paint works with three vats — red, yellow and blue — and lay brass pipework to carry the paint to the jars. Where two streams meet, they mix; split a line and one vat feeds two orders. Later you research black and white tanks, which add shades, tints and muted tones — 46 colours in all from three primaries. Around the puzzle is a small factory to run: orders with deadlines, a lorry, worn seals to repair, a foreman called Old Silas who'll route a tricky layout for you if you get stuck.
- Free, funded by adverts you can always skip; one optional purchase turns them off forever. No account, progress saved on your device.
- Plays offline. Phones and tablets. 20 languages.
- The honest limitations: it launched in August 2026, so it has none of the years of polish or player base of the big names below. It's single-player. And the factory side means it's not a pure zen puzzle — if you want only the colour mixing with nothing to manage, Splotches is closer to that.
How Kalabux plays, step by step.
Splotches: Color Mixing Game (iOS, Android)
The closest thing to Kalabux in spirit: "mix together the primary colours red, yellow and blue" and spread them "across conveyor belts, through portals, over filters, and into buckets". 120 levels, plus a puzzle maker so you can build your own. On the App Store it's free for the first 30 levels with a £2.99 "Full Game Unlock"; the Android version lists in-app purchases and no ads. It's a small title — a few thousand Android installs and a last update in 2024 — but if the pipe-and-factory framing of Kalabux isn't for you and you still want genuine mixing, this is the one to try.
Color Mix: Paint Match Game (Android only)
"Select your paints. Pour them into the mixer. Blend until you match the colour" — you need 95% accuracy to pass a level, and the listing goes out of its way to say it's not a water-sort puzzle. Free with ads. Android only; no iPhone version listed.
Paint Match Offline (Android, browser)
A tiny open-source game where you recreate a target colour by blending paint droplets. Free, no ads, works offline (it's in the name) and also playable in a browser. The itch.io page links an iOS version, but it doesn't currently appear on the App Store, so treat it as Android and web.
Mix & Paint (iOS, Android)
Not a puzzle so much as a painting toy: "use your fingers and the palette to mix the colours, then paint a picture based on the sample". Hugely popular — over ten million Android installs, 4.6 stars on both stores — and genuinely about mixing, but relaxing rather than challenging; reviews say as much. Free with ads.
Color Merge Puzzle (iOS, Android)
Drag base colours — red, green, blue, black and white — onto a canvas to match the pieces of a picture, working up to famous paintings. Mixing on an RGB model rather than paint, which feels different (green is a base colour here, not something you make). Free with in-app purchases from £1.99 to remove ads; reviews complain about ad frequency and needing a connection to play.
Colour games that sort rather than mix
I Love Hue and I Love Hue Too (iOS, Android)
The genre's biggest name: "reorder mosaics of coloured tiles into perfectly ordered spectrums" — the listing itself calls it "a puzzle of perception, not logic". Over 900 levels in the original and 1,900 in the sequel, offline, free with ads and tile-pack purchases (£4.99 removes ads in the sequel). Beautiful and calm, with ten million installs and a 4.8 rating to show for it. You never mix a colour, and the only recurring complaint in reviews is the ads in the free version.
Colour Puzzle: Hue Match / Offline Hue Game (iOS, Android)
Same idea — "drag and sort colour blocks to arrange them in the correct colour gradient" — with 700+ offline levels, timed and limited-move modes, and a creative mode. Free with ads (£3.99 removes them on iOS). Note the iPhone and Android versions are published under different names, so check you're getting the one your friend recommended.
KAMI 2 (iOS, Android)
Often recommended alongside the above but it isn't a colour game at all in the mixing sense: you flood a folded-paper pattern with a single colour in as few moves as possible. Colours are labels. Excellent logic puzzle, Editors' Choice on both stores, with a level editor and thousands of user-made puzzles — just not what you're looking for if you typed "colour mixing".
What happened to Blendoku?
Blendoku (2013) and Blendoku 2 by Lonely Few were the games that made "arrange the colours into a gradient" a genre, and they still top older lists. As of 20 September 2026 neither is on the App Store or Google Play — the Play listings have returned "not found" since 2023, and the developer's site is down. If a list recommends Blendoku, it's out of date; I Love Hue Too is the nearest living equivalent.
Which one should you pick?
| Game | Really mixes? | Platforms | Price | Offline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalabux | Yes — pipes, paint, 46 colours | Android, iPhone, iPad | Free; skippable ads; one optional purchase | Yes |
| Splotches | Yes — conveyors and buckets | iOS, Android | 30 levels free, £2.99 unlock (iOS) | Not stated |
| Color Mix: Paint Match | Yes — pour into a mixer | Android | Free with ads | Not stated |
| Paint Match Offline | Yes — droplets | Android, browser | Free, no ads | Yes |
| Mix & Paint | Yes — but it's a painting toy | iOS, Android | Free with ads | Yes |
| Color Merge Puzzle | RGB, not paint | iOS, Android | Free; £1.99 removes ads | Reviews say no |
| I Love Hue / Too | No — sorting | iOS, Android | Free with ads; packs | Yes |
| Colour Puzzle | No — sorting | iOS, Android | Free with ads; £3.99 removes | Yes |
| KAMI 2 | No — flood fill | iOS, Android | Free; paid hints | Yes |
| Blendoku 1 & 2 | No — sorting | Delisted | — | — |
- Want to learn how paint actually works? Kalabux or Splotches.
- Want something calm for ten minutes at a time? I Love Hue Too.
- Want a quick toy for a child who likes painting? Mix & Paint.
- Want no ads and no purchases at all? Paint Match Offline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a game where you actually mix paint colours?
Yes. On phones, Kalabux (Android, iPhone, iPad), Splotches (iOS, Android), Color Mix: Paint Match Game (Android) and Paint Match Offline (Android, browser) all combine base colours to make new ones. I Love Hue and Colour Puzzle, the best-known "colour games", only sort existing colours into gradients.
What is the difference between I Love Hue and Kalabux?
I Love Hue is a sorting puzzle: you rearrange scrambled tiles into a smooth gradient, and it is about perceiving colour. Kalabux is a mixing puzzle: you route red, yellow and blue paint through pipes so they combine into the colour each order needs, and it is about understanding colour — plus a small factory to run around it. I Love Hue is the calmer game; Kalabux is the one with more to think about.
Is Blendoku still available?
No. Blendoku and Blendoku 2 are not on the App Store or Google Play as of 20 September 2026; the Google Play listings have been unavailable since 2023. I Love Hue Too is the closest game that is still maintained.
Are there colour-mixing games that teach colour theory?
The mixing games do, more or less by accident: Kalabux teaches subtractive mixing (red, yellow, blue as primaries; black and white for shades, tints and tones) because you cannot fill an order without working it out, and Splotches describes itself as "a fun way to learn the relationships of the colour wheel". Sorting games such as I Love Hue train colour perception instead.
Which colour-mixing games are free without forced ads?
Paint Match Offline is free with no ads. Kalabux is free and funded by adverts, but every advert can be skipped or dismissed, and one optional purchase removes them for good. Splotches has no ads but charges £2.99 to unlock the full game on iOS after 30 free levels.
Can I play these offline?
Kalabux, Paint Match Offline, Mix & Paint, I Love Hue, Colour Puzzle and KAMI 2 all state offline play on their store listings. Splotches and Color Mix: Paint Match Game do not say. Reviews of Color Merge Puzzle report that it needs a connection.