Crunch Lock is a casual, sorting logic-puzzle game. The player's goals are to close narrow multitool-style handles on locks and earn stars across seemingly endless levels. They need deductive reasoning and problem-solving skills to clear each level. If they fail to close the parts in the correct order, they might accidentally block other locks from closing as they progress through a level.
During a round, the game presents the player with two or more locks with the darkest parts attached to the backdrop. The player can only rotate a handle or handles clockwise (i.e., right). Once they direct a handle to move, it automatically swings 90, 180 or 360 degrees. As a result, the player often needs to direct the movement of one or more handles multiple times for all the parts to finally fold into closed and locked positions instead of open and unlocked ones.
Crunch Lock helps the player in several ways. It places light-colored handles above dark-colored ones, which can help indicate the height of the parts to prevent a swinging piece from knocking into another lock. It also uses the word "locked" to reveal locks stuck in open-handled locked positions. These parts only unlock when the player folds the handles and locks nearby locks on the playfield.
When the player does well, they receive three stars, a happy summer sun emoji and confetti.
