Jorj has three ability slots which can be filled with unique powers such as a bow, which lets you pick one enemy off from around the map.

If Jorj takes three hits and depletes his health bar, the player loses all progress in a level, making it risky to stay to get higher rewards.

[1] The original concept for Grindstone dates back to the development of two of Capybara's previous games, Critter Crunch and Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes.

The original idea for Grindstone was a color based matching game where the player would move around the board.

The game also had a coin based currency system, but it was removed as Capybara felt it didn't incentivise the player to create long combos.

[2] Grindstone was released as a launch title for Apple Arcade on iOS, macOS, and tvOS on September 19, 2019.

[17] Writing for Destructoid, Jordan Devore praised the gameplay as being easy to pick up and play, but disliked the length of the game, feeling that many of the stages felt like padding.