To play the game, you only need the four arrow keys.

To begin a new game, go to Game ▸ New Game. The game will begin dropping blocks from the center of the top of the window. The default start-up of the game has no blocks in the game window and shows the next block that will fall in the upper right hand corner. Score shows the number of points you have earned. Lines shows the number of lines you have completed. Level shows the level of difficulty you are on.

To pause your game, go to Game ▸ Pause Game. You can only pause a game when you are playing. The time limit on pausing your game is unlimited. To unpause the game, go back to Game ▸ Pause Game.

Go to Game ▸ End Game to end your current game without quiting Gnometris.

To completely quit Gnometris go to Game ▸ Quit. If you are in the middle of a game when you quit, you will end your game without saving your score.

You score points through two methods: dropping blocks faster and deleting complete lines of blocks. When you delete lines, you get more points, but dropping blocks faster will quickly add up. As you level up, the blocks will begin falling faster. The highest level is 10, at which point you will only have just over a second to manipulate each block.

You can view the top ten scores played on your computer through Game ▸ Scores. The names of the users are shown next the their score and the date they played.