Pixi support

[Ian Price]

I don't fear porting to small devices with a decend SDK. The port to Palm Pre was very easy.

Any chance of having a look at the Palm Pixi? I might even have a spare device (once I've sorted a few things).

Veer is working lovely though I've ported B'lox! to Veer, redesigning it from the ground up to fit the smaller screen. I've added a few extras too. I hoped that this would work on Pixi as it uses the same resolution, so I bought a couple to test (only £20 each). Unfortunately the app doesn't even open - when clicking on a GLB file, the icon enlarges and a halo around it just fades in and out.

So if nothing else my wife has a new phone...

[Kitty Hello]

a 2nd hand pixi starts at 90,-EUR on eBay
If I had one, I'd really love to fix it. You got a veer? Where'd you get that from, then?

[Ian Price]

I can send you the spare Pixi (once I've got it fixed up - needs a new battery, which I've ordered). It's a US non-GSM (Sprint version), so you can't use it for calls, but it does have Wi-Fi, and it works.

I don't have a Veer, but have a willing and eager tester that does.

BTW B'lox -


Veer


Pre


Veer


Pre

I've added new puzzle complete routines and the ray type background.

[Marmor]

remember the pixi has a broken OGL support

[Kitty Hello]

I like the pixi toolbar even better than the Pre one.

added new puzzle complete routines

you have new rountines olving the puzzles? How are they made? I would have started with the end of the puzzle and then have a level editor that can move them only, if there's a block at the opposite direction of the move (sort of "play backwards mode).

Getting hands on a Pixi would rock. I can send you a trashy Android board (if it still works. Yesterday it didn't charge the battery, but I guess it's just a matter of a broken cable).

[MrTAToad]

Ian must know a few people

I'm still waiting to hear about my Tablet voucher... 

[Ian Price]

Most of the puzzles are the same (just adapted for the smaller screen size., I do use a level editor, but I don't "work backwards" with creating the puzzles. Each puzzle is created on the fly and tested when I think it's complete. I readjust as necessary.

I've changed the "Puzzle Complete" display (originally multiple coloured rotating stars) to larger white stars - it looks much more elegant and have some nice fireworks - these displays are randomized, so you don;t know what reward you'll get for completing a puzzle.

I like the Veer panel more too. I'd go as far as to say that the Veer version is actually much nicer than the Pre version and is the best version of all.

I'm not worried about Android for now. I haven't touched iPod in a while (due to Pre being so good and lack of time to play with the new XCode etc.), so must get around to that before my Apple dev license expires in September.

MrTAToad - I haven't heard anything about the TouchPad voucher either. But then I'm still waiting to hear about the Veer one too - the Veer email said within 15 days. That was a couple of months ago, wasn't it?

[MrTAToad]

Certainly was - might have to send them another reminder...

[Kitty Hello]

If you had a "reverse gameplay editor", you could easily write an algo to create random levels. That would be a quite interesting idea for a new feature.

[Slydog]

If you had a "reverse gameplay editor", you could easily write an algo to create random levels. That would be a quite interesting idea for a new feature.

But a basic algo may lead to multiple solutions to a puzzle.
A great algo would re-solve the puzzle and check for multiple solutions and reject it if it doesn't have just one!
I was reading some people's ideas for a Sudoku puzzle algos, and that's what they had to do.

Fun stuff.

[Ian Price]

I don't want there to be only one solution for B'lox! I designed the levels to be free form, so the user decides how to play them - that's part of the fun. Some puzzle do require specific techniques to beat them, but generally there are multiple ways to beat each puzzle.

[Slydog]

In that case, Kitty's random level concept would work.

It's just how do you determine how difficult a level is?
Your algo could randomly move your blocks from the end position, multiple times, but then a solution (not the reverse of what the random algo did) may end up being very simple by just moving each block once, or something.

After a random puzzle is generated, you could still create a solver algo that iterates through every possible move (up until a certain move count probably to avoid solutions that take 200 moves, etc).  Then count the steps for the shortest solution, and that could be the difficulty.  It may be hard to generate a random puzzle based on a selected difficulty tho, unless you keep calling the algo until the difficulty rating is satisfactory, and ignoring the others.

I bought your game a few months ago, for the iPhone, and it is quite enjoyable, and well presented.   
I'm not a puzzle game player, but enjoy seeing what people can do with GLB.
But I do love puzzle game algorithms!

[Ian Price]

It would actually be quite easy to do an algo and auto-solver for a game like B'lox! Generally the more blocks there are, the more difficult the puzzle (although that isn't always the case) - in which case space is the biggest problem, as blocks don't stop moving until they hit a wall, so putting a pad in the middle of an open space requires manipulation of other blocks - in this instance the fewer, the more difficult the puzzle.

The biggest problem would be board generation and ensuring that blocks were not blocked and that they could always get to a pad. But even this wouldn't be too big a problem.

[Slydog]

Like Kitty mentioned, if the algo starts from the end / finished position and work backwards, you'll always have a solution.

And regarding blocks needing other blocks for manipulation, that could be added to your algo.
If the algo is looking for its next move (working backwards), give it higher priority if a direction connects or stack against another block.  That will keep the puzzle aspect alive.  And the solver could add more weight to the difficulty for each time a move rests against another block, as it may then be more 'tricky' to solve.

And for the random board generation, start with a full rectangular shape, the size of your maximum play area.
The randomly subtract rectangular areas of various shapes and sizes, but start the subtraction from an edge / corner (not freely in the middle of the play area), and make sure that it doesn't touch another border from the other side.  A shape could be subtracted from the middle area too, just make sure it contains ONLY playable areas and doesn't rest against any wall tiles.

With this, and generating puzzles from the finished state and working backwards, you'll always have a solvable puzzle.

[Edit] After looking at your existing puzzle layouts, it may be easier to just pick a random modification and apply it, then test and ensure that every white space / moveable area is connected.  If it's not, roll back that change and try another.  It looks like you would need two different modification algos, one for the outer perimeter of the puzzle, and one for random walls or blocks inside the play area.  Again, each one would do a check to make sure no play area is stranded each move.  (a simple way to check is using an array of the map, and start at the first play area you find and flag it as 'checked already'.  And using a basic flood fill algo, flag all of its neighbors as checked and so on.  Then recheck your array to see if any play locations are still unchecked.  If so it's an invalid modification, so undo it.  Basically.)

[Ian Price]

As I said -

It would actually be quite easy to do an algo and auto-solver for a game like B'lox

But this is moot as I don't plan to implement this feature

If 120 levels isn't enough for people  then adding an infinite amount of levels is unlikely to increase sales, which are still very low. Veer has a pretty empty playing field at the moment, so it's worth one last shot.