Making puzzles

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

In a few games, they have like 2.000 puzzles, and Angry Birds seems to have no end to its puzzles.

So my question is, how does one go around making puzzles and be sure it is possible ?

Like in Angry Birds, how do they know it is solvable with only these 3 red birds ?

And this game
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.agilefusion.UnblockMe
It has 3.000 puzzles
This game
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kiragames.unblockmefree
Has 2.000 puzzles

And there are literally hundreds of games exactly like the ones above. Do these puzzles come from a book ?

Do you start off with everything solved then play each level in reverse ?

There is also one of the first or the first game ever done for iPhone called lights off. It just amazes me how many puzzles there are.

I am just curious. I have been preventing troubles and finding solutions to problems for close to 20 years. Making trouble and creating puzzles is kind of against my nature I guess [import]uid: 61610 topic_id: 10274 reply_id: 310274[/import]

#2

well i think that each type of game has its own mechanism to create the levels and be sure it is working

for example for my game Lighted that i have created

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lighted/id430301044?mt=8

i created a java program that takes the number of lights and switches and then gives you a solution or the list of switches that needs to be pressed in order to solve the level
for angry bird i think that they are trying each level and make sure it is solvable with the supplied number of birds
for other games like one called Geared
maybe they just assemble the gears and take it out in reverse
for every problem you will find a solution for it and you just need to think clearly

some problems have really simple solution but one can not figure it out since he is thinking inside the box

try to think always outside the box

here is a nice video that explain how this is done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W07ADwmuj8A
Regards [import]uid: 46546 topic_id: 10274 reply_id: 37488[/import]

#3

I think the solution is just to play test your games.

See if you can do it easily with a set number of items then halve it as see how you get on, if you struggle then choose the intimidate number and test again eventually you’ll hit a sweet spot and then thats the level done.

Other than that just create all your levels with what you would consider tricky and if your game is easily solved then the world will let you know and then you can make it harder… then your in business :wink: [import]uid: 33866 topic_id: 10274 reply_id: 37500[/import]

#4

In my upcoming game Roly-Polies HD I create the levels by choosing a starting point and then sending a Roly-Poly on his way. I keep adding objects from the toolbox for him to roll over, bounce off of, etc., until I get to wherever I think the ending should be on that level.

The Roly-Poly leaves a trail as he goes, so when I’m done building a level I tap the screen along that path to place jewels/stars. Then I hit Save and I’m done.

When the user hits that level all they see are the stars and they have to figure out how to use the available objects to build a path.

And since the stars were placed on a working path, I know every level is possible to solve.

Jay

PS - When I hit the Save button it also saves the objects and their locations, so at any time I can recreate an entire working level. One idea I have is to sell a block of 5 solutions for $.99 IAP - the user can then use a solution whenever they are completely stumped.
[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 10274 reply_id: 37547[/import]

#5

I will agree best solution is to test your game when I created Dragging Physics
I tested my game many times and completed each level multiple times, also
let my little brother mess around with it and he found a few “cheat” way to win
so I quickly took care of that. Depending on the structure of your game you can
do multiple things in my experience I sometimes will use previous level created
and just add new objects and change location of objects and remove certain
objects and in an instant became a whole new level :slight_smile:

@ J. A. Whye:

Congratulation on your memory game (forgot name but its on my iphone4 lol)
me and my older brother liked it and looking forward to your next game.One
cool thing i like is the images random every time you try the puzzle i`m
guessing is done by creating a table and using math.random but im still a bit
new to program and was hard to make that work for me lol

  • LeivaGames [import]uid: 30314 topic_id: 10274 reply_id: 37552[/import]
#6

I searched via Google for a Lua shuffle routine and found this:

  
function shuffle(t)  
 local n = #t  
 while n \> 2 do  
 local k = math.random(n)  
 t[n], t[k] = t[k], t[n]  
 n = n - 1  
 end  
 return t  
end

I pass in a copy of the table that contains all the images and get back a shuffled table. Then I just go through the table in order and use the next image that comes up.

I’m getting read to start work on a card game and I’ll be using that same function to shuffle the deck each time.

Jay

[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 10274 reply_id: 37554[/import]