Week 8 Practical: Review on our Puzzle Game Prototype

Review on Week 8 Practical

by Edmund Phoon Jian Cheng

On week 8 of our Game Design class, we were tasked to design our own puzzle game prototype. Here, we created a fairly easy sliding puzzle game, consisting of only a 5x5 board and four triangle-shaped pieces, for teenagers who may understand the concept of the genre.

The triangle parts are scattered randomly in different positions of the board, and the goal is to drag the triangles to each other to form a large square. However, this end-configuration has to be in the right sequence to the point that the triangle pieces cannot be interlocked when the non-linking end of one piece of the square blocks another attempting to connect to form the square; hence in other words cannot jump over the other. The triangle pieces can move horizontally or vertically to a corner depending on its position in the board; this function is not allowed to be done midway until it reaches an end. To make the levels challenging, borders within the board are implemented to obstruct the pieces from reaching each other to connect. The level is complete when the square is produced, linked up together by the four triangle pieces.

Puzzle games like this prototype we made require spatial reasoning to determine the best possible ways to move the pieces to each other as we comprehend the space in the board that enable us to slide our pieces to the desired location, and educating us how to fit them together despite the odds provided. These features keep us entertained and addicted into the game, and we would wish to add in the difficulty level of the increase of obstacles to enable the players to test their skills in moving the pieces around and in order to form the square.