Monsters: Survival of the Fittest: online puzzle game

A couple of years ago I played/solved all of the Cannibal Monsters challenge levels. It's a bit like peg solitaire where one Monster must be left.


In Cannibal Monsters - the physical game, and now Monsters Survival of the Fittest, the objective is the same. The rules of how one monster eats another is based on colors. A bit too awkward to explain without images. The last few days BlogSpot has been giving me a hard time with this.


Suffice it to say, just about everything Raf Peeters does at Smart Games, is challenging and fun!  Last month I reviewed their update of Titanic.


http://www.smartgameslive.com/en/games/monsters/starter
http://www.smartgames.eu/en/smartgames/cannibal-monsters

Sword & Penguin

 

 Louis-Nicolas Dozois recently contacted me about his action puzzle app game Sword & Penguin.
As a puzzle game, you must move blocks around a la sokoban. Some blocks must be pushed onto blue buttons to maneuver the blue walls downward. Same for the red & green buttons/walls.


Other puzzles: you will need to push ice blocks onto the squares that have fire.  I should mention: the object is to first collect the key, then collect the egg. Other obstacles: the electric grid which must be turned off.  Some electric fields toggle on/off every second or so. So you must time your penguin accordingly.


Other features: some squares have cracks. You can traverse over them once, after that, you will fall to your death. Igloos: be careful bumping into them because polar bears will emerge very quickly.


The action part is the polar bear who roams around. You must avoid him. He walks randomly. Sometimes he throws snowballs at you across the grid.
Level 2-10 has a very Pac-Man feel to it. Since I was never good at that game, I skipped that level.
Once you get to level 33, which is Chapter 3, level 1, you will want to get finally pick up the sword in order to kill off the bears.


There's a lot to like about Sword & Penguin. Puzzle-wise, they're not very difficult. But the action element adds to the fun. There are 160 levels.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sword-penguin/id788767327?mt=8
http://www.northernbytes.ca/sp/

Kindly Colors: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Yan Fauriat contacted me recently about his point scoring puzzle app game Kindly Colors.
The object is to group adjacent colors by themselves or in pairs of colors to get points.


Look at the second image How to Play: you may group purple with red or purple with blue, but never all three at the same time.

See green plus in the third image? If you can group that with some green/blue or green/yellow, then it will eat up all the cells in the column and row.  Now, do you see the red vertical line just under it? Getting that will only eat up the column.


This took me a while to get: if you swipe the longest possible chain on the board, one of the new tiles will be a plus sign. 


My top score is 3900 which puts me in the top 20% of players on the Game Center. When your game ends, you can buy more moves. Which means that you can buy your way to the top.


Still, I like Kindly Colors and will play it some more.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindly-colors/id879126322?mt=8


Update 7/25/14:
A note from Yan: Just as a precision regarding the quote: "When your game ends, you can buy more moves. Which means that you can buy your way to the top."

Since the update 1.0.1, the "continue/more moves" option is free. Meaning the scoring competition is perfectly fair.


From me: I keep playing this game and cannot top my high score!

Hexxy: board game for iphone, ipad

Tim Derebenskiy contacted me, not recently, but a while ago about his board game Hexxy. It's very similar to an old game whose name escapes me.  The object is to acquire more spaces than your opponent.  There's an Othello feel to the game.

Here's what I particularly like about Hexxy: there are different board shapes. Also, you can play against somebody, or you can play against the computer.


Tim is still in high school!


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hexxy/id854750386?mt=8
http://timryanedrees.wix.com/hexxy

G.O.A.T. - Mow it up: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Lena from Yellow Dot Mobile recently contacted me about their new puzzle app game G.O.A.T. - Mow it up.


It's a topology type game. Your goal is to draw a path of carrots on the grid so that the goat will cover the whole field.


We've seen this type of puzzle app game numerous times. Here's what's new and very good: The final square will be one of 4 objects: a boot, sandal, tire or fish bone.


There are over 200 levels. I did the 40 Easy Summertime levels pretty quickly. But I did get stumped a few times. G.O.A.T. is a good game!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/g.o.a.t.-mow-it-up/id883590463?mt=8

Numberino: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Mikhail Mitrofanov is the author of Numberio, a puzzle app game that looks a bit like Thress! and 2048. It's different.


The object is to slide numbers up/down/right/left and combine them with each other and then match the number in the white square.


Look at the third image. See the instructions in English? When I downloaded the game, my instructions came in Russian. No matter, the pictorial rules are straight forward.


You must slide the tiles and combine them to enter the white square. You can slide in all directions. However, the value of the tile which you are sliding will decrease in value. Look at the fourth image. See the 4? If you slide it down, it will become a 2, because it went down 2 squares.

 



I did the first 25 levels. They get hard!


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/numberino/id884974344?mt=8

SpinIn: puzzle app game

David Tzur recently contacted me about his new puzzle app game SpinIn. I actually play tested this game 4 years ago: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2010/05/spinin-iphone-puzzle-app.html  when I had my ipod touch device. David says that this is an improved version. I thought the old version was terrific.

The object of SpinIn is to tilt/swipe the pieces in 4 directions until the gem can find the exit. It's sometimes possible that another piece will slide out the exit first. This may be advantageous. It may also make it impossible to get your man out.

These puzzles are extremely well designed and quite challenging. Right now I've solved the first 60 levels.


Let's talk money. You can play the first 24 levels for free. After that, you must either wait a certain amount of time, or pay to get instant access.  This will happen every 12 levels. Very similar to the Candy Crush model. I am all for ios game developers asking for money! My sense is that it should be a one time shot of $1.99. Just my opinion.


Without a doubt, SpinIn is one of the best puzzle apps of 2014.



http://spininapp.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spinin/id345302029


Update 7/25/2014


I have solved up to level 70. Stuck on 71.


David sent me an image of level 90, which I can't upload. It's a 4x3 grid and the minimum number of moves to solve it is 30.

Stickets: update

Good news and bad news about the point scoring puzzle app game Stickets.


You may recall that I became the second highest scorer of Stickets.


My first blog entry: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2013/07/stickets-puzzle-app-game-for-iphone-ipad.html


Second: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2013/09/stickets-update-on-puzzle-app-game.html


Third: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2014/03/recent-twitter-conversation.html


I showed the game to my father last year and he's been hooked. He plays the game very slowly and super carefully.  When he's in a jam, he puts it down for a few days until he's got 100% concentration.


About 5 months ago, my father got a good start. He's been on that 1 game, still alive and kicking, all this time.  A few days ago he overtook me and became the #2 high scorer.  Would he overtake the #1 scorer? 


Tragedy struck: while recharging his ipad, the program did not save his game. Very mysterious and unfortunate.


I told him to download Folt and give it a try.

Colors Mix: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Colors Mix is a very hard game. Your task is to clear the board of all colors. 


When the game starts, the 4x4 grid will be partly covered with primary colors only: cyan, yellow and magenta. You may move a color to an adjacent  white cell. Or you may combine it with a like colored adjacent cell. That's good. Or you can combine it with a different color to get a secondary color.


See the blue squares with asterisks? The asterisk signifies that it's a secondary color. If you combine them, they get annihilated. Only secondary colors get annihilated. That's how to achieve your objective.


After you make two moves, a new primary color will pop up some place. Hopefully to your advantage. I played 1 game for over 30 minutes and got nowhere! Why? Because you can line up your colors just right, but that new color pops up exactly where you don't want it.


Finally, today, I solved it!  It took 268 moves and just over 6 minutes.  I'm very happy!


Oh yes, I should also mention that that was the easiest of 3 levels. The other 2 levels are basically the same, just harder.


Give Colors Mix a try. I need your opinion as to whether it should join the list of Best Puzzle Apps of 2014.


http://games4mind.com/colorsmix
https://itunes.apple.com/app/it/colors-mix/id893928314

Digits: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Here's a description of Digits direct from the iTunes store. My comments are at the bottom:


"Digits is a hypnotic new numbers game.
Clear the board by decreasing all numbers to zero. Tap to decrease a number and the numbers around it. Be careful though because numbers in isolation cannot be decreased. Order of operations matters. (Yes, just like in school!)
And, you'll be solving puzzles along with a soundtrack entirely composed by one of Simple Machine's favorite artists, Mokhov.
Play the first 100 levels for free!
Then challenge yourself further by landing on the star tile.
If you like it, there are 500 more levels available as in-app purchases"

My comments
1. The game is similar in theme to Lights Out. Which is a great and fun concept.
2. Digits is almost the exact reverse of Logisquares http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2013/06/logisquares-puzzle-app-game-for-iphone.html which I reviewed last year.
3. I solved the first 15 levels in about 5 minutes. I think these puzzles are too easy. But that's because I really got into Logisquares which is harder for one significant reason, which I won't get into here.
4. The bigger grid sizes are harder, but they're still easy. My task was to solve all 100 puzzles as fast as possible. Altogether, I solved them all in about 25 minutes. Once you solve all the puzzles, you can redo them and try to get a star. A star will appear on a certain square and you will earn it if you make that square the last tap on the board.  Nice concept, but why not put that at the beginning?
5. I don't know who Mokhov is. I always turn the sounds off and listen to my own selections.
6. Give Digits a try. Then go to Logisquares.


http://simplemachine.co/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/digits/id740593142?mt=8

Exodus Free! - Unique 2D Puzzle Game

  

Puzzle app friends: I am behind in my reviews. Exodus Free is a perfect example. I thought I blogged about it 2 months ago. An oversight.


Exodus Free is a 'slide your man until he hits a wall' maze puzzle game app. You must get the golden balls. Avoid the spikes. Use the wormholes.


You may recall another puzzle app game: Woodhead. It's very similar. Although Woodhead had some genuine good humor.  There are sticky squares that will halt your progress mid grid. Some blocking squares can be shifted right/left or up/down as many times as you like.

 

Here's what I think is new and original in this concept: the squares that have numbers.  Look at the third image and you will see a 7 & a 6. Those squares can be moved 7 times & 6 times.


I have 1 minor qualm with these puzzles: you must swipe the arrow itself, as opposed to any place on the grid.


If you've enjoyed Quell, you will certainly like this game.  It's almost identical.  If you pass over a red dot, it will turn into an obstacle.
There are 80 levels. I was stuck on 42 for a long time and then forgot about this puzzle app. Right now I'm stuck on level 49 because it won't let me swipe in the direction I want. I believe there's a design flaw here.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/exodus-free!-unique-2d-puzzle/id870049714?mt=8


http://theinnovativedev.wix.com/exodus

Hedgehog Gardens: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Andrea Sabbatini recently contacted me about his new puzzle app game Hedgehog Gardens. This is a very original concept. There are 5 different versions and all of the images about the rules are referring to the easiest version called Back Garden. 

 

The hedgehog rotates from quadrant to quadrant going clockwise and always traveling in a linear direction.  Simply fill the numbers from 1-36.  It takes a few minutes to fully understand the controls, but one you get the hang of it, these go pretty fast.

The Orchard Garden is a little tougher. The hedgehog can randomly go counterclockwise, if he feels like it and then go clockwise.

The Forest is similar but now there are 9 garden squares.

The City allows the hedgehog to take a subway and travel to a diagonal garden, but he must land on a corresponding square. For example, if he's currently in the upper left corner, he will land on the upper left corner of that other garden.

Nitty Gritty: The Back Garden is way too easy. But I solved 40 or so levels, so I got into it.  The harder gardens are more difficult and I've spent 10 minutes solving just 1 level. Hedgehog Gardens will be loved by young puzzlers. But even accomplished puzzlers will find these to be fun.

There are some 1200 levels altogether.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/hedgehog-gardens/id870483485?mt=8



Escape the Room article

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/219711/Designing_a_reallife_Escape_the_Room_experience.php


Thanks to Nicola Salmoria for sending me this article.  Escape the Rooms are popping up all over the place.

Perfect Paths: puzzle app for iphone, ipad

 

My puzzle app colleague Nicola Salmoria sent me a few emails to try Perfect Paths. I always follow his advice. But the price was $3.99 and the images looked like another topology game.


A few days ago, the price dropped to $.99 and I pounced. Yes Perfect Paths is a topology game, but not really. Your task is to move the colored tiles to the dots. However, whatever path you draw will not be continuous. Strange, I know. There is a metronomic device that says, Up, Down, Right, Left. Then it repeats.


Every tile on an Up square must move up just once. Then every tile on a Down square, must move down once. Etc.  You may think that the paths you draw will not lead to crashes, but they will.
See the paper clips at the bottom? You will need to connect squares and disconnect them too.


Right now there are 56 levels, which include 6 tutorials. Supposedly, more levels are being added every week. I cannot confirm this. Right now I have solved 47 of them.  The vast majority are difficult. Hard. Seemingly impossible.  Lots of trial and error. Frustrating. But I keep playing. While watching hours of Breaking Bad, which I never got around too.
There is a point scoring system. Efficient paths score more points. I'm honestly happy enough to have solved a level. Cause for a house party. But if you want to get high up on the Leader Board, you should check out Nicola's tips.


Perfect Paths is definitely one of the Best Puzzle Apps of 2014.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perfect-paths/id856029362?mt=8

Puralax: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Puralax is color painting game by Luis Bricker.  It's hard to describe.  Look at the first image. See how the very top is red? The objective is to paint all the tiles red.  See the green square with the white dot? That means you can drag that color onto the yellow squares. All contiguous yellow squares will then turn green.  The red square has 2 dots. One dot allows it to be moved next to the green group. The other dot allows you to paint the green group red.

I've completed all 20 levels of Stage 1. Almost done with Stage 2. There are 6 Stages, so presumably there are 120 levels.

You can play online for free!

Puralax reminds me a bit of Zen Color. Read my review from last summer on that.

Puralax has some easy puzzles, but they get tough pretty quick. Definitely a winner.

http://www.puralax.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puralax/id781705529?mt=8


Update 6/30/14: I've been playing Puralax more and have now solved 93 levels.

Titanic By SmartGames: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Raf Peeters recently contacted me about an update to Titanic. The original game came out in 2012. (Click here to read my review back then.) It was judged as one of the best puzzle apps of that year, by yours truly. The objective remains the same: move the lifeboats to pick up the passengers to rescue them. Be a hero with your puzzling skills.


There is no time element. Take your time. Your boats can travel forward and back and even sideways. If an empty bench gets next to a survivor, he will stop the boat and climb on. (Nice graphics.) If 2 passengers are adjacent to the same bench, you get to decide which one to take. Once a boat is full, it cannot move.


So here's the update: this new version has icebergs. The lifeboats can push the icebergs NOT in a sokoban type way. Your boat can push multiple bergs at the same time. Forward, back and sideways.


Of course there are 4 levels of difficulty, but now that's doubled. The Deep Blue levels are the same as the original Titanic.  The new ones are called Iceberg.  204 levels - should keep you busy for a while. I skipped the Beginner Iceberg levels and jumped into the junior levels. I did all 24 of those, but must confess, I struggled on some of them.  On the Expert Iceberg levels, I've done 7 of the 24. I'd like to think that they are impossible, but that's what makes it very good, right!
Titanic By SmartGames is one of the best puzzle game apps of 2014.  Bravo Raf!


By the way, there's an old silent film called Way Down East that's got an incredible scene of a woman jumping among ice floes before she gets to a waterfall.


Titanic is the only puzzle app that I can think of that that stems from an historical event.
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/titanic-lite-by-smartgames/id520097116

Stop Crows: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Vasile Dediu is one of 10 people in the last week to contact me about their new puzzle game apps. That's right, this blog is becoming a job - an unpaid one.


You may recall that I reviewed his pure puzzle app Amid Worlds. I really liked it.

His latest is called Stop Crows. It's an arcade type game. All the birds will fly into the bird houses. Your job is to whack the Crows out by pressing the corresponding number at the bottom. You must time it accordingly, because if you're a bit early and whack an okay bird, game's over.


Right now, only 18 people are playing it via the Game Center. I'm #2 with a score of 99. The #1 player's score is over 300.  I should also point out that the birds fly slowly and gradually speed up.


Everybody should try this game: it's good hand/eye coordination. We all want to ward off Alzheimer's. Most importantly, it's fun for a few hours.
http://youtu.be/16fx7B6UP-E Watch Vasile get a score of 295.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stop-crows/id887610103?mt=8

TRUpuzzlE: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Vladimir Semenko came out with TRUpuzzlE in 2011. But I just noticed it. TRUpuzzlE is the perfect example of how very good puzzle app games can get buried under the avalanche of new stuff.


TRUpuzzlE is very similar to Wriggle and Snake Slider. The object is to slide the chains around so that the green chain gets to the green squares.  The puzzles are very well designed. The order of difficulty is not sequential. Level 25 was much harder for me than some later levels. That's a minor complaint.


The steampunk art is only in the one image.


There are 56 levels and I solved them all in about 2-3 hours over two days.


Note: this game is temporarily free, so get it right now.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trupuzzle/id430437507?mt=8

Escape the Room NYC

Seems like yesterday when I did Escape from the Werewolf Village.


On Saturday I participated in Escape The Room NYC with 10 other people.  This was much more interesting/interactive than Escape from the Werewolf Village. Lots of moving around in a tiny apt to find clues, open locks etc. Our group was headed by Brett Kuehner. He's done a bunch of these room escapes before. Because of him, our group escaped in 38 minutes. Which broke the record.


$30 is a bit steep, but you'll never forget the experience.


http://escapetheroomnyc.com/

Zen Triangle: free puzzle app game

Sanmoy Ray recently contacted me about his puzzle app game Zen Triangle.  The objective is to fit the pieces into the tray.


I've done a couple thousand of these over the years. They're classified as packing puzzles. I'm not a big fan of the genre. At least anymore.


Zen Triangle has over 350 levels. I have no internal need to solve them all.  I did the first dozen which are really easy. Even for a beginner, I think they're too easy. I was not able to access the harder puzzle levels because I didn't upgrade.


I can definitely see some young puzzlers liking Zen Triangle. The graphics are good and it's easy to rotate and flip pieces.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zentriangle/id823755270?ls=1&mt=8
http://www.nascentsoftware.com/

TwoDots: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Lots of people are playing TwoDots. The objective is to solve each level by achieving various goals. Essentially, it's a lot like Candy Crush. When you run out of lives, you can purchase more. This game is making boatloads of money. Unlike this blog.

Here's what's better: if you can get a square of the same color and swipe them out, all of those colors will be removed from the board. That becomes the essential strategy for pretty much every level.

There are 85 levels, of which I've solved 42. When I run out of lives, I switch back to FOLT, until I run out of lives there.



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodots/id880178264?mt=8
http://weplaydots.com/


Update:By coincidence, the New York Post has a story about this app today!  http://nypost.com/2014/06/11/nycs-twodots-gaming-app-crushes-competition/

Blokkology: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Blokkology is a free puzzle app game from http://www.blokkology.com/. You can play it on any device - even a regular old fashioned computer. You are the bright blue square. Your task is to move to the square with the tiny black and white checkerboard inside. See the numbers on top: 33945?


Blokkology is really a maze puzzle. You must figure out in which direction to travel those first 3 steps, then the next 3 steps, and 9 steps....you get the idea.


Blokkology has green portals. There are also bombs that might spoil your day.


Altogether, there are 250 levels. The first 100 are free.  Of those, I've solved 99. For some reason I could not access 100 but was urged to get the full version. Unfortunately, the full version is not available right now. Nor can one do an in-app purchase.
I have some qualms: the graphics could be better. The info on the right of the screen should be smaller and make the board larger. Why can't I undo a move if I swipe in the wrong direction accidentally? The first 100 levels should have 5 & 6 steps to really whet my appetite for more.
Nevertheless, Blokkology has a certain appeal to many puzzlers: novice and pro



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blokkology-lite/id879955651?mt=8

Watch this couple assemble the 17x17x17 Cube

Want to buy one for yourself? It will cost you $1599.73
http://www.shapeways.com/model/64058/over-the-top-17x17x17-read-instructions.html

2 puzzle stories from this weekend

There are 643,817 people playing FOLT according to the Game Center. In terms of 'levels completed', I'm ranked 41.

The Endless Mode part of the game - only 4707 people paid $.99 for that. Saturday night I got a score of 594. Which puts me at 1. Sunday, Fridgeman1874 came close to defeating me, but he died at 590. This is why my parents sent me to college.


Something different. I ran into a puzzler friend at the juggling festival at Barnard College. Hadn't seen him in about a year. He told me that he had gotten cancer, lymphoma to be precise. He had 4 rounds of chemo therapy. And now he's completely cured. He looks very healthy.  Each round of chemo zonked him out for 2 weeks. Ready for this? He thanked me for recommending good puzzle apps to play during those 8 weeks. It's nice to know that my efforts are making the world a little better.

Oskar van Deventer's Gear Fold

I got my first Oskar puzzle back in 1988.  At my first IPP (International Puzzle Party) in 2000, he was the one I wanted to meet.  On the day of the puzzle party (buying and selling) there was a long line for another famous puzzle designer. I went straight to Oskar's table to buy almost everything he had.


Puzzle collectors specialize in their collection: sequential movement, wood, metal, entanglements etc. My collection: I once tried to specialize in Oskar puzzles.  That was before 3D printing came to be and he started cranking out 50 puzzles per year with an average cost of, I'm guessing, $150.


Gear Fold seems very similar to Rubik's Clock. I positively loved that puzzle for its ingenious mechanism. It wasn't too hard to figure out.  The principles from that can be applied to Gear Fold, which is $89.40.   If I win the lottery, I'll buy all of his puzzles.


http://www.shapeways.com/model/1619880/gear-fold.html?modelId=1619880&materialId=62

Folt: free puzzle game app for iphone, ipad

 
I found my cure from Threes! This past weekend I downloaded Folt from Daniel Lutz. He has an outstanding track record of producing terrific puzzle apps. But it's been a while since his last one.


Your task is to unfold your man from the square with the white circle on it and either stay alive or score points by creating groups of 3.  The game is similar to Stickets, one of my all-time favorites.


Last night I became the 2nd highest scorer in the 'Endless Mode'. When I woke up this morning, I was bumped down to number 5. My score is 436.  Daniel told me that his high score is only 300. The key in Endless Mode: patience!


Issues: everybody can see the next 3 tiles. If you pay some money, you get the right to see a 4th tile. But that does not apply to Endless Mode.


Folt definitely has a Candy Crush feel to it. You can't stop playing it. You are aggravated by the sequence of tiles. Yet you still keep playing. When you run out of lives, you must pay $.99 to keep playing, or wait a certain amount of time. Note: on Endless Play, you must pay $.99 to play, but you will never run out of lives.


Here's what I do: I play the levels until I run out of lives, then shift to Endless Mode. At the moment, I've completed 71 levels.


Miscellaneous: each time you play, the colors change. I really dislike the black/gray/orange group. Daniel told me that he's thinking of giving users the option to choose the colors.


I know there will be puzzle app fans who will hate this game. Folt is definitely one of the best puzzle apps of 2014. It's closer to Stickets than Candy Crush.

 



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/folt/id823039529?mt=8


http://www.nonverbal.ch/folt/

Escape From the Werewolf Village

This weekend I went to Webster hall with 5 puzzle friends to play Escape From the Werewolf Village.


You are locked in a room and must solve a bunch of puzzles of all types in 1 hour.  Clues were scattered throughout the room.


1. There is no way you could solve all the puzzles by yourself in the given time.
2. The clues around the room: interesting. But gimmicky. I've played some 'escape the room' puzzle apps where you have to go back and forth in the room. In this case, you copied down the clues only once and then solved everything at a table.
3. Types of puzzles: be prepared to solve word puzzles and just 1 mechanical packing puzzle.
4. Heavy emphasis on word puzzles.
5. Every 10 minutes, the room went dark and another villager was killed. Using deductive reasoning, you can figure out where the werewolves are.
6. This concept/event is gaining in popularity. The company has numerous other games going on in other cities. Here's what I noticed: 10 tables were full at 6 per table. The price was $25/person. Good business.
7. I noticed that other tables were just random people. So the event is a good way to meet like minded brainy people.

BoxOff: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  


Michael Gilbert has come up with a terrific puzzle app game called BoxOff. The object is to remove all the circles. See the first image - those are the rules. Essentially: connect a red circle to another circle to form a rectangle of any dimensions provided that there is no other circle - of any color - in that rectangle.
The second image is a sample puzzle of that.


See the third image? That version is called Stacks. The same rules apply except that the top circle will come off first.

There is a third version of this game! The objective is to remove all the circles under the rules, but now you must maximize the area of your rectangles.


Each version has 23 levels. I have not completed any of them. They get tough!
BoxOff easily makes its way onto the prestigious List of Best Puzzle Apps of 2014
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/boxoff/id872829375?mt=8


http://boxoffgame.com/

Book Review

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Film-Novel-Marisha-Pessl/dp/140006788X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401452139&sr=8-1&keywords=night+film

Believe it or not puzzle app players, I do find time to read books. A colleague recommended Night Film by Marisha Pessl.


I'm 100 pages into it. It's a good novel. What I discovered yesterday: there are images of birds scattered throughout. If you download the app, you can access some audio/visual elements.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/night-film-decoder/id616905445?ls=1&mt=8

 

WrapSlide: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  

When I first saw WrapSlide on the app store, I immediately came to the conclusion: looks like another 'slide the rows & columns to match the pattern puzzle app. We have seen at least a dozen versions of this. I did not download it.


I was wrong. About a week ago Alewyn Burger, the author, contacted me about his game. WrapSlide is different in a significant way. See the heavy black lines that divide the shape into 4 quadrants? You cannot slide a single row or column. Instead, you will slide them all together. Meaning: you can slide only 4 things: the southern hemisphere or the northern hemisphere or the eastern or western.


You have the controls to set the level of difficulty.  See the first image? Your task is to get the yellow squares into 1 quadrant. As your understanding of the puzzle increases, you can increase the level of difficulty by making the grid larger and have more colors.


I started with the easiest level to get the feel for the game - it's more challenging than I thought. Then I jumped to 4 colors with the smallest grid. Getting the first color is relatively easy. The second color wasn't too bad. But I was not able to get the third & fourth which of course must be solved simultaneously.


WrapSlide is a serious FREE puzzle app game. Definitely, give it a shot.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wrapslide/id795712935?mt=8


On another note: this blog finally has 150 followers. It's taken 4 years to get that far. Because there are about 500 visits/day, I'm guessing that some people are not signing up as followers because they don't want junk email. Just so you know: you will never get any email from this blog. Unless you write to me.