New York Puzzle Party

The annual New York Puzzle Party will be Saturday February 18, 2017.

If you are interested in attending, please send me an email & I'll send more information.

Tiltspace by Logicnap Oy Free

  

Timo Jokitalo and Vesa Timonen are puzzle from Finland. I've known them over 10 years via the International Puzzle Party.  I am still going to be objective about their new game Tiltspace.

   

Tiltspace is a tilt maze puzzle app game. We've seen a bunch of these over the years (see links below). Balls travel all the way, until they hit a wall. The object is to get the colored balls to their respective holes.

Features include:
1. Gray balls. If they fall in the holes - you lose.
2. Worm holes. Some have as many as 3 wormholes at once.
3. Fences that can be unlocked if another ball lands at another key square. I've never seen this in a tilt maze game before.
4. Getting 3 stars for a level - use the minimum number of moves in the shortest time.

There are 100 levels and they get pretty hard. At the moment, I've done about 55 levels and am stuck because I didn't get 3 stars in all my levels. What I don't know is whether my solutions were done without using minimal moves or without minimal time.

Graphics are cool.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiltspace/id1045464131?mt=8
http://tiltspacegame.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.logicnap.tiltspace_game&referrer=utm_source%3Dtiltspacegame%26utm_campaign%3Dbb

Other Tilt Maze Puzzle Apps
Monster Swipe
Exodus Free
Zuki's Quest
Squarescape - very polished
Woodhead - love the humor
Block Obox
Tip & Tumble
Clickmazes - not an app. Online puzzles.

Zenge by Michal Pawlowski Free

Zenge comes from Michal Pawlowski who came out with a very cool fun game last year called Blue Box X. (See link below.)

Zenge is a very charming little puzzle. The object is to slide the pieces - along the lines-  into the target area.

The pieces must go in a certain order to avoid collisions.  Some pieces must be flipped, rotated, shrunk, expanded and sent through portals.  The reward for each puzzle: a charming vision of another peaceful world.

There are 70 levels and I've completed about 60.  This is a good game, but not as good as Michal's other one.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zenge/id1068416637?mt=8

Blue Box X

Buckets: A Puzzle Journey by Jeffrey Quach Free!

  

Buckets: A Puzzle Journey by Jeffrey Quach is yet another in a series of very good point-scoring-puzzle apps.
The object is to slide the tiles row by row or column by column to line up the tiles to go into the buckets. After every move, a new tile is placed randomly. However, if you score points, no new tile is added.
There's no rush. Patience is critical. A single game could last a very long time.  My high score is 851, but it didn't make it onto the Leaderboard. But that's okay. I really like the graphics.

Definitely download this and get on the Leaderboard. There's a definite addictive feel to it.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buckets-a-puzzle-journey/id1180455700?ls=1&mt=8
http://beanpolelabs.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AHqTGh4vaA

Other Point Scoring Games Worthy of Your Time
NumberMania
Four Straight Lines
Pushopolous
Stickets
Folt
Nineout
Nineout II
BeeCells Lite
Kindly Colors
HexAgony
Domino Drop
Put Number
Tripevo
Triple Town 
Kindly  Colors
COLORswipe
SubaraCity
Virus Pop Smash
+1 Number
4 Way Puzzle
Merged!
Enso

Politaire

Treple

numDance

Black Boxes

o:anquan
Levels

Miscellaneous

Micron was missing in action from the App Store, but now it's back.  The hard levels are excellent. I posted a review in 2012.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apparitiongames.micron&hl=en
http://microngame.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/micron/id532916819

The making of Snakebird

The Never Ending Jigsaw Puzzle

Twin Beams will soon be delisted on the App Store. I played this game a lot back in 2012.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/twin-beams/id534199524?mt=8

Tower Locked by Miroslaw Zielinski Free

  

Tower Locked comes from Miroslaw Zielinski.  It's a math puzzle. The objective: delete some of the red circles so that numbers left in each row add up to the number matched on the sides.  Same with the columns.

I have no idea how many levels there are. But the grids go from 4x4 to at least 8x8. That's at level 8, which I did not solve.

The small grids are too easy. The perfect grids are 6x6 and 7x7.  But there's no way to select just those.
https://itunes.apple.com/kr/app/tower-locked/id1173339247?mt=8

The Lost City by Fire Maple Games $1.99

Are you a fan of Myst?  There's been a slew of similar games in recent years published on the App Store.  The Lost City is yet another one.  It's fine.

The most interesting feature in The Lost City, is that there are 4 seasons that must be activated. Which means that if you want to open the treasure chest, it will have to be done in the correct season.

Fortunately, like Blackthorn Castle (link below) there's a map that will speed up your travels if you forget where the cave is. Hints are available too.

Where the game loses its appeal is that there's no plot.  After solving 1 puzzle, something slid open and revealed.....a hammer.  Of course the hammer is needed to smash open something else.  But seriously, I would have used a big rock.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-lost-city/id414835676?mt=8

Similar Games
Blackthorn Castle
Spooky Manor
Mystery Lighthouse short and fun. Play this game first.
Mystery Lighthouse 2
Dreams of Spirit: Fire Gate
Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings

2016 PAGY Awards

Breakout Originals 

ColorTrek

Sequence Nine

Twisted Lines

Tilt: Quill's Quandry

   

Must-solve-all-the-levels

SpreadSet

CastleMouse   
About Love, Hate and the Other Ones                                    
Tile Chain

Zink                                                            
7 Park puzzle

Grow - Expand & Conquer                
Cumulator

Ribbons - Puzzle Game                              
SquareDance

Puzzlepops!                                                 
Ichi-Ni 

Unmind Match Puzzle Game                      
Unmatch

Dot Square                                                  
Colored Path

Huebrix                                                       
Color Kakuro

Blicke                                                         
Conde Deluxe 

Link Mind Bending Puzzler                       
Blocky XMAS

Queue Ball

Weird and Wonderful

Negentropy

SPL-T

Trees of Life

Art of Perception: Ravioli

Eklips

Kerflux

Hocus

Voi

"klocki"

Snakebird

Point Scoring                     

o:anquan                                           

Black Boxes                          

Merged!                                            

Lines 123                                          

Number Push

The Power of Two                                      

Zig Zag Number

Levels Addictive Puzzle Game

Treple

Sokoban Element 

Color Labyrinth
Duck Roll

Physics/Chess                             

Brain Puzzle Game 2525                            

March: Simple Chess                                                     

Dexterity Skills

Jhulo

MirriM

99 Clocks

Next Numbers 

Pinout!

Waiit

Room Escapes/Adventure

Cube Escape: Harvey's Room

Cube Escape: The Mill 

Cube Escape: Case 23

Cube Escape: Birthday

Blackthorn Castle

2015 PAGY Winners

2014 PAGY Winners

2013 PAGY Winners

2012 PAGY Winners

2011 PAGY Winners

2016 PAGY Nominations

Puzzlers:

below is the list of nominees for the Puzzle App Games of the Year awards, known around the world as the famous PAGY Awards.  This year's nominees are all good puzzle games as deemed by an illustrious, diligent team of puzzle solvers.

On their behalf, I must admit one thing: it's very possible that there were other worthy puzzles that are not on this list.  Every week there are approximately 225 new games published on the App Store with a classification of 'puzzle'. It's impossible to scrutinize them all. But we did our best.

If you know of a great puzzle app: let us know in the comments section below.

Tomorrow, I will post the PAGY winners.

7 Park puzzle  
CastleMouse     

Grow - Expand & Conquer    

Outfolded  
Tilt: Quill's Quandry
o:anquan

Huebrix  
Beam Puzzle Game
Sequence Nine       
Color Kakuro

Kakurasu
Ladybug Pathfinder

Zero+
Blicke
Twisted Lines
Level: A simple puzzle game

Burokku

Tile Chain
Waiit

Swatches
TIKADAK
Push the Squares
Warship Solitaire
Treple
Nulla
Blocky XMAS
Roll the labyrinth ball
Rookfall
SpreadSet
Crystalux
Hex22
The Lift
Slide Tetromino
Queue Ball
Light Up the Grid
Six Logic Use Your Brain
Thermometers Puzzles
Cube Escape: Harvey's Room
Escape Puzzle
About Love, Hate and the Other Ones
Sudoku Maze
Polarity Puzzle
Loop 101
Brain Puzzle Game 2525
Side by Side (Game)
Merged!
Jhulo
"L"
4 Way Puzzle
Cube Escape: The Mill
Black Boxes
Zink
Winter Color Spin
Super Sharp
Merge Number Free
N16
Slod
Seky
Open Bar - Keep 'em coming
Fermat
Tiles Relaxing Puzzle Game
Negentropy
March: Simple Chess
Lines 123
Hex Merged
RYB
PutNumber2
Nokori
Shapu
Coloruid
Tilemetry
Kyoob
Quantum Moves
Clever Frog
Block Obox
SPL-T
Cadmia
Tower Maze
Slide 123
Nevergrid
Trees of Life
Men's Room Mayhem
Smoosh!
Cube Escape: Case 23
Beyond 14
Binary Stack
Number Push
Chisla
Ribbons - Puzzle Game
Move - A Brain Shifting Game
MirriM
FlipFold
Duck Roll
99 Clocks
Art of Perception: Ravioli
Next Numbers
Color Fill Line Drawing Puzzle
Link Mind Bending Puzzler
Sevens Up
Cumulator
Tomb of the Brain
Mystery Lighthouse 2
Pinout!
Color Labyrinth
xorbs
Blackthorn Castle
Flud
kubic
Colored Path
SquareDance
Shifty Bits
Linum Free Puzzle Game
The Power of Two
Color Shift Puzzle
Circles Galaxy
Eklips
Puzzlepops!
ColorTrek
Enso Brilliant Puzzle Game
The Fourth Dimension
Zig Zag Number
Unmatch
Color Dotz
Hocus Valley
Three Buttons
Move on Green
Ichi-Ni
Unmind Match Puzzle Game
Chain Linker
Side by Side
Uprise
Motif Mask
What's Inside the Box?
Puzzle 
4 Colors
Levels Addictive Puzzle Game
Strand
Dot Square
Squares: A Game about Matching Squares
Teeter Slope
Kerflux
Cube Escape: Birthday
Hocus
Voi
Arrow Domino
Imago Transformative Puzzle
"klocki"
Markoshiki
Who Can Get Z
Politaire
Cogismo
Crazy Container
Snakebird
Tchisla
Pop 8
Oggoelement
Rubek
Edges -A Puzzle Challenge
numDance
Snakes - Move Snakes, Fill Board
Conde Deluxe

Reading List 2016

Puzzlers, below is my reading list for the past year.  The ones in bold/green are the best. Ravished Armenia by Aurora Mardiganian

Unbroken: A WW II Story of Survival, Resilience & Redemptoin by Laura Hillenbrand

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

The Red Scream by Mary Willis Walker

Hunted Past Reason by Richard Matheson

Firebreak by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)

The Black Sun by Jack Williamson

The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale

Empire of Deception by Dean Jobb

Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich

The Road to Ruin by Donald Westlake

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

The Bookmaker by Michael Agovino

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

Revival by Stephen King

The Invitation-Only Zone: True Story of N Korea's Abduction Project by Robert Boynton

Disclaimer by Renee Knight

Superthief: A Master Burglar, the Mafia and the Biggest Bank Heist in US History by Rick Porrello

The Whore's Child by Richard Russon

Joyland by Stephen King

Why I Left Goldman Sachs by Greg Smith

The Boys on the Boat By Daniel James Brown

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh

Bookless in Baghdad by Shashi Tharoor

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King

PT 109 by William Doyle

The Mosque of Notre Dame by Elena Chudinova

High Stakes by Dick Francis

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowatt

o:anquan by Pine Entertainment Free

  

o:anquan is a point scoring puzzle app game.  It's has a very unique concept. Not easy to explain. According to the author: 'The idea of ​​o: anquan is inspired by the control of a traditional Vietnamese children's board game (Spread the number to score). '  Ell Tee is the author who also did numDance, see link below.

  

You score points by getting 2 or more identical numbers. Suppose you have a 6. You can spread it out into all 1's or maybe a single 4 and two 1's.

After every move, 3 new numbers are added.  Also, higher points are awarded for large clusters and for higher numbers.

This is a very serious point scoring game.  Patience is required. The top scorer has 306,420,695 which is beyond phenomenal.

My high score is 13,756 which places me at 273 out of 52,927 players.

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/o-anquan/id1146370693?mt=8

Other Point Scoring Games Worthy of Your Time
NumberMania
Four Straight Lines
Pushopolous
Stickets
Folt
Nineout
Nineout II
BeeCells Lite
Kindly Colors
HexAgony
Domino Drop
Put Number
Tripevo
Triple Town     
Kindly  Colors
COLORswipe
SubaraCity
Virus Pop Smash
+1 Number
4 Way Puzzle
Merged!
Enso

Politaire

Treple

numDance

Black Boxes

numDance by Pine Entertainment Free

  

Ell Tee is the creator of numDance, which is a point scoring puzzle app game. It's tough to explain.

  

1.  Only 1's or 2's can be tapped.
2.  They can be tapped if and only if there are 2 identical numbers adjacent to it.
3.  Two 2's will merge to form a single 3 in the space between them.

The first tap will automatically lead to a massive chain reaction.
Coming up with a strategy is tougher than I thought.
My high score is 1164 and my highest tile is 8.
numDance definitely has an addictive element because you can play one game in about 5 minutes.
If you manage to get a 9 tile, take a screen shot and post it in the comments section.
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/numdance/id1134557051?mt=8

Conde Deluxe by Evil Indie Games $.99

  

Conde Deluxe is a pipe connecting puzzle app game.  The object is to use the pipes to get the electricity to each of the nodes.

  

Pieces can be rotated, but not flipped.
There are 42 levels and I've solved 23.  This is a good game!  Thanks to Loyal Blog Follower Joel for pointing this out.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/conde-deluxe/id815115848?mt=8

Snakes - Move Snakes, Fill Board

  

Wan William recently contacted me about his company's new puzzle app game Snakes - Move Snakes, Fill Board. The object is to fill the board with snakes of different sizes.  The first 40 levels are very easy.  5 minutes was all I needed, and that includes watching a couple of ads.

  

There are 400 levels split into 10 worlds.  Worlds 9 & 10 are where things get interesting.  Why? Because that's where the snakes can overlap. That's where the game, to me, is more of a Ribbon Puzzle.

Yes, I did solve all 400 levels. Some of them are hard, but not nearly as hard as some of the other Ribbon Puzzles listed below.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1165326929

Other Ribbon Puzzles
Ribbons Puzzle Game
The Weaver
Ribbon Puzzle
TAPES - similar to Colorbind. Excellent
Woven - easy
Colorbind - the first of its kind. Genius
Twisted Lines - very hard
Spreadset Easy til you get to level 7 or 8

Blocky XMAS by Bart Buie Free!

  

Bart Buie recently contacted me about his newest puzzle app: Blocky XMAS. It combines the famous sokoban element with a sticky ingredient.  The objective is to transfer the green square and rectangles to the destination to make a perfectly shaped Christmas tree.

  

You control the green square with the star. It will stick to the other green bars.  You will have to pry it off multiple times for each level.

There are 40 levels. Perfect number.  What's the best thing about Blocky XMAS: the puzzles are designed
extremely well.

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blocky-xmas/id1182378091?mt=8

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.bartbonte.blockyxmas

http://www.bontegames.com/2016/12/blocky-xmas-browser-version-browser.html

Other Bart Puzzles:

What's Inside the Box?

Factory Balls

Other Very Good Puzzles that have a sticky element (not quite the same though):

Denki Blocks I believe this was the original puzzle app that introduced this concept.

Tile'M All This version is crazy hard.

Jelly Slide

Blockoban - a must have

Impossibru's Blockoban

Move on Green

Waiit by GalacticThumb Free

  

Waiit is a point scoring puzzle app. The game is a tilt maze: swipe in any direction and the two pieces will travel until they hit a wall.  Your Goal is to get the men to traverse through their respective gates.  Again and again, as fast as possible.  The grid at the bottom of the screen is constantly disappearing. If Your Men are on it: game over.

Waiit is immensely popular.  Probably because the iTunes store highlighted it. I think this is a good game.  It's brings out the frantic in you.  Especially when you've got the Red Man past his gate and you're trying to get Green past his gate and then you realize, Red has returned.

http://galacticthumb.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/app/waiit/id1169530248

The PAGY Award are fast approaching.  If you want to nominate some puzzle apps, contact me: (my last name)@hotmail.com  The final awards will be announced December 31.

Push The Squares - Puzzle Game by Pixel Points

  

Push The Squares - Puzzle Game is another version of Game About Squares from 2 years ago.

The object is to push the colored tiles in the direction of the arrow that's on them and get to the colored stars.  Lots and lots of wormholes.

  

97 levels for the free version.  I've done about 25 levels.  Good puzzles, good graphics, good price.  But there are so many other versions of this.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/push-the-squares-puzzle-game/id1169123420?mt=8

The PAGY Award are fast approaching.  If you want to nominate some puzzle apps, contact me: (my last name)@hotmail.com  The final awards will be announced December 31.

PAGY Awards are coming

1.  https://vimeo.com/127338218 - math video; it's long.

2.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oohKXK0FvJE&list=TLGGkaCyZ3-KLJwwNTEyMjAxNg -tangram type puzzles

3.  http://geekologie.com/2016/12/japanese-mans-insane-coin-stacking-skill.php

4.  The PAGY Awards are fast approaching. If you have already volunteered to be a part of this committee: please send me a list of the puzzles that should be nominated.  Make a separate list for which puzzles should get an award.  Email me: (mylastname)@hotmail.com   

If you have not previously stated that you want to be on this committee, but now want to join it, send me an email.

Rookfall by By Michael Bunger Free

 

Rookfall is one of those games where the objective is to fill the entire grid by swiping a rook as far as it will travel.

You first must choose the starting point.  The red lines are walls that cannot be traversed.

I tackled about 20 of the 5x5 grids.  There are about 100 levels in the 5x5 size. I didn't play any of the 6x6 or 7x7 because those cost money.  And besides, I've done thousands of these over the years via other apps.

I like the graphics.  The rook travels fast.

http://www.rookfall.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rookfall-free/id1184528452?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ButterGames.RookfallFree

Similar Games
Mortal Coil - in the Puzzle App Hall of Fame
Stroke! - largely overlooked,  adds a color matching scheme that makes it devilishly hard.
Full House Touch
Full Monster Puzzle 
Berry Puzzle 
Eat A Way
Filling 
Block Path
Snake Walk
Mr. Square

Queue Ball - Free Minimalist Puzzle Challenge by Digitype Agency Free

  

Queue Ball - Free Minimalist Puzzle Challenge is the name of game. Do you remember Sequence Nine from a few months ago?  The two games are extremely similar, just different graphics.

  

The object is to get the ball - Your Man - to pick up the stars.  Look at the last image.  See the 4 empty squares on top? Those are the 4 steps for that problem and they will repeat over and over until the objective is met, or Your Man falls off the grid. You must choose which direction each step should be. The third image shows an example of the steps.

  

I don't know how many levels there are, but I'm stuck on level 25 or 26.  Good game.

Website: http://queueball.info
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/queue-ball-free-minimalist/id1144444409?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digitype.sequence