Article

https://www.dailysabah.com/life/2017/03/10/how-one-turkish-man-discovered-his-lifes-calling-in-puzzle-making

ZeGame by Jesper van den Ende $2.99

ZeGame comes from Jesper van den Ende.  It's a 3-D maze puzzle app game.

The object is to get the green cube to the target, which is the light blue cube.

When you slide the green cube - in any direction - it must hit an obstacle. Same concept as Lunar Lockout, except the green cube is the only one that can travel.

The purple cubes are wormholes.  They require a lot of trial and error in order to determine which are the matching pairs.

Very cool: at any time, you can zoom in/out and rotate the perspective.

There are 140 levels. I've done 57.

After playing the Free version, I decided to buy the full one.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zegame/id991958457?mt=8

Laser Glow by Kenneth Isaacson Free

  

Kenneth Isaacson is the author of Laser Glow. It's a laser puzzle that uses only a 4x4 grid.

What's interesting:
1. Some of the levels are tricky.  I tweeted that level 19 was impossible. Actually, it was just fine.
2. The yellow squares are fixed and no mirrors can be placed on them.
3. The white dots on the grid: the beam must pass through it.
4. The black dots are on some of the mirrors and those mirrors must be used.

The menu indicates there are 49 levels. But there are 47 and I solved them all.

Laser Glow is fast and fun.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/laser-glow/id1212149668?mt=8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PoPh2B9qo  Funny video

Other Laser Puzzles (Not a complete list!)
Laser Maze 2015
MatrixLines
HackBeam
Shoot & Reflect 3x3
LaserBox
Photon Lab
Amid Worlds
RouteOut - not a laser game, but uses mirrors
RouteOut 2
Neon Connect
Mirrors & Reflections
Guide the Light
Lasers Free
Laser Logic
Lazors
ReflecTs DS

Friday's math problem

I mis-stated Friday's math puzzle.  Find 2 consecutive numbers such that, when you add the digits of the first number, the sum is divisible by 7 and the sum of the digits of the second number is also divisible by 7. Sorry about that!



https://qz.com/935952/it-took-the-inventor-of-the-rubiks-cube-a-month-to-solve-his-own-puzzle/

New article about Erno Rubik.

http://www.puzzlesolver.com/puzzle.php?id=29;page=15  Very old article about Rubik.

Fun Math puzzle

Find 2 consecutive integers such that, the sum of the digits of the first number is divisible by 7.  And so is the second number.

Pinball Star by Adam Rogan Free

  

Pinball Star comes from Adam Rogan. The object is to hit the white dot (see 2nd image). The black dots are bumpers.

I played the first mode: solving 49 levels.  The second mode: shooting hoops is harder. I have not played the Endless mode.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinball-star/id1211198338?mt=8

Other Pinball Apps
Pinball Sniper
Pinout!

Smart Cookies from Foxmind $24.95

About 10 years ago I reviewed Fox Mind's Meta-Forms puzzle for Games Magazine. There is a similar game from ThinkFun known as Chocolate Fix. They are both logic games where the object is to place the colored shapes onto a 3x3 board with some clues thrown in.

Smart Cookies is the sequel to Meta-Forms.  The objectives are the same. However, the clues have become more sophisticated.

There are 64 levels.  I cruised through the first 32 in about 1 hour.  The next 18 were troublesome.  At times I thought: something's wrong or I need more clues.

The last 14 levels were even more difficult. Seems like 6 clues is just not enough! I was placing coins on the clues that I thought I was done with. Unfortunately, I had to start from scratch. But I persevered with every last one. Except for #64. I'm still working on that.

The very last level has many clues....but they're all about the color blue. Having completed 1-63, I was suddenly overwhelmed on 64.

Did I mention that the playing pieces are thick and bring on a certain food craving? They feel more like rubber than plastic.

Michel & Robert Lyons created the original Meta-Forms. Polina Sabinin Ed.D. has taken Smart Cookies to a more sophisticated level. Great job Polina!


http://foxmind.com/games/1496-smart-cookies
http://foxmind.com/games/1257-meta-forms

Cubicks Free by Marcelo Pars Free

  

Cubicks Free comes from Marcelo Pars. The object is get tap on the gray cubes and create a Latin Square on each fact.  That is: each row and column must have 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green and 1 blue.

There are 1000 levels split into Easy, Medium, Hard and Evil.

The graphics are outstanding. There are little cracks between each square and if you maneuver the cube just right, you'll see the colors on the opposite fact.

The Easy levels aren't so easy.  Took me a few tries to get the hang of them.

Things to change.
1. Instead of 1000 levels, there should be 100.  At the most: 200.
2. Instead of the program randomly choosing a level, the user should see a map of which puzzles have already been done and choose accordingly.

Those are minor complaints.  Cubicks Free is great.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cubicks-free/id1212435415?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marcelopars.cubicks

Akari 3D is not the same as Cubicks Free. But it also has an outstanding cube interface.

Interview with a Toy Designer

This guy has a fun job!

https://www.fatbraintoys.com/play/2017/3/3/delving_into_the_details_of_toy_design.cfm

Trail Puzzle Game By Ionut Panescu

Trail Puzzle Game By Ionut Panescu. His description:
Create your own trails through the maze, over walls and around obstacles. Sometimes you need to be patient, sometimes you have to be fast! Oh, and stay out of the turrets' way ! 
"Trail was inspired by simplicity. Minimal design, basic mechanisms combined with ingenuity. We wanted a creative game experience, that can be challenging but at the same time offer limitless solutions at any level".

Tom's thoughts: the objective is to trace a path through all of the blue lines just once.  On some levels, when you get 'stuck', you can 'swap heads', with your tail.

It's a bit similar to the Impossible Puzzle Game,  It's all graph theory. As long as you know it, these puzzles go pretty fast.

I did 31 of the 108 levels.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trail-puzzle-game/id1088234684?mt=8

9 Moves: Ball game - Move balls in 60 seconds by Tuplebits LLC Free

  

The object in 9 Moves: Ball game - Move balls in 60 seconds is to shoot the colored balls, one at a time to the right, while avoiding the missiles from the red triangles.

  

There are 20 levels and I've solved 10 or 11.  It's fun.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1191372210

Similar Game

Moonball Infinity

Puppo! by Shumpei Hayashi Free

  

Puppo! comes from Shumpei Hayashi. I'm a big fan of his other game Levels - Addictive Puzzle Game.

The object of Puppo! is to score points by placing three yellow 1's in a row. It will turn into a single yellow 2.  At first I thought: oh, this is like Merged! and a slew of other games.  Yes and no.

The big difference is that when you get that single yellow 2, it comes off the board and you can place it anywhere you like.  Another difference - the numbers with stars on them that act as wild cards.

This is a very interesting point-scoring puzzle app game. My high score is 18,000 which places me in the top 50 out of 2000 players.

They key to scoring high in this game is to get combos as seen in the second image.  Also, it's possible to buy 'stars' which will turn some of your regular tiles into wild cards. Of course, that could explain how somebody got a score of 55,000.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puppo/id1178446982?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.flow.puppo

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

Buckets

Linia by Yari D'areglia Temporarily Free

  

Linia comes Yari D'areglia. It came out last year and is temporarily free. Act soon.

  

The objective is to draw a straight line  so that when the line crosses through the figures, the sequence of colors matches the one at the top of the screen.

Look at the second image.  See the squares? Each square is spinning, so your timing is as important as your aim.

Look at the last image. The circles stay in place, but the grow and shrink.

There are 80 levels, of which I've done about 20. It's a fun game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/linia/id1132539563?mt=8

Connect The Cubes by Perfect Tap Games Free

  

Connect The Cubes came out a few weeks ago and is one of those 'Your Man must pass over every cell' games. We've played and solved thousands of these.

  

What's interesting:
1. Some boards have triangular and hexagonal cells.
2. According to the Leaderboard, there are over 25,000 players.
3. This game is far too easy.  The 'Very Hard' levels are still very easy, they just have larger grids.

You're better off playing one of the games listed below.  On the other hand, if you want something fast and easy, you can do these 200 levels in about 1 hour.  Novice puzzlers would also like this.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connect-the-cubes/id1200285352?mt=8

Try these other Topology puzzle apps. 
Lines Numeric Fun
Space Dots
Just Routes
Dedale
SEQ
Square Time
Numeric Paranoia- Fantastic
Number Painting - Love this
Filling
Water Colors
Stroke!  - Genius
Pathle
Colors the Addictive Game
Chemin - Terrific
Patchmania Great
Number Escape
Flow Draw A Line
YK Puzzle
Link Mind Bending Puzzle - loved this
Tomb of the Brain
Flud  - hard!
Roofbot - well polished and challenging

Tomb Light by DAEJIN JEONG Free

  

Tomb Light looks a lot like the game Lazors from 4 years ago.  That was great.  The object is to move the squares around so that the light will hit the circles.

This is a good game. No idea how many levels there are. At the moment, I'm stuck at 40.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tomb-light/id1195421435?mt=8

Hexazen by Fabrizio Filieri

  

Hexazen comes from  Fabrizio Filieri. It's an edge-matching puzzle. The object is to rotate each piece so that the dots line up with those of their neighbors and light up.

There is an endless number of levels to solve. I thought I would stop after 5 - 10 levels.  I think I've done 15.

This is one of those rare puzzles where I like that there is a timer. I've solved a few in under a minute.  The longest took me over 4 minutes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hexazen/id1207649399?mt=8

Perfect Fit by Appsolute Games LLC Free

  

Perfect Fit came out last year and is a very popular game that tests your spatial reasoning skills.

  

The object is to fill the center square with the elements from above, below, left & right.  The pieces will travel until they hit an obstacle, which means that the sequence of those 4 taps is critical.

Oh yes, there's a time limit.  At the moment, my high score is 40 levels.  I haven't gotten to the 4x4 levels. I should do better.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perfect-fit/id1103631263?mt=8

Roofbot: Puzzler On The Roof by Double Coconut LLC $2.99

Roofbot: Puzzler On The Roof is a very highly polished puzzle app game.

The object is to move the robot along the grid to pick up objects and drop them off at their targets, then arrive at the green square. Each square can be traversed just once.  Except for some, which can be traversed twice.

Of course there are wormholes.
Some squares cannot be landed on; instead, they propel Your Bot to the next square

There's a lot to like about Roofbot. The graphics are terrific; if your Bot stays put for a while, he'll juggle or play the guitar.

Most importantly, the levels get pretty tough.  There are 120 levels and I've done 51.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roofbot-puzzler-on-the-roof/id1148435076?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.doublecoconut.roofbot

Try these other Topology puzzle apps. 
Lines Numeric Fun
Space Dots
Just Routes
Dedale
SEQ
Square Time
Numeric Paranoia- Fantastic
Number Painting - Love this
Filling
Water Colors
Stroke!  - Genius
Pathle
Colors the Addictive Game
Chemin - Terrific
Patchmania 
Number Escape
Flow Draw A Line
YK Puzzle
Link Mind Bending Puzzle - loved this
Tomb of the Brain
Flud  - hard!

-Pila- by Chris Foreman

-Pila- comes from Chris Foreman.  It's a mobile maze puzzle app with some interesting features.

At no point does the game offer a tutorial or hints or even a simple explanation of the different tools to manipulate. Perfectly fine. Though I would like to know how many levels there are.

I like the sci-fi grpahics.  The puzzles themselves start off pretty simply. The curves - some of them rotate.  The most interesting component is the use of bumpers.

-Pila- is the actual name of the game.  There's another called Pila, which is totally different.

I'm around level 35.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pila/id1193454912?mt=8
https://pilaapp.wordpress.com/

Moonball Infinity by Matt Panzer Free

  

Matthew Panzer recently contacted me about his puzzle app game Moonball Infinity. Matt was only 15 when I reviewed his game Tertiary back in 2013.

  

The object of Moonball Infinity is to shoot your ball up, watch it come back down, and hopefully hit all 3 rectangular targets as they pass horizontally. The ball can hit the targets on either direction: up or down.

At the start each player has 5 lives.  My high score is 22.  On the Leaderboard, there are only 18 players.

Moonball Infinity is quite a simple game. I've played it way too many times. Which means it's fun.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moonball-infinity/id1193784449?mt=8