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

New York Puzzle Party 2017

Puzzlers, sorry about not posting anything Monday or Tuesday.  Toy Fair at the Javits Center was exhausting. This past Saturday was the annual New York Puzzle Party.  There were 7 presentations. Of those, 4 were added to the schedule in the last few days.

Henry Segerman was added to the agenda on Saturday.  He's a mathematician at the University of Oklahoma. He presented his Quintessence Puzzle. I had seen this on Shapeways before.  He let me play with his copy.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/Y8V2E6NL9/quintessence-pulsar?optionId=41054600

Circle Pong! by App Cow Free!

Circle Pong! is a dexterity puzzle app game. The object is to move the paddle to keep the black dot inside the circle.

Are you old enough to remember the original Pong? I used to play it at the local bowling alley. It was just as fun as the bowling.

Cirlce Pong! is okay.  Though I'd like to see the black ball move slower, at least at the beginning.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/circle-pong/id905229109?mt=8

75 Years of Crosswords at the NY Times

Unquestionably, crosswords are the most popular of all puzzles in the US and the world. The NY Times crossword puzzle gets gradually harder through the week. Monday's the easiest, Friday & Saturday are the hardest.  Sunday has the biggest crossword.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/crosswords/crossword-solving-search-for-connection-answers-psychology-emotions.html

Symmetria: Path to Perfection by Platonic Games Free!

  

Symmetria: Path to Perfection is game to test your reflexes.

  

The object is to tap on the squares on the mirrored side to match the original image.

What's particularly good:
1. Sometimes the image is on the right, or left or up or down.
2. Multiple colors
3. The skulls - don't count them as part of the original image.
4. Countdown markers: every 5 or 10 seconds, the program will add fake squares to your image.

There's a lot to like about Symmetria: Path to Perfection.  We should all be playing games like this to ward off Alzheimer's.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/symmetria-path-to-perfection/id1173591563?mt=8

ROOM Δ -Room Escape Game- by Mani Morishita

ROOM Δ -Room Escape Game- by Mani Morishita has received so many positive reviews on the App Store.

Just a few days ago I reviewed another escape game from Mani: Sphinx.

I solved 95% of this game on my own.  The other 5% I consulted a youtube walkthrough. A problem with that: even watching it, I still didn't grasp the solution to the clock.

A major problem I have with Room Escapes is the absence of a plot. I just can't do these on a regular basis.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/room-d-room-escape-game/id991258188?mt=8

Sphinx -Room Escape Game- by Mani Morishita Free

Sphinx -Room Escape Game- comes from Mani Morishita.

It's like a lot of other room escape puzzles: pick things up, use them elsewhere and of course, solve strange puzzles.

This particular game got a lot of press.  Enough press that there are at least 2 walk-through videos on youtube.  Which I confess to watching. No guilt! Okay, I feel a little guilty.

The graphics are quite good.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sphinx-room-escape-game/id897099238?mt=8

Panic Cube by Fishbowl Interactive Free

  

Panic Cube has a stellar icon.   See 2nd image.  The colors are crisp, modern and enticing. The only piece missing is that the icon doesn't readily help explain the objective of the game.

The game is similar to the classic music game Simon. The program will quickly flash arrows in random directions.  Your task is to repeat them.

I like the idea.  But the arrows flash by just too quickly.  There should be a gradual increase in speed.

Note to all Indie App Developers: your icon must be fantastic!

http://www.fishbowlinteractive.com.au/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/panic-cube/id1168294196?ls=1&mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fishbowl.paniccube