Grayout -Simple Linux freeware game

[Jonax]

That algorithm is not very efficient but at least it solves the pattern. I may have messed up the loop somewhere but the idea was to turn the maximum numbers of sqares each time.


I'll upload a second algorithm to discord. It's supposed to maximize distance instead of area and tends to perform better for most patterns. Eventually there may be some combination of the two approaches.


This is all work in progress now and the program is currently an aestethic mess. I'm afraid it won't be finished this week either. I'm still working on it.

[SilverWarior]

I may have messed up the loop somewhere but the idea was to turn the maximum numbers of sqares each time.

If the idea is to turn the maximum numbers of squares each time then you have a bug somewhere. While it seems to work like this in the start it fails to do so toward the end of provided animation.

[Jonax]

If the idea is to turn the maximum numbers of squares each time then you have a bug somewhere. While it seems to work like this in the start it fails to do so toward the end of provided animation.

Yeah, I may have a bug somewhere, happens a lot for me unfortunately. There are two provided animations. The first I may have messed up is supposed to be max turned squares per move. The second animation is supposed to make maxium advance towards other side per move, that later algo tends to solve the patterns faster. But no doubt not as fast as the unknown optimum solution. Unfortunately I'm kind of stuck now. Got to have some coffee and try again later.

Happy Weekend!

[Jonax]

Hi guys!

After some polishing the updated Grayout program is completed. Now always solvable becuase the available number of steps are given by a new non optimized algorithm. In most cases you can probably beat that algorithm. I hope this will be the final version but one never knows what new issues may come up.

The Linux (Debian) version can be downloaded from:

https://www.jonax.se/downloads.php

And below is the animated gif. Thanks to SilverWarior for help.

[SilverWarior]

I hope this will be the final version but one never knows what new issues may come up.

Why hoping this is the final version? There are still few possibilities for improvement:

1. You could increase the number of colors and thus increase complexity of the puzzle
2. You could introduce addition gravity mode where player clicks on any block which clears that block and any adjunct block of the same color and all of the blocks of the cleared area then falls down.
3. You could introduce logging of player steps so he could undo some of its steps and then chose a different path.
4. You could introduce some sort of a main menu through which player would issue commands for new game and which game type he wants.
5. Heck I might even have an idea for even better algorithm for solving the game. Well it is more like modified puzzle generation code that would generate puzzle by adding certain number of colored blocks each step until the puzzle is field. Basically the reverse order of what player will be doing. This would allow you to get the number of steps needed for solving the puzzle during its creation.

There are probably even more possible improvements that don't come to my mind right now.

[Jonax]

Thanks again for input. So ttill room for improvements and some bling could be nice too. But now busy mode over here. I hope to get time to look at it again. I'm afraid as usual all suggestios will not be adressed. But possibly some. The algo could be optimized, no doubt. On the other hand the player might want to play leisure mood and not think too much so a non optimized algo can cut the player some slack.

[SilverWarior]

The algo could be optimized, no doubt. On the other hand the player might want to play leisure mood and not think too much so a non optimized algo can cut the player some slack.

You could always add a hard difficulty and use most optimized algorithm there and use current algorithm for easy mode.