Puzzles - iPhone Game Blueprints - page 138

swim] . The player must manipulate seating order for various types of characters.
Some company or surroundings make some characters happy, while others make
them very angry. In the world of video games, the role model for a transport game
is of course the classic Sokoban , created by Hiroyuki Imabayashi in 1981; the main
character has to move crates inside a warehouse, placing them in the right positions.
Point connection puzzles
Point connection is a class of puzzles, where the player needs to connect two points
by drawing a line in a maze. There are usually some conditions or obstacles that
make the objective harder to attain. The concept was immortalized by Pipe Mania ,
designed in 1989 by The Assembly Line . The idea was very visual: there was a start-
ing point (a source of water) and a finish point (a sink); a player had to construct a
pipeline between them using pipe pieces which the game gave him at random. The
idea was elementary but very addictive.
Besides the water and pipes, other metaphors can be used as well, for instance, light
(or lasers) in combination with mirrors. Such a concept is utilized by the Guide The
Light game ( http://www.appynation.com/apps/guide-the-light ) , published by AppyNa-
tion Ltd . A player opens doors by guiding color light beams onto special sensors.
The following is a screenshot from Guide The Light :
The Guide The Light puzzle game lets us guide light beams through a maze, by using mirrors and
other elements to control the light
The Points-connection paradigm took on new heights when Valve Corporation deve-
loped the critically acclaimed Portal , a game where the player can connect locations
in 3D space. This is something mind blowing!