Puzzles - iPhone Game Blueprints - page 142

example, appearing is 1/5 (five items and only one is red). Now, let's try to calculate
the chances of combination when there are two tiles on a screen and both of them
are red: 1/5 x 1/5 = 1/25 . By adding only one tile, you can change the probability sig-
nificantly: 1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36 . In case you have seven tiles, the chances are 1/49. The
red is almost twice as unlikely to appear as in the puzzle with five game pieces. As
you can see, the game becomes harder and more unpredictable when the number
of elements is increased. That is the mathematical side, but let's bear in mind that
there is a psychological aspect: for the player, it is more comfortable to be familiar
with a few elements, not with a dozen. Therefore, it is better to dwell on six or seven
game tiles (there will also be special elements, which will bring the overall number
up to eight or nine). For example, the game Bejeweled , which is now a popular role
model for match-three gaming, created by Pop Cap Games , features seven basic
game tiles.
The following figure shows the tiles for such match-three games:
The difference between tiles should be easily noticeable and obvious to exclude situ-
ations when players are not sure if items are identical or not. In an ideal scenario,
the tile has an unique geometric shape to better express its individuality, but you
can content yourself only with color coding (don't forget about the accessibility mode
based on patterns or icons): red, green, yellow, blue, purple, and so forth. Chromatic
colors will designate main game elements, but achromatic ones (white, black, and
shades of black) will decorate special items.
The array of elements can have two modes of sensitivity:
• Passive: The game does not see the elements inside the array until the play-
erperformssomeaction(tapsthescreen,forexample).Afterthat,itanalyzes
the content that was touched and tries to determine the boundaries of a tile
sequence; only elements specified by the player's tap are taken into account,
and the other ones are ignored.
• Active: The array responds to each change of element's order. If there is a
correct matching on the game board, the game tries to recombine the ar-
ray on the spot. The game works with a whole array, not with one active se-
quence. Such an approach is suitable for tile-matching puzzles with action-