Czech Rings Puzzle
Game Introduction
Created by @gregatku for use in Coding Classes for Kids Unlimited, for whom I work as a Coding teacher. Rejigged Sept 2020 to use 3.0 colours & code blocks. All the Code which is mostly done using the Pen is mine. But the project is a replica of the more elegant looking - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/109661054/ - Project by @-Jie- (to whom much thanks goes) with its trigonometry based code. Thanks also to @kriblo who showed me why a solved puzzle previously showed how many moves the solve before took, and a way to make the Arrow Sprites (now removed in this updated version) virtually invisible, but still clickable, so I could put blobs behind them to make them register a click more easily on Mobile devices. And a big thank you to @papipupepappa, who showed me how to gain control over the time delay between the animation steps. And significant thanks to @RokCoder for his paper on "The Inner Workings of Scratch" that talks about threading, which @papipupepappa referred me to, when he realised I didn't really understand the point he was making. Finally a huge thank-you to the company in the Czech Republic (Clever Toys) that makes the beautiful wooden version of this puzzle named "Flower", of which this project is an implementation. (I thank @grandpasp whose internet searching is better than mine, who found something that lead me to discover this information. Hopefully I will be able to get my hands on the real thing now!)
How To Play
Czech Rings Puzzle - the real thing is named "Flower" (Reset) to reset the current puzzle to its original set-up. (New) for a new randomly generated puzzle to solve. (Pick) to pick one of 6 Challenge puzzles to solve! (Replay) to replay any solve you get Swipe from one ball to its nearest neighbouring ball, but swipes that start & end inside the Central Disc. always cause it (& all 9 balls on it) to rotate 120 degrees. Aim is to get all 7 balls of the same colour in the same Ring. NOTE 1: Any Random distribution of the Balls in the 3 Rings is solvable and you should be able to solve any puzzle generated in less than 30 moves. NOTE 2: Swipe Detection & Interpretation (a) To register, your Swipe must be > 10 pixels long. (b) Any swipe whose Starting point & End point are both inside the Central (Inner) Rotating Disc, will rotate the Central Disc (and the 9 balls on it) 120 degrees. (c) Any swipe in one of the 3 Rings from one ball to its nearest neighbour, will roll the 7 balls in that ring, one slot around that Ring in the direction of the swipe, but the 3 balls (one in each Ring) closest to the Centre, should not be used to start or end a Ring rotation. (d) Instances of rotations going the wrong way that many experienced, should no longer occur! NOTE 3: if you'd like a little challenge, the new (Pick) button lets you choose from a list of Challenge puzzles! There are 6 so far. Your aim is to solve the puzzle in the number of moves shown in the bottom left corner (or fewer moves if you can). The 6 Challenge puzzles can be solved in: (1) - 9 moves (2) - 13 moves (3) - 16 moves (4) - 16 moves (5) - 22 moves (6) - 24 moves 1-3 are relatively easy to solve, but quite difficult to solve in the Target of moves. Can you do it? 4, 5 & 6 are somewhat more difficult than 1-3. I particularly like Challenge puzzle No. 4 because while it has many fewer pre-existing groupings of matching colours than No. 3, like No. 3 it too can be solved in just 16 moves. If you are struggling to get close to the Target of moves on any of these Challenge puzzles, there is a sneaky way, which you'll have to discover for yourself, where you can see a Replay of those solves (or if you ask me nicely I might tell you how).
Author
gregatku
Category
Game Information
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