GCPP:Proposal-Fredi

Puzzle Codename: Fredi

Contact
Username:	Patetch
Additional contact info:	PM me on the forums, or catch me as Pletoo wherever ye may find me.
Project forum thread:	Forum

	A prototype is available for this proposal.
	Check it out and contribute to the design!

Game concept

Tangrams with wet paint!

Objective

Use stencils and paint in the right sequence to recreate a given design to add the finishing touches to furniture items ~ be careful ~ wet paint!

Gameplay

• The board consists of target patterns, paint, stencils, and a grid.
• Each turn has two phases, (similar to shiphwrightery.) Prepare the board by placing the stencil(s) you wish to use and then add paint.
• Paint takes a turn to dry and will blend if another color is applied when it is wet. It can only be used with a stencil.
• Stencils come in a variety of shapes and sizes that can be flipped and rotated like carp pieces. They snap to the grid when placed, they can be adjacent but cannot overlap. The last stencil placed can be moved until something else has been selected.
• An unwanted stencil may be placed on the board without penalty unless it is painted - hopefully it won't get in your way later. Painting a stencil will remove it but will be penalized if it isn't used.
• When the design is finished, click the pattern and then place the outline over the the work on the board (similar to shipwright) to clear it.
• The player can declare a design finished at any time but will lose points if it is not exactly like the target.

Scoring

Each design is scored based on accuracy and complexity. When the game is finished, the number of stencils that were painted is factored in to get the final score.

Tips: It is best to be efficient overall. Try to do as much as possible each turn before switching tasks. Clear multiple patterns at the same time and look for ways to use one stencil for two different patterns.

Variability

An assortment of shapes and sizes available plus randomly generated targets make the game as varied as carpentry.

End criteria

The game ends when the player has met the quota for designs.

Difficulty scaling

As the levels progress, more stencils are added and the designs get more complex. The highest level has 3 colors available that can mix 4 ways for a total of 7 colors in a pattern. (red + blue + white = light purple.)

Crafting type

Furnishing

Known problems

Notes

Although this works as a finishing aspect to furnishing, many people might prefer something more along the lines of building furniture. Ideally the current furnisher could be split into two shops: one uses more commodities and constructs basic furniture such as a wooden bench and the other uses the basic furniture and adds paint / upholstry and other touches to make fancier furniture such as a sofa. This puzzle would lend itself well to the latter. Another possible analogy would be painting on a "trademark" but either way, I believe this reflects a task that might be done at a furnisher.

What about those who are colorblind?

I have run the images through vischeck, a program that simulates color deficiencies. After much testing, I believe I have found an acceptable combination of colors for each level. Also I changed the yellow to white in the higher levels to remove the conflicting colors. (The mixed colors became pink, light blue, and light purple insteaad of orange, green, and brown.) Further adjustments may be made if needed.

This image shows the results of the two most common tests (it did pass the third ~rare~ test as well.)

Design history

• Ovals and scalene triangles were removed - all shapes now can either build or be built by other stencils.
• Circles (including 1/4 and 1/2 circles and arches) were removed for the sake of coding.
• The clear button was removed for the sake of simplicity - designs now clear when matched with a pattern. This feature may be added back in if the game needs more challenge.
• Patterns have been limited to a 3x3 area.
• All stencils now cover a 2x2 area, though their cutouts may only be for a 1x1 area.
• Stencils can be adjacent on the grid but still cannot overlap.
• Scoring is based more on accuracy than efficiency.
• Each level has a set number of stencils per pattern, rather than trying to calculate the minimum.
• Each level has 3 patterns visible at a time and need to complete 5 to finish.
• A rag has been added to use with a stencil to clear areas of wet or dry paint.
• Levels were assigned specific colors and the highest level's third color was changed from yellow to white. Both changes were made to ease the difficulties that people with color deficiencies might experience.
• Scoring formula was changed.

Images

This is an example of gameplay at its most basic level.