GCPP:Proposal-Plaice
Puzzle Codename: Plaice
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| Username: | Aenor |
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Game concept
Inspired by The Emporer's New Clothes, this puzzle is an amalgamation of the (hopefully) familiar Japanese-style logic puzzles Battleships and Nonograms (aka Paint by Numbers) with a dose of Minesweeper thrown in for good measure.
Objective
Deduce the locations of the clothing shapes on the grid through the numerical clues provided.
Gameplay
Upon entering the puzzle, the player is presented with a blank 15x15 grid. "Hidden" within the grid are a number of clothing patterns of various sizes. At the top of each column is a number which tells the player how many cells in that column are taken up by a square from a clothing pattern. Similarly for each row. Players familiar with Battleships puzzles will recognize this mechanic. Like Battleships, two clothing shapes cannot be adjacent, even diagonally.
Like shipwrightery, there will be more shapes available than will fit in the grid, so not every game will feature the same combination of shapes. At the bottom of the screen will be found all of the hidden shapes for that game.
Generally, the row/column numbers will not be enough information to deduce the locations of the pieces, so, the player will select a blank square in the grid and place a number in it, equal to the number of adjacent cells which contain a clothing piece.
The player continues to click on squares until he believes he knows the location of a clothing shape, then he drags the shape as in shipwrightery onto the grid. If correct, the piece stays on the grid. If incorrect, it flies back to the bottom. Play continues until all shapes are correctly placed.
Scoring
I haven't yet worked out the exact scoring formula yet, but as a general rule, smaller pieces are worth more points than larger pieces. Also, there is a slight negative value for each square clicked on. There is a penalty for incorrect placements.
Variability
Every board will be generated randomly.
End criteria
The game ends when all shapes have been placed correctly.
Difficulty scaling
Early levels will have fewer, larger shapes on average, which make the game easier but lower scoring. Expert levels will have more, smaller pieces, which score better if found early.
Crafting type
Tailoring
Known problems
Too similar to existing puzzles? The row/column clues being only one number may confuse fans of Paint By Number puzzles.
Notes
Images
This shows all of the available pieces for Plaice, some large, some small.
This shows a sample layout. The player has correctly placed the crown, and the green outlines show the locations of the remaining hidden shapes, which of course are only for illustrative purposes, as they are actually invisible to the player.
