GCPP:Proposal-Plecostomus
Puzzle Codename: Plecostomus
| Contact | |
| Username: | Quagthistle |
| Additional contact info: | Quaggy of Viridian |
| Project forum thread: | Forum |
Game concept
A modified version of PoppaZoppa (from Club Pogo on Pogo.com), mimics hand sewing and possibly resembles cross-stitch.
Objective
To stitch all the squares, preferably by chaining together as long a continuous group as possible, or by running out of thread, which constitutes losing the game.
Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, a large board of 100 randomly selected squares are presented (3-7 shapes and 3-7 colors depending on the player's level). The colors of the squares are randomly chosen from the 16 fabric colors (minus gold and black, which we'll come back to) and are chosen so that no colors are used that are so close to each other in hue that they would be hard to distinguish from each other. To aid in distinguishing colors, each color has notches in the corners of the square. There are 16 possible notch configurations, one for each color. Black and gold pieces are wild cards that appear more often at higher levels of the game. Black pieces appear as a totally black square with a shape in white. They act as a square that is the shape shown and any color, making them useful for chains because they can match any square of that shape, regardless of color. Gold squares are shown simply as a shimmering gold space and appear only on boards with 5-7 colors and shapes. Gold squares match with any color or any shape.
The player may begin stitching on any square they choose, turning that square's background light gray and sticking a threaded needle through the square. Once they have begun, they may choose any of the 8 squares adjacent to their own that have not already been stitched to continue, leaving the previous square dark grey. For the highest possible score, they would want to choose an adjacent square that matches the current square's color or shape, forming a chain. Longer chains are worth the most points.
The player also starts with a spool of thread that has 140 cm of thread on it. Each stitch they make to an adjacent square consumes 1 cm of thread. If the player finds themselves stuck, they have two options. They can baste stitch across an already stitched section, which consumes 1 cm of thread per square and can only be done in a straight line (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally), or they can tie off and restart on another square of the board, which consumes 10 cm of thread each time the player ties off.
The game ends when every square has been stitched or when the player runs out of thread (which would be considered booching the puzzle, or at the very least incur a severe point penalty). The longer chains they were able to create, the higher the player's score for the game.
Scoring
At any level the score is figured by longest chains of connected matching colors and shapes.
Variability
The layout of the pieces is entirely random, as is the insertion of bonus squares (black and gold), though more bonus squares appear at higher levels.
End criteria
They have to either run out of thread or finish stitching the whole board.
Difficulty scaling
As the difficulty increases, so does the number of different shapes and colors on one board, making it ever harder to make a long chain.
Crafting type
I'd say it's best suited to Tailoring.
Known problems
None yet
Notes
In the image shown, I used the following order of colors: 1-Yellow, 2-Lime, 3-Green, 4-Aqua, 5-Blue, 6-Navy, 7-Purple, 8-Violet, 9-Pink, 10-Maroon, 11-Red, 12-Orange, 13-Tan, 14-Brown, 15-Grey, 16-White. I arranged the colors this way so that the program could be made to not choose colors that are too similar for the same board (like orange and red or blue and navy). Since the level depicted has 4 colors and 4 shapes, I used colors 1, 5, 9, and 13. Also, shapes that could be used in addition to the triangle, circle, plus, and diamond shown in the example image: square, dot, and X.
Images
