[Kde-games-devel] How do you play jigsaw puzzles

[Matthew Woehlke]

Parker Coates wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 13:04, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> - Pieces don't rotate :-). Having all the pieces correctly rotated
>> reduces the challenge somewhat.
> 
> I think the option to rotate the pieces is a good idea, but I think it
> should definitely be an option and probably an opt-in one, at that.

Hehe, as a jigsaw enthusiast, I disagree (about opt-in) :-). Optional is 
fine, though.

As far as altering the difficulty, another way would be to add a 
'handicap', i.e. so many pieces that are already put together in small 
groups. (Especially as in real jigsaw puzzles there are often at least a 
few stuck together in a brand new puzzle ;-).) Effectively you are 
dynamically reducing the piece count.

Of course, if double-sided puzzles ever get added, you can also reduce 
the difficulty by disabling the back side (or increase it by /adding/ a 
back side).

>> - Creating puzzles by number of pieces in X,Y direction. Please just
>> give us approximate number of pieces, and let the slicer decide based on
>> that, and the input image's aspect ratio. I accidentally made a 10x10
>> puzzle out of a 16:5 image.
> 
> I think it would make sense for the puzzle creation UI to only ask for
> the total piece count, but to internally store and use an X by Y
> system. This keeps things simple for the basic user,  but allows one
> to manually tweak the puzzle file if one wants tall skinny pieces.

Personally I would leave it up to the slicer. Maybe slicers should have 
a way to add options for that slicer; you could add 'aspect' as an option.

Ah... especially since some slicers (e.g. 'perfect hexagons') may not be 
able to adhere to a requested pieces-per-row, pieces-per-column sort of 
input. (Why not? Because the pieces *must* have perfect 1:1 aspect ratio 
or you break rotation working as it is supposed to, which is you can 
only tell right correct rotation from the image.)

> One other suggestion. Don't add highscores. I've already seen one
> person suggest it at your blog and I have to say I'm strongly opposed.
> The concepts of jigsaw puzzling and time pressure are so intrinsically
> opposite that the idea of adding highscores to a puzzling game seems
> downright blasphemous.  In my experience, the success of a puzzling
> session is best assessed by the quality of conversation and the volume
> of tea consumed in the process, not by a stopwatch. (Unfortunately,
> curiosity got the better of me and I did some research. It turns out
> there is such a thing as a speed puzzling competition. Sigh.)

...or at least make them optional. But I agree, jigsaw puzzles should be 
relaxing. Timing them tends to break that (and then you need a 'pause' 
also).

-- 
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
-- 
So, an astrophysicist, a quantum physicist, and an astrologer walk into 
a bar...