Getting Ready For A Tournament

In case you didn't notice it on the home page, Jeorge is about to host his own Tile Puzzler Tournament. This is a Public Tournament, which means it is open for anyone to join - all you have to do is create a membership account, and click the "Join" link on the home page.

There have already been a few people who have joined, so don't delay - join today!

The Tournament will begin on Dec 3, and will run for one week. The tournament contains 10 puzzles, of varying difficulties. You'll have all week to try to solve them. There will be a high score list for each of the ten puzzles, plus a high score list for the entire tournament.

As mentioned in the Tournament description, this is all new, and there may very well be bugs in the system, so if you run into any problems, post a message here to report it.

Have fun!

New Puzzle Designations - Box Puzzles And Rickie Puzzles

There are two new designations for puzzles at the Tile Puzzler site. One is the Box Puzzler, and the other is the Rickie Puzzler.

Box Puzzlers
A Box Puzzler is any Pento Puzzler which is in the shape of a solid box, and does not reuse any shapes. Here is an example of a Box Puzzler:



The following is not a Box Puzzler, because it reuses some shapes:



To create your own Box Puzzler, just choose the Build Puzzles link, and then choose the "Pento" option. If you create a puzzle that meets the specifications for a Box Puzzler, it will automatically be assigned an appropriate name, and be added to the list of "Special" puzzles.

Rickie Puzzlers
Rickie Puzzlers are named after Rickie Chase, and are explained in one of the Frequently Asked Questions pages: About Rickie Puzzlers

Here are a couple pictures of Rickie Puzzlers:

Site Mascot, Frequently Asked Questions

Two new features were added to the site yesterday.

First, the site now has its own mascot. That's right - the site mascot is Jeorge the Dodo Bird. You can see a picture of him over there on the left. Jeorge enjoys creating puzzles, solving puzzles, and long walks on the beach in the moonlight. If you would like to know more about Jeorge, just click the following link: About Jeorge, the Site Mascot

The second thing that has been added is a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. The format for the FAQ is a Q&A between me and Jeorge. It may seem silly, but I've realized that very few people bother reading FAQ, which is frustrating, considering that most often the questions people email webmasters about are questions that are already answered on the site. I thought maybe people would be more likely to read what Jeorge says. So there you have it.

Enjoy!

Random Puzzle Mode

The Tournament Mode features are still in development, but in the meantime, a new feature has been added for your puzzling pleasure - the Random Puzzle Mode! You can click the link below to have the site choose a random puzzle for you.

Get A Random Puzzle!

Also, when you build a new puzzle, your puzzle will automatically go into the random puzzle cycle, which means other visitors to the site will get to try your puzzle immediately. Unless you are logged in to the site, any puzzles you create will be listed as "Anonymous", so be sure to log in!

But...that's not all. There is now a "Tell A Friend" feature - when you finish creating a puzzle, you can send an email to a friend inviting them to try your puzzle.

Hope you enjoy these updates!

Tournament Mode - Compete Against Your Friends At Tile Puzzler

What is currently in the works at Tile Puzzler? The current development is Tournament Mode!

Tournament Mode allows members to host their own tournament for their friends to participate in. When you choose to host a tournament, you will go through three steps:

Step One: Invite Participants
In order to host a tournament, you must invite participants. These may be people who are already members of the Tile Puzzler site, or people who aren't yet members.

Step Two: Select Puzzles
Before you can begin your tournament, you must either create new puzzles, or select already existing puzzles from the database.

Step Three: Set Tournament Information
Provide a name and description for your tournament and set the dates for which this tournament is active.

Once you've accomplished these three steps, your friends can compete against each other to see who is the fastest and most accurate puzzle solver!

This feature will be especially useful for school classroom situations - a teacher can set up a tournament as a special treat for students - all you need is a computer lab for your students to access. Or, if you don't have access to a computer lab, but you do have one or two computers in your classroom, simply set the Tournament length to a week (or more!) and let your students solve the puzzles throughout the week when they have free time.

Tournament Mode is a feature in development. The modifications cannot be posted to the site until the entire feature is completed, so it may be a few days before this feature appears on the site. In the meantime, don't forget to do the Daily Puzzler!

Weekly Puzzler, High Score Lists

Some more additions to the site. Now you can find a "Weekly Puzzler" as well as a "Daily Puzzler". The Weekly Puzzler is a slightly harder puzzle (for example, a Pentomino Puzzle that uses all 12 tiles)

There is also a high score list, so after you complete the daily puzzle, you can compare your score to others' scores.

Currently the score is based on:

1. Whether or not you use "Easy Mode"
2. How many "mistakes" you make in solving the puzzle.

Eventually, there will also be bonus points awarded to those who solve the puzzles the fastest.

Site Membership, Color Picker, Easy Mode

Several new features were added to the site last night and this morning.

First, you can now create a Membership on the site. At this point, there is very little extra value in creating an account, except that puzzles you create will have your screenname attached to them. Eventually, you will need that membership account in order to solve the daily puzzle; there will be a high score list maintained for the daily puzzle, and you'll need to be logged in to have your score show up.

Also, a Color Picker was added to the site. You will only see this if you are logged in. On your member page you will see the option to choose a color scheme, or create your own customized color scheme. This allows you to choose twelve colors which will be used in the puzzles. Thus, if you find it hard to distinguish between the colors of different tiles, you can set up a color scheme that is more comfortable for you to view.

Instructions were added for creating puzzles; these instructions are in the form of a context-style help. Just hover over a control while you're in edit mode, and text will appear explaining how to use the control.

Also, on the Daily Puzzler, an "Easy Mode" was added. When you play in easy mode, it is possible to solve the puzzle without rotating or flipping any pieces. This mode is especially good for young children, or for exceptionally difficult puzzles. If you can't solve the puzzle in regular mode, you can return to the puzzle page and choose easy mode, then try it again.

Eventually, scoring will be added to reflect whether or not you used easy mode (for example, solving a puzzle is worth 100 points, but only 75 if you do it in easy mode.)

In the midst of all these additions, there were also a few cosmetic changes.

What is next? Some of the changes which need to happen next are changes which no one will see but the site Administrator. For example, I will be setting up a page from which I can view all puzzles which have been submitted, modify titles, assign them to dates in the competition, or delete them.

Game Instructions, A Daily Puzzle

Newest features on this site-in-development: an Instructions Page, with a more detailed explanation of how to play the various games (sorry, still no instructions for creating puzzles!), and a Daily Puzzle page. Every day there will be a new puzzle, except that the number of existing puzzles is quite limited, so it'll start cycling back through existing puzzles after a few days...everyone is welcome to help out by creating your own puzzles.

Next item on the TO DO list: allow people to create membership accounts and customize their experience of the site!

Create A Puzzle

A navigation bar was just added at the top and bottom of the page (similar to Quote Puzzler. Also, you will see a new link: Create a Puzzle. This link allows you to try your hand at creating a puzzle.

Of course, there are no directions on how to create a puzzle, but if you're a good puzzle solver, you'll figure it out!

Exploration Of The Development Process

This blog represents an exploration of the development process. Normally websites are hidden from the public until they are ready - or mostly ready - for prime time. Tile Puzzler is a break from that mode of development. The opportunity exists here for the random visitor to stumble upon this site and watch it develop from ground zero. Of course, this also means you can make suggestions and ask questions about what is happening on the site.

As new features are added to the site, this blog will become a history of the development of the site. I hope you enjoy the journey, which begins this day, November 8, 2006, two days after the site was created.