PuzzleManiak is Three Times the Fun — And Apparently, Demoniak

by Eric March on March 4, 2008 at 7:20 pm

You may not be familiar with a fellow by the name of Simon Tatham. That’s okay, because he’s probably never heard of you either. Just the same, Simon is an MIT grad who likes casual puzzle games — so much so that he created over two dozen little logic and puzzle games for Windows over the last four years, released free under the MIT license. They are all the sort of games that ascribe to the gold standard of casual gaming: Easy to learn, difficult to master. You can pick them up, learn them in a few minutes, and put them down whenever you need to — but they always provide enough challenge to keep you coming back. Now, a dedicated team of developers have taken on the task of porting all 27 of Simon’s games to the iPod Touch and iPhone. Dubbed PuzzleManiak (with a K), it is self-described as “demoniak.” I’m not sure if they meant demonic, or if that is a proper noun, but that’s not important now. What is important is that this first release (no doubt of many) features three of Simon’s games: Bridges, Light-Up, and Net. They come replete with simple but stylish and effective graphics and addictive gameplay.

The App:
It starts off with a wonderfully retro-arcade-style title screen, then presents you with a simple menu of the current three games to choose from.

Screenshots (click to enlarge)

Bridges:
The object of Bridges is to connect a series of numbered islands in such a way that:

• Bridges run horizontally or vertically.
• The number of bridges terminating at any island is equal to the number written in that island.
• Two bridges may run in parallel between the same two islands, but no more than two may do so.
• No bridge crosses another bridge.
• All the islands are connected together.

Screenshots (click to enlarge)

Light-Up:
Contrary to what you might be thinking, this is not a Lights Out variant. Instead, Light-Up requires you to light up all empty squares by strategically placing bulbs in some of them. It’s never that easy, though. In order to win, you must satisfy the following conditions:

• All non-black squares are lit.
• No light is lit by another light.
• All numbered black squares have exactly that number of lights adjacent to them (in the four squares above, below, and to the side).

Screenshots (click to enlarge)

Net:
This one may be more familiar to you. If you have ever played such games as Netwalk or Netslide, then you’ve got the general idea here: Rotate or shift (where available) the tiles on the board so that all of the computers (boxes) are connected to one another by a contiguous line of network cabling.

Screenshots (click to enlarge)

Each game features a menu at the bottom allowing you to start a new game, undo or redo a move, solve the puzzle, or get in-game help, as well as an options screen that allows you to configure each game individually. There is currently no high score saving, but that is planned for a future release.

PuzzleManiac is available for manual install here (209K ZIP file) or from the PuzzleManiac website.

(Source: iPhone Skinning)

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Related Stories:

• April 12, 2008 -- PuzzleManiak 0.8 Completes the Set (0)
• March 22, 2008 -- PuzzleManiak 0.5 Now Available (2)
• March 11, 2008 -- PuzzleManiak Updated to 0.2, Even More Demoniak (2)

Posted in Gaming Related, In The Works