The idea
The idea is to create a suite of games and puzzles to help develop logical reasoning as well as just have some fun. I know a lot of these types of games already exist, but my experience is that most either only feature one type of activity, or have lots which are just not done very well, and also tend not to give much idea on the underlying strategy. I’ve already put together a long list of puzzles and games that I think would work well, and have for the most part figured out how to create basic games and package them into a mobile app. Here’s an example of an adaptation of the classic ‘nim’ game:
Nim is a nice introduction game the correct strategy is easily defined and will win every time. The second example is of the classic weighing scales problem where you have to discover which object is heavier/lighter in as few weighings as possible. In the below example you should always be able to identify the heaviest box using the scales only twice
So what’s the next steps?
I’ve made a rough list of about 20 initial problems and puzzles which I think would lend themselves nicely to an app. I’ve found that they take around about 2 days each to code and work out most the bugs. From there a bit more work needs to go into developing the main app container (I’ve created a fairly basic interface using angular.js and ionic, but should take a few more days and some added expertise to polish off), and then possibly put a bit of work into gamification – think progress medals, high score tables, achievements etc. I’d be hoping to release the app for free (I’m always keen on keeping things open and free where possible), however I could potentially see some sort of future monetisation from tips/solutions or additional levels to problems (e.g. a pack of 10 further weighing scenarios).
Want to get involved?
At the moment the biggest thing holding me back is a bit of time and motivation, but if you think you could be interested contributing to either puzzle design, coding or testing then I’d be really excited to hear from you.