Aycblok

About

Aycblok (pronounced "ice block") provides a set of procedural generators for creating sliding ice block puzzles.

The aim of the puzzles is for a player character to slide all push blocks onto a goal tile. Once pushed, the push blocks slide until they are stopped by an obstacle: either a permanent stop block, a break block that is removed when hit, or another push block. The player can move freely within non-obstacle or non-player void tiles and must be positioned directly next to a push block in order to push it in one of the cardinal directions. A push block is assumed to disappear when it is pushed onto a goal tile. The puzzle is complete when all push blocks have been pushed onto goal tiles.

The following is a move-by-move report as generated for one such puzzle:

Start board:         Move 1:              Move 2:              Key:
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    o = Push Block
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    % = Break Block
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    # = Stop Block
. o . . . . . # .    . . . . . . . # .    . . . . . . . # .    $ = Goal
. . . . $ . . . .    . . . . $ . . . .    . . . . $ . . . .    * = Push Block at Goal
. . . . . . . % .    . . . . . . . % .    . . . . . . . % . 
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . . #    . o . . . . . . #    . . . . . . . o # 
. # . . . . . . .    . # . . . . . . .    . # . . . . . . . 

Move 3:              Move 4:              Move 5:
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . # .    . . . . . . . # .    . . . . . . . # . 
. . . . $ . . . .    . . . . $ . . o .    . . . . * . . . . 
. . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . o .    . . . . . . . . .    . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . . #    . . . . . . . . #    . . . . . . . . # 
. # . . . . . . .    . # . . . . . . .    . # . . . . . . . 

Features

• Ice push block puzzle generation for a specified tile area.
• Input tile areas can have their tiles flagged to apply confining geometry to add challenge or visual interest.
• Support of multiple push blocks in a single puzzle area, which can interact and stop or block each other.
• Support of area obstacles such a holes by means of void tiles, which disallow traversal of a tile by the player, the push blocks, or both.
• Includes a random garbage block generator to clutter the area and make the solution less obvious.
• Customizable parameters for generation steps to help adjust the feel and difficulty of puzzles.
• Persistence of results through JSON and XML via Data Contract serialization.

Generation Pipeline Example

The generation pipeline provides a way for multiple generation steps to be chained together. This is often easier than making manual calls to each generation step.

// Create a dictionary of arguments to be passed to each pipeline step.
var inputs = new Dictionary<string, object>
{
    { "PuzzleArea", new Array2D<PuzzleTile>(20, 20) },
    { "RandomSeed", new RandomSeed(12345) },
};

// Create a pipeline
var pipeline = new Pipeline(
    new PuzzleGoalGenerator(goalSize: new Vector2DInt(2, 2)),
    new PuzzleMoveGenerator(pushBlockCount: 3, targetPushCount: 20),
    new PuzzleGarbageGenerator(targetDensity: 0.1f, breakBlockChance: 0.5f),
);

// Run the pipeline and retrieve an output
var results = pipeline.Run(inputs);
var layout = results.GetOutput<PuzzleLayout>("PuzzleLayout");