

Show HN: Sliding Pi, a 2048 game showing how ancient mathematician calculated Pi - ychw
https://itunes.apple.com/app/sliding-pi-best-addicting/id853321118?mt=8

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ychw
Two weeks ago, when I was playing 2048 (I am a big fan for both 2048 and
Threes!), I suddenly came up this idea -- instead of merging numbers, merging
polygons; and then use the polygon with most edges on the board to calculate
the approximate value of Pi, just like what ancient mathematicians did. I
thought it would be a cool idea to explore.

I quickly finished the programming of the algorithm and basic game play. Since
each tile is a polygon, the numbers start from 3 (triangle) and 6 (Hexagon).
So the number series is more like Threes', but game play is more like 2048.

However, I had a hard time to convey the message of how the value of Pi was
calculated, which I think really cool (check it out:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi#Polygon_approximation_era](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi#Polygon_approximation_era)).
I tried different ways but they all look too cluttered on the small iPhone
screen. Eventually I settled with the current solution: animate the polygon
with most edges and value of Pi together to hint the connection between them,
and show a tip of how Pi is calculated when the game is played the first time.

I am still not satisfied with this approach. If you have better idea, please
let me know. I’ll try to make it better in following updates. But on the other
hand, I found a few of my friends do like play this game a lot – they told me
they like the sound effect (I made the sound effect a little musical – the
higher score you have, the higher pitch it plays) and the subtle animation
when two tiles merges. I would love to know what you think. Any feedback is
welcome.

