

Parity, a numbers puzzle game - pokoleo
http://www.abefehr.com/parity/

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robinhouston
I like this! I think I’d enjoy it more if there were a back button, to undo
the last move, as well as the reset button to start again from the beginning.
It’s frustrating to have to start again because of a single mistake.

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abejfehr
I thought about adding that, but it makes the game a bit too simple.

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tehaugmenter
I found a couple times I almost had a solution and had 1 move off, I did have
the feature it definitely would be less challenging.

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mightybyte
As others have mentioned, it does seem fairly easy once you get a feel for the
game mechanics. I might suggest that you have each level include a max number
that each tile has to have for a correct solution. I found myself trying to
get the lowest number, but I almost get everything to say 5, but messed up and
missed one tile that had to get bumped to 6, it was then easy to just make one
more pass and set everything to 6. If I had to restart to get the 5 I think it
might be a slight increase to the difficulty.

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Chinjut
Hm... You're saying it can be possible to solve two different ways with two
different numbers?

Suppose the corners and the center are black and the other squares are white.
Then every two moves in a row adds one to black and one to white. So an even
length sequence keeps the difference between the black sum and the white sum
the same. In the end, with all values set to X, this difference equals 5X - 4X
= X.

Thus, for an even-length game, we know from the start what X must be: the
difference between the black and white sums.

This means there's no room for a wrong move. Any solution has a prescribed
number of times to hit each tile. (FWIW, the total number of moves will be 9X
- the starting sum = 9(B - W) - (B + W) = 8B - 10W)

So far, we've assumed we'll be playing an even-length game. Might we actually
be playing an odd-length game? Sure. In that case, we also know from the start
what X should be (since it amounts to making one move, adding 1 to the color
not started on, and then playing an even-length game).

Is there an easy way to see from the start whether we play an even- or odd-
length game? Is it possible that both are allowed for a given board? It's not
yet clear to me. I'll reply with updates. But at any rate, there are at most
two different values you can solve with, one for even-length solutions and
another for odd-length solutions (and these two values will be next to each
other).

[This is all for the version of the game in the early levels. I see from other
comments that the game changes at level 51, which I haven't played to yet. I
also see that "black" and "white" start actually being used in the game at
that point, making this explanation potential confusing.]

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Chinjut
I suppose, if the game doesn't end immediately upon solution, of course it
could be possible to have both an even- and an odd-length solution: if it's
possible to solve ending on a white square, then it's also possible to give a
longer solution consisting of the first solution followed by winding around
hitting every square on the board once more.

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cokernel
Interesting game. There's a minor typo in the instructions: 'the a' should be
either 'the' or 'a'.

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pbhjpbhj
Needs a one-line description on the game page - "move the focus with cursor,
or drag, to change the focussed number - make all numbers equal to complete
the board" (that's my 30s attempt at an understandable description). I jumped
in an missed the rules and then wasn't exactly sure of the mechanism/aim and
there were no rules on the page and I couldn't get back to the splash screen
without removing the cookie (the setting of which technically breaches EU law
- [https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-
pecr/cookies/](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/cookies/) is
about the UK rendering of the "Cookie law").

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abejfehr
I'll definitely read over the law and take care of that issue. Thanks so much
for bringing that up! Instead of having a one-line description on the game's
page I'm going to make a visual cue for the first level as well as instruction
that shows there

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volent
I don't know if it's a good feature or not but I enjoyed being able to finish
the game using the solutions found in /parity/story.json.

Would not be a good feature if you want to create some sort of leaderboard.

~~~
tom-lord
Nice find! For anyone else wondering, you can see the main game source in
scripts/modules/Story.js - which includes the line:

    
    
        $.getJSON('story.json', function(data) {

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ap22213
I skipped ahead and just started playing the game, and the mechanics weren't
clear at all.

I know that I should have read through the instructions, but I'm sure there
are a lot of people like me who just want to jump in and play.

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Igglyboo
Really? I skipped the rules as well and understood the mechanics after about
10 seconds of playing.

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ap22213
It could be the browser that I'm running it in. I couldn't figure out how to
move the selected box. I tried clicking and dragging, etc.

~~~
abejfehr
I implemented swiping, and the mouse cursor should be able to do that as well.
The arrow keys are the intended mechanism for how to move the selected box.
I'll see about adding an overlay to the first level that explains it more
intuitively

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fredley
Great game, but it took 50 levels to get more difficult. Suggest bringing in
the new rules earlier on, I was getting pretty bored by about level 30 when
I'd worked it out well enough to zoom through the levels.

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caractacus
There was a typo on the homepage - 'a the' or 'the a' or something - but now
I've played five levels I can't get back to the homepage to find it.

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evanb
This is great. It would be good to let people look back at their previously
played levels so they could check the understanding they develop later in the
game.

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mzs
This is very nice, thank you. I was hoping that when I click on the number on
the lower left it would let me get to harder higher levels.

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jokoon
this always baffles me: how do people invent those simple games ? Is it about
game theory or game design ? Or just simplicity ?

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Extigy
Not as pretty as OPs but I made this little game:
[http://extigy.github.io/primes/](http://extigy.github.io/primes/)

I didn't really think about game theory or anything. I just had an idea and
wondered how it would play.

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abejfehr
I played your game and I really enjoyed it! Nice work.

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lorenzo20002
It's nice, but easy too. Once you decide the last number you have to move
accordingly

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snw
after level 50 there are black & white tiles that increase/decrese the value
when you step on them.

Not so easy anymore

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lorenzo20002
it's even easier to guess the number to figure out because it must be between
min Black an MAX White

btw: parity. The End! You've successfully completed all of the levels Parity
currently has to offer. If you enjoyed the challenge, please make sure to like
Parity on Facebook!

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jastanton
Prepare for app store copy cats in 3... 2...

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e28eta
This game mechanic reminds me a lot of Bicolor, an existing iOS game.

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bryceadams
This is super cool.

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CaptainClueless
Make all numbers equal.

[https://github.com/abejfehr/parity](https://github.com/abejfehr/parity)

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Kiro
What do you mean?

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CaptainClueless
It was a hint as I missed that info and it was hard to retrieve it. I was
trying to get the parity correct rowwise and columnwise, which was not the
rule at all. That is another game!

