TIGSource Forums

Picture Shifter

The classic puzzle, with three challenging difficulty settings, polished presentation, and useful features to help you beat your best time!

This game is designed for mobile, but can also be played in your browser.

Play directly in your browser!

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46018476/PictureShifter/screens.png)

Play directly in your browser! (http://bit.ly/PicShifter)

If you take the time to play, please take an extra moment to leave a comment - all feedback is welcome :)

Your picture choices feature some bits with dead area to them - for example, the cluster of rocks in the top left of the butterfly image spans three blocks in "Hard". You should try to pick images that have significant features in every piece so the player doesn't have to shuffle around guessing which two pieces fit next to each other.

The picture of the bird is a good choice for a picture from this perspective, because every piece has some distinguishing feature you can positively pair up with no mechanically tedious guesswork. The zebra is the worst offender with the grass, and the Lizard is in the middle for picture quality since the clouds contrast pretty well and have clear edges.

The alternative is to remove the white borders from the edges of pieces, but I think the borders look nice and should stay.

The pictures are otherwise very good - bright colors and big subjects.

Borders should vanish when the player completes the puzzle, so they can admire the picture.

I would like if I could slide multiple pieces at a time instead of just one per click, like a mechanical sliding puzzle. This also helps the player cut down on moves with good planning.

The buttons do not respond as I expect them to. When I completed the puzzle, it hangs for a moment before displaying the results. It wasn't clear to me when the delay was over and I could click out for a new puzzle. A "Click to continue" to get from the completed image of the puzzle to the results screen would be nice.

Some animations for pieces would be nice, if only to make them slide neatly into position.

You should try to put the difficulty selection on the same screen as the puzzle selection, with both as toggles and a "Start" button. At a minimum, an option to go back from the puzzle select to the difficulty select should be added.

The "Menu" button while solving the puzzle goes directly back to the menu. I can see mobile players hitting it inadvertently while solving and losing their progress. You ought to add a second press for confirmation, while pressing anywhere but confirmation goes back to the puzzle.

"Preview" is also a little confusing, since my instinct was to click anywhere to clear it. Please make clicking anywhere clear the preview.

I don't see myself very likely to try to beat my best times, given how random the puzzles are. Sliding puzzles are pretty low replay value given how you have to follow the same logic every time you solve them.

In regard to the pictures with blurry sections - I definitely agree that it's a problem...I don't typically play a lot of puzzles like this so I didn't realize how much more difficult it might make the game until I tried for myself. I will try to find some more defined images.

Allowing rows/columns to be moved has been a surprisingly common request so I will definitely try to implement this.

There's some timing issues where features aren't frame rate independent yet, such as the "you won" panel. These will be improved before the game is considered complete.

Your mention of the "Preview" functionality was interesting - I will make sure it is canceled if the game region is clicked.

Regarding "best time" and score, these additions were made because sponsors have previously asked for score features even if they aren't perfectly fitting. I personally didn't think the game would gain much from this either, but after a few matches I actually found myself playing faster just to see what time I could get, so I guess there is some value there even if not to "beat a personal best" or anything like that.

Thank you for the extremely detailed reply - much appreciated. I will be making a lot of the changes you've suggested before finalizing the game!

The game has been updated.