Glidik is the name of a new puzzle game I've invented. I can say it's a mix between tipical 2D puzzle and 3D Rubik’s cube.
The Rules
The game consist of a grid of mxn. Each cell, except one, is occupied by a Cube. Each cube has 6 faces of different color. At the beginning you have all the cubes in the same position, so if you look the game from top side you look all same color.
The goal is to put all the cubes in other color. No matter what color, but other color than the original one.
You can move the cubes beside the whole, but when you do so, the cube rotates 90 degrees.
Following animation shows an example the legal movements:
The puzzle has solution. I managed to solve it in 31 minutes and 894 movements, but I am not good solving puzzles so I'm sure it's possible to get the solution in much less time and movements. I got the solution trying to get the opposite color of the initial. For example, if at the initial position the top color is red, then the target color was the yellow, which is the color of the opposite side to the red side.
The solution I achieved only consists of all top faces the same color but the other hidden sides are not ordered. I don't know if it is possible to get all cubes in perfect final position. Maybe some mathematician could tell me if it is posible.
The Mobile Game
I don’t know if that puzzle can be built physically, but by programming all is possible.
I've programmed the game for JavaMe. You need a phone with touch screen, and Java Me with M3G library (All Symbian S60v5 I suposse). I tested the game with Nokia 5800, and a friend of mine tested the game with Windows Mobile on a Samsung.
My intention is to publish it free of charge and Open Source with a GPL licence.
The development is in Beta phase, even I must say in a "proof of concept" phase. But You can download the game and test it. Even you can help me send me your opinion, the problems you encountered, etc. Please sendme your feed back to Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spam bots. Necesita activar JavaScript para visualizarla .
- Download Beta Version (glidik.jar aprox 100KB)
Notes on downloading: You don't need to open the file "glidik.jar". Just put it directly to your phone to install it. If your browse decides to open the glidik.jar directly maybe you can avoid it by clicking right mouse button and selecting "Save link as..." or so.
