Tile Puzzler

This Is The End Of The Blog As We Know It

2007-05-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right. This blog is now closing. But fear not - although this blog is closing, you can find a new blog to replace it...

With three puzzle sites (plus a puzzle store), it doesn't make sense to maintain multiple blogs, when a single blog could be used to keep people updated on all the Puzzler Sites.

The new blog is located on The Puzzler Store website, at the following URL: http://www.puzzler-store.com/blog/.

If you have subscribed to this blog, you can subscribe to the new blog by clicking here: The Puzzler Sites Blog Feed.

Tile Puzzler Changes

2007-02-05T05:57:00.000-08:00

Several changes have been made on the Tile Puzzler site this morning. Let me address each of them.

1. The daily and weekly puzzlers have disappeared. They were very rarely used anyway - most people are happy with coming on the site, selecting a few random puzzles to play, without ever creating a membership account. So for now those puzzles have been removed - perhaps someday they will return, but for now I don't think anyone is going to miss them.

2. A few more "cutesy" icons were added at the bottom of each page, with links to the hardest and easiest puzzles.

3. A new page was added, which contains the Recent Puzzlers - puzzles which were recently created by visitors to the site. This is especially for the repeat visitors; every time you return to the site, you can see which puzzles are new since the last time you visited.

4. The "Under Development" sign has been removed from each page. This does not mean that the site will not undergo any more changes. Just that it is complete enough for regular use.

5. A new puzzle type called the Jeorge Puzzler has been added to the site. This puzzle type is named after Jeorge, the Site Mascot. Here's a sample Jeorge Puzzler:

Average Solve Time

2007-02-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

Another new feature was added to the site this morning; now when you complete a puzzle, you receive some feedback (about time, right??) on how you did.

Specifically, you will see a small informational window (marked with the info icon, shown below)

The informational window will tell you the average solve time (of all the people who have ever solved the puzzle, what is the average of all their times) and it will also tell you how long it took you to solve the puzzle.

Also, you will see a line that tells you how many times the puzzle has been solved.

This gives a little more incentive to keep solving puzzles, to see if you can beat the averages!

Have fun!

Drawing A Freestyle Picture Puzzle

2007-02-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying watching the kinds of puzzles people create on this site. Here's an interesting one that was just added:

Primary Happy Man

I think this is interesting, because the puzzle is a cross between a "normal" Tile Puzzler, and Jigsaw Puzzle. The colors used help to create a picture, and you can use those colors to help you figure out where the different pieces should go. For example, the first pieces I put in place were the red ones, which appeared to be a mouth. Having done that, the yellow and blue pieces became more obvious.

I wonder what other kinds of "pictures" people might draw...

Adding A Puzzle To Your Website

2007-01-11T05:14:00.000-08:00

A new feature has been added to the Tile Puzzler website. Now, when you create a new puzzle, you will be offered the opportunity to add the puzzle to your own website.

You will see a textbox, with some HTML code. Simply copy this code, and paste it into your own web page, and voila! You have your puzzle right there on your webpage for all your friends to see!

The puzzle (as it appears on your site) will be about half the normal size (which will make it easier for you to fit it onto your page), and at the bottom there will be a link to view the puzzle full size.

Here's a sample of how it looks:

Unconfirmed Membership, Quick Links

2006-12-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

New updates have been added to the site. You may have already noticed them, since they were added yesterday.

First, we have the "unconfirmed membership" option. This option is found on the "Join The Fun" page. When a visitor joins the site, they can create an account without using an email address. Visitors who do this don't have all the same rights and priveleges as confirmed members. Specifically, they can't do the daily/weekly puzzlers, and they won't be able to post in the forum. Forum? Forum, you say? Yes, there will be a forum. Coming soon. That'll be an easy addition, since it's mostly going to be a copy/paste job from the Quote Puzzler website.

But that's beside the point. The point is, the "unconfirmed membership" option is designed to help school teachers who want their entire class to sign up, even if they don't have email addresses.

If someone creates an unconfirmed membership account, they can confirm it later by adding an email address. On the membership page there is an email icon they can use for this purpose:

The second new feature added to the site is a set of "Quick Links". These are found at the bottom of each page. They are a series of icons you can use to accomplish common tasks like creating puzzles, solving the daily puzzles, etc. This is what the icons look like:

One final note: I think there are a few pages that don't have the Quick Links. If you happen to spot one of them, please post me a reply here, and I'll fix it!

Puzzle Difficulty: Randomizing Options

2006-12-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

Before getting to the main point of this post, let me just say...yes, I am aware that the scoring system seems to be always giving a 10 point accuracy bonus to everyone. Not sure if that's a bug, or if it's just a badly optimized formula for gauging the difficulty of the puzzle.

I'll be looking into that, but it may not change for awhile.

Okay, on to the good stuff!

You may have noticed a new icon on the site - it's the 'Randomizing Options' icon. It appears on your member page. It also appears on the Random Puzzler page.

This feature allows you to optimize the site for your own best experience.

Are you a novice solver? Tell the site you only want to receive Tri Puzzlers and Tetra Puzzlers. Or tell the site that you don't want any puzzles with more than six shapes.

Maybe you're an advanced puzzler. You might want to tell the site never to give you Tri Puzzlers. Or include larger puzzles.

Once you've set up your options, the site will deliver to you the kinds of puzzles you requested!

Scoring: Time Bonus and Accuracy Bonus

2006-12-01T05:02:00.000-08:00

I'm currently tweaking the scoring system for the Daily Puzzlers. Originally, the Time Bonuses were going to be calculated at midnight for the previous day's puzzler (just like at the Quote Puzzler website.)

However, this becomes a little bit problematic for Tournament Puzzles, since a tournament doesn't necessarily start and stop on a single day, so we have to wait until the tournament is closed to calculate time bonuses for all the puzzles. (And speaking of Tournaments, don't forget to sign up for Jeorge's Tournament - you can find a link to that on the home page of the site.)

So I'm trying something different. I have an algorithm I'm using to calculate a time bonus based on the "difficulty" of the puzzle. The time bonus will still be value from 0 to 10, it will just be calculated differently.

Likewise, I'm developing a new algorithm for calculating the Accuracy Bonus.

And while I'm in the process of tweaking my algorithm, scores may wildly fluctuate from day to day. Don't panic. :)

Getting Ready For A Tournament

2006-11-29T04:46:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't notice it on the home page, Jeorge is about to host his own Tile Puzzler Tournament. This is a Public Tournament, which means it is open for anyone to join - all you have to do is create a membership account, and click the "Join" link on the home page.

There have already been a few people who have joined, so don't delay - join today!

The Tournament will begin on Dec 3, and will run for one week. The tournament contains 10 puzzles, of varying difficulties. You'll have all week to try to solve them. There will be a high score list for each of the ten puzzles, plus a high score list for the entire tournament.

As mentioned in the Tournament description, this is all new, and there may very well be bugs in the system, so if you run into any problems, post a message here to report it.

Have fun!

New Puzzle Designations - Box Puzzles And Rickie Puzzles

2006-11-24T05:08:00.000-08:00

There are two new designations for puzzles at the Tile Puzzler site. One is the Box Puzzler, and the other is the Rickie Puzzler.

Box Puzzlers
A Box Puzzler is any Pento Puzzler which is in the shape of a solid box, and does not reuse any shapes. Here is an example of a Box Puzzler:

The following is not a Box Puzzler, because it reuses some shapes:

To create your own Box Puzzler, just choose the Build Puzzles link, and then choose the "Pento" option. If you create a puzzle that meets the specifications for a Box Puzzler, it will automatically be assigned an appropriate name, and be added to the list of "Special" puzzles.

Rickie Puzzlers
Rickie Puzzlers are named after Rickie Chase, and are explained in one of the Frequently Asked Questions pages: About Rickie Puzzlers

Here are a couple pictures of Rickie Puzzlers:

Site Mascot, Frequently Asked Questions

2006-11-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

Two new features were added to the site yesterday.

First, the site now has its own mascot. That's right - the site mascot is Jeorge the Dodo Bird. You can see a picture of him over there on the left. Jeorge enjoys creating puzzles, solving puzzles, and long walks on the beach in the moonlight. If you would like to know more about Jeorge, just click the following link: About Jeorge, the Site Mascot

The second thing that has been added is a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. The format for the FAQ is a Q&A between me and Jeorge. It may seem silly, but I've realized that very few people bother reading FAQ, which is frustrating, considering that most often the questions people email webmasters about are questions that are already answered on the site. I thought maybe people would be more likely to read what Jeorge says. So there you have it.

Enjoy!

Random Puzzle Mode

2006-11-20T05:22:00.000-08:00

The Tournament Mode features are still in development, but in the meantime, a new feature has been added for your puzzling pleasure - the Random Puzzle Mode! You can click the link below to have the site choose a random puzzle for you.

Get A Random Puzzle!

Also, when you build a new puzzle, your puzzle will automatically go into the random puzzle cycle, which means other visitors to the site will get to try your puzzle immediately. Unless you are logged in to the site, any puzzles you create will be listed as "Anonymous", so be sure to log in!

But...that's not all. There is now a "Tell A Friend" feature - when you finish creating a puzzle, you can send an email to a friend inviting them to try your puzzle.

Hope you enjoy these updates!

Tournament Mode - Compete Against Your Friends At Tile Puzzler

2006-11-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

What is currently in the works at Tile Puzzler? The current development is Tournament Mode!

Tournament Mode allows members to host their own tournament for their friends to participate in. When you choose to host a tournament, you will go through three steps:

Step One: Invite Participants
In order to host a tournament, you must invite participants. These may be people who are already members of the Tile Puzzler site, or people who aren't yet members.

Step Two: Select Puzzles
Before you can begin your tournament, you must either create new puzzles, or select already existing puzzles from the database.

Step Three: Set Tournament Information
Provide a name and description for your tournament and set the dates for which this tournament is active.

Once you've accomplished these three steps, your friends can compete against each other to see who is the fastest and most accurate puzzle solver!

This feature will be especially useful for school classroom situations - a teacher can set up a tournament as a special treat for students - all you need is a computer lab for your students to access. Or, if you don't have access to a computer lab, but you do have one or two computers in your classroom, simply set the Tournament length to a week (or more!) and let your students solve the puzzles throughout the week when they have free time.

Tournament Mode is a feature in development. The modifications cannot be posted to the site until the entire feature is completed, so it may be a few days before this feature appears on the site. In the meantime, don't forget to do the Daily Puzzler!

Weekly Puzzler, High Score Lists

2006-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Some more additions to the site. Now you can find a "Weekly Puzzler" as well as a "Daily Puzzler". The Weekly Puzzler is a slightly harder puzzle (for example, a Pentomino Puzzle that uses all 12 tiles)

There is also a high score list, so after you complete the daily puzzle, you can compare your score to others' scores.

Currently the score is based on:

1. Whether or not you use "Easy Mode"
2. How many "mistakes" you make in solving the puzzle.

Eventually, there will also be bonus points awarded to those who solve the puzzles the fastest.

Site Membership, Color Picker, Easy Mode

2006-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Several new features were added to the site last night and this morning.

First, you can now create a Membership on the site. At this point, there is very little extra value in creating an account, except that puzzles you create will have your screenname attached to them. Eventually, you will need that membership account in order to solve the daily puzzle; there will be a high score list maintained for the daily puzzle, and you'll need to be logged in to have your score show up.

Also, a Color Picker was added to the site. You will only see this if you are logged in. On your member page you will see the option to choose a color scheme, or create your own customized color scheme. This allows you to choose twelve colors which will be used in the puzzles. Thus, if you find it hard to distinguish between the colors of different tiles, you can set up a color scheme that is more comfortable for you to view.

Instructions were added for creating puzzles; these instructions are in the form of a context-style help. Just hover over a control while you're in edit mode, and text will appear explaining how to use the control.

Also, on the Daily Puzzler, an "Easy Mode" was added. When you play in easy mode, it is possible to solve the puzzle without rotating or flipping any pieces. This mode is especially good for young children, or for exceptionally difficult puzzles. If you can't solve the puzzle in regular mode, you can return to the puzzle page and choose easy mode, then try it again.

Eventually, scoring will be added to reflect whether or not you used easy mode (for example, solving a puzzle is worth 100 points, but only 75 if you do it in easy mode.)

In the midst of all these additions, there were also a few cosmetic changes.

What is next? Some of the changes which need to happen next are changes which no one will see but the site Administrator. For example, I will be setting up a page from which I can view all puzzles which have been submitted, modify titles, assign them to dates in the competition, or delete them.

Game Instructions, A Daily Puzzle

2006-11-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Newest features on this site-in-development: an Instructions Page, with a more detailed explanation of how to play the various games (sorry, still no instructions for creating puzzles!), and a Daily Puzzle page. Every day there will be a new puzzle, except that the number of existing puzzles is quite limited, so it'll start cycling back through existing puzzles after a few days...everyone is welcome to help out by creating your own puzzles.

Next item on the TO DO list: allow people to create membership accounts and customize their experience of the site!

Create A Puzzle

2006-11-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

A navigation bar was just added at the top and bottom of the page (similar to Quote Puzzler. Also, you will see a new link: Create a Puzzle. This link allows you to try your hand at creating a puzzle.

Of course, there are no directions on how to create a puzzle, but if you're a good puzzle solver, you'll figure it out!

Exploration Of The Development Process

2006-11-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

This blog represents an exploration of the development process. Normally websites are hidden from the public until they are ready - or mostly ready - for prime time. Tile Puzzler is a break from that mode of development. The opportunity exists here for the random visitor to stumble upon this site and watch it develop from ground zero. Of course, this also means you can make suggestions and ask questions about what is happening on the site.

As new features are added to the site, this blog will become a history of the development of the site. I hope you enjoy the journey, which begins this day, November 8, 2006, two days after the site was created.