Arto is a minimalist puzzle game set on a ten by ten grid of towers. It adhears to what I think would make a good puzzle game and nothing else. Obviously I hope other people will like it as well, but I’m making it more for myself than anyone else.
I believe simple games which give rise to complex strategy are far more beautiful than complex games which give rise to complex startegy. As a result Arto has only a single intuitive interaction.
You play a bouncy ball (or penguin, we haven’t decided) which needs to move between towers (up, down, left or right). Each time it visits a tower the height is lowered by 1. Once a tower has reached the ground it can not be revisited. The aim of the game is to lower all the towers to the ground without getting stuck.
One of the greatest challenges has been making the levels. A lot of the levels I created when I started were surprisingly easy. It’s easy to create a level with what the solution should be in mind. However it is very challenging to not inadvertantly create a level that has lots of other solutions you hadn’t considered.
I spent a lot of time working on the mathematics of creating complex puzzles and creating tools to assist in the creation of the levels to ensure I had not missed any of the possible logic. I am quite proud of the result. There are lots of levels fitting into several different styles, all of which arose from an incredibly simple concept.
Currently a front end to the game is being created. The game is going to be in isometric view and mostly aimed at mobile users. The target plotforms are: Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows, Linux and Mac. I am currently in the process of moving from the Cocos2Dx library to QML.