SpinShuffle

Introduction

SpinShuffle is a sort of two-dimensional-Rubik's-Cube-meets-the-16-slider puzzle.  It's one of my first serious attempts at using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).  As far as I know, this puzzle counts as one of my few original ideas.  If you have seen it done before then please let me know!

The rules

It's a simple puzzle to understand but it's a bit hard to describe.  Basically you have a grid of numbered tiles attached to "wheels" and you have to spin the wheels to arrange the tiles in numerical order.  To spin a wheel simply click it with the mouse.  Take a look at the demo video below and you'll get the idea.

If you're like me you'll find it a little tricky at first, but perhaps with some practice it starts to look a bit too easy.  For this reason I have added an extra wrinkle: tile colour switching.  When you start a game with colour switching enabled, each spin of a wheel changes the colours of the tiles on the wheel (as well as their positions).  Each tile that was yellow becomes pink, and vice versa.  In this mode it is not enough to arrange the tiles in order; you must also return them all to yellow.

Play!

This application requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Windows Installer 3.1. If you have these components then click here to play.  If you don't have them (or you're not sure) then click here for the full installation screen.

To start a new game click the New Game button.  Choose a board size, such as 3 by 3 (very easy) or 5 by 5 (not so easy), then decide whether to apply colour switching.  Some board sizes also offer a choice of wheel configurations - use the arrow buttons underneath the preview board to choose one.

Demo movie