Help with the jigsaw I created

[szyhooo]

Hi all!
Together with my wife we created an online jigsaw puzzle game. We tried very hard to make it close to the physical jigsaw puzzles but we would like to get a professional opinion. Thats where we need your help. The link goes below (unfortunately it is a Facebook game and needs Facebook account to play):

http://apps.facebook.com/electricjigsawpuzzle

And that's how the game looks like:


What it offers:
- full screen of your display to compose puzzles
- we picked the most beautiful pictures we found
- you can set number of pieces
- even 2000+ pieces (depends on screen resolution)
- you can scale picked picture
- you can rotate pieces
- puzzle pieces are generated randomly each time
- you don't have to turn pieces over

Well, what do you think?
Tom

[haujavi]

I have just played for a while and I think it's a good jigsaw puzzle game but I have to play more to say something more specific. The first thing that I have realised is that you have to play in full screen mode and I prefer the window style. When I play more I'll tell you more

[szyhooo]

Thank you for answer,
this full screen issue was mentioned also on a german puzzle forum and I think that I will create an off-facebook version that will take full browsers window but not a full screen.
Unfortunately Facebook limits the area I can display my game on so it is either a fullscreen or this small area.

thanks that you checked on it

[szyhooo]

Hey again.
I managed to prepare a non-fullscreen, non-facebook version for these of you who don't have facebook accounts or, like haujavi, just don't like fullscreen mode:

http://tszych.com/ElectricJigsawPuzzle/

Just notice that this version allows less puzzle pieces to cut an image into than the facebook version

[Bnx]

Hey szyhooo,

I just tried the non-facebook version, and here are my 2 cents:

I think the game looks great. I has a very polished finish and feels like a pro app.What i think you got specially right is the pieces cap depending on screen resolution (Tested @ 800x600, max 456 pieces and 1280x1024, max 1066 pieces, seems about the right piece size), and the shadow of the pieces which gave them a "real jigsaw" feel. Also the group handling (moving several pieces at a time) proved really useful to clear some space and do a quick sorting of pieces.

If I can make a suggestion, I believe a "shuffle" button could be a time-saver. A way of quickly spreading the pieces across the board, and change (randomly) which are on top of each other. That way you can quickly find some missing pieces that might be hiding under another piece.

I'll try it some more on my home monitor, in fullHD resolution.

Regards,

[szyhooo]

Hey Bnx, thanks for sharing your opinion
My goal was to make this game feel as much as a real, mechanical jigsaw as possible. And here I am asking for the opinion of the pro-puzzlers
As for the pieces size the smallest picece I allow is 30x30px and, as you noticed, the higher resolution the higher number of 30x30px pieces possible. Smaller pieces seemed hard to recognize for me. Shadows are calculated according to piece's size.
The game was meant to be played in fullscreen mode as it works on Facebook. There I can take under consideration the most common resolutions and this is how it works:
1. each picture is stored in 3 resolutions (different sizes, different proportions)
2. when you load the game I know what screen resolution you have and I load the picture which is best for you
3. if you have one of the 3 resolutions I targetted - the pictures fits perfectly in your screen

And when you play the standalone version that you played, Bnx:
1. Some area of your screen is taken by browser's toolbars (top part of the screen)
2. Each player has his/her custom size of the toolbars
3. You can scale your browser's window.
4. I cannot predict most commonly used browser's resolutions
5. The image doesn't fit very well
6. The pieces limit is lower

Well... if I succeeded in my murder attempt you are now dead: bored to death... Sorry about that but you touched the technical side and I couldn't help myself
I will think about your "shuffle" option. As far as I understand it's about puzzle pieces' depths - to change them randomly?

thanks again

[Bnx]

Hey szyhooo,

Don't worry about boring me, I did a bit of programming myself a few years ago I was just playing a bit more, this time in the facebook app. I played a 975 pieces game in fullHD. aain, the game looks preety good. you got what i ment exactly right. I believe one of the things that puts people off PC jigsaw puzzles is the tiresome sorting of pieces one by one by "click and drag" each piece, so anything that can improve this is a welcomed feature.

Let me show you what I mean:



this is about 6 or 7 min into the game. I separated by groups the dark pieces to the right, some sky edges at the top.... and I have like 900 pieces in the middle, stacked in 6, 7 or more layers. This makes finding he remaining dark pieces very difficult, as I have to serch trough several layers of similar looking pieces. If I had a shuffle button to send the pieces in the background to the top, the color would make them stand out and make it easier to sort

Also, another thing that just poped into my mind... I don't know if facebook apps allow this, but could it be possible to save and load your progress? The big puzzles are very time-consuming, and not everybody can (or will) spend 3 or 4 hours in a game....

Regards,

[szyhooo]

Ok I know what you mean, thanks for the example
You made a very good point and I'm going to add the 'shuffle' option soon.
As for the "save" button - sth like this certainly is allowed by Facebook. I plan to implement that option in the future. It's difficult from technical point of view so I left it for the end

By the way: impressive number of pieces
thanks for ideas

[szyhooo]

Ok, shuffle option already in

[Bnx]

Just tried it, works perfectly! Great addition!

Regards,

[haujavi]

I have no time now but I'm sure it'll be a great addition

[szyhooo]

I manage to add also a save game option. So now composing a 1000 or 2000 pieces jigsaw is not so painful

[haujavi]

I manage to add also a save game option. So now composing a 1000 or 2000 pieces jigsaw is not so painful

Great, now maybe I can finish some puzzles with this game

[Bnx]

I manage to add also a save game option. So now composing a 1000 or 2000 pieces jigsaw is not so painful

Now I don't have any excuses to try a big puzzle.... thanks!

regards,