Jigsaw Puzzle

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Latest Development Updates

OCTOBER 30, 2007 (CARLOS)

Bumped version to 1.
Removed runtime dependency to Creative Center. The code for development still lives there, because it is shared across activities, but the deployed bundle no longer depends on having Creative Center installed.
New icon as designed by Rich.

OCTOBER 26, 2007 (CARLOS)

Images where missing from the MANIFEST, and thus the bundle.
Disabled buttons are now grayed out.
Improved feedback on buddy state changes.
A 'Press Stop to Exit' message now appears in the game controls area at the end of a shared game.

As usual, don't forget to grab the updated Creative Center.

OCTOBER 17, 2007 (CARLOS)

Start Game button on shared mode not starts the game, instead of shuffling the pieces.
Made activity visible in the Home activity bar.
Improved user feedback on shared games.

Again, don't forget to update the Creative Center too.

OCTOBER 04, 2007 (CARLOS)

Changed to support new image loading from Journal.

Don't forget to update the Creative Center too!

SEPTEMBER 17, 2007 (CARLOS)

Shared games are now synchronized, timers can not be stopped and buttons cannot be pressed, except for those that make sense in that mode.

This is the first full release candidate for Jigsaw... don't forget to update the Creative Center too!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2007 (CARLOS)

Playing a shared game is now possible.

Mesh game state sharing is working.
Pieces can be concurrently picked up and dropped by multiple players over the same board.

Still there is plenty to do in terms of UI. Need to add a list of buddies and lock the buttons that should not be operated in game mode.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 (CARLOS)

Journal integration.
Mesh support started, but nothing visible yet.

AUGUST 24, 2007 (CARLOS)

Hint button is now a toggle button. Press once to show, press again to hide.
Updated lesson plans to the first draft supplied.

AUGUST 13, 2007 (CARLOS): Jigsaw Version 1.0

I have tested this Jigsaw Bundle in the latest sugar-jhbuild environment, on Build 432 and on Build 542. In the future only 542 will be targeted.

Pieces have 3 cut types implemented, one that does simple rectangular pieces without connectors, one with squared connectors and a classic-like connector version.
There are 3 difficulty levels, that try to have 3, 5 and 8 pieces on the larger side, and have them as square as possible.
The board size is set to take 60% of the available space on at least one of the sides (the larges one relative to the available space) and keeps the image aspect ratio.
Although the larger side will have the number of pieces set to that of the level being played, the other side may have less pieces. An attempt is always made to make the pieces almost square, so an image with a 4:3 aspect ratio on the highest level will get 8x6 pieces.
Transparency is implemented per piece, so dragging the pieces will create a somewhat ugly effect. This is a matter of CPU/GFX speed, so we will have to live with it for now.
Since my B4 was stopped at customs, I don't yet have it and this has been tested on the B2. It's slow but perfectly usable. Only thing is I had to add swap space using an USB flash drive.
The way pieces are cut is not fixed, so new connector types can be implemented and small deviations from the implemented ones are possible. Right now only the direction of the connectors is randomized, and for the desired effect I feel that is good enough.
There is a button called 'Board Hint' that shows the pieces outline in the game board, while it's being pressed.
I have created an activity icon which is basically the same as the easy level button.

ToDo:

Mesh based game support.
Put appropriate lesson plans.
Make translations work on the fly.

MMM Activity Center has to be updated to at least the version dated of today!

AUGUST 4, 2007 (CARLOS): First attempt at Jigsaw

Puzzle logic and basic sugar integration is in. The interface follows Slider Puzzle design, only larger.

I'm not yet cutting the puzzle pieces correctly, so only rectangles for now. Also lacking is the wireframe for hinting piece positions in the board.

Not yet enforced is the image size. I'll be doing a maximum and minimum width and height and then make sure that, while keeping the image aspect ratio, no dimension is bigger than defined, so we always have a good buffer for moving the pieces around.

This bundle was still tested on bundle 432, but future ones will be targeting 542.

Please be aware that I have moved the images and a lot of common code from the slider into MMM Activity Center, so you'll need a recent Activity Center for this to work. Slider does not yet get affected by this but will in the future.

We need an activity icon for the puzzle!

XO Development issues

Design and Functionality

Screenshots

Initial (basic) Jigsaw UI, please review.

Jigsaw UI at 1.0 1st attempt.

Feedback

First of all, this is the best puzzle software I've seen anywhere. It's great!

Once I pick which category of pictures I want, I don't see how to switch categories later. (I read that there is a key shortcut '/'. It should be available on a menu or button too.)
Once you fit a piece in the correct place, you can't move it anymore. I don't like that. You should be able to move a piece from the correct position to incorrect position.
I suggest pre-lighting the piece when it gets near a drop site or other clumpable pieces. Otherwise it is easy to place a piece _near_ to the correct place but it doesn't snap into position. I like how GCompris does it.
The board hint is a good idea. Along the same lines, there should be an option to show the final picture (perhaps grayed out) in the proper place to make it easier for really young kids. Similarly, it should be possible to hide the completed picture (even on the side) to make it harder for older kids.
To make it harder, it should be possible to rotate the pieces. The tangram activity in GCompris has a good user interface for rotation.
It would be fun to cut different shaped pieces. In addition to squares, triangles or hexagons would be great. Squares can rotate in 90 degree increments. Triangles can rotate in 120 degree increments.
It is hard to tell which option is selected for how-many-pieces and piece-shape. Can you do the selection in higher contrast?
It should be possible to move the pieces half way off the board. Otherwise you can't even try to fit the center piece in the corner with the big pieces.
Instead of shuffle, I suggest: stack (to keep all the pieces in a vertical pile), distribute (to spread out the pieces randomly to keep the faces of most pieces visible), and sort (to distribute but keep the corners, edges, middle pieces together).
Piece clumping: If you place two pieces together and they nominally fit then they should stick together. Pieces which are stuck together should move as a single group. Perhaps unclumping can be accomplished by double-click on the clump or clicking on an edge.

Jpritikin 22:03, 16 November 2007 (EST)

Content examples

Lesson Plans

Research

Source Code

Assets

Development

Media

Document	Description
JigsawPuzzle-3.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from January 13, 2008.
JigsawPuzzle-1.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from October 30, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from October 26, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from October 17, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from October 04, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from September 17, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from September 12, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from September 10, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from August 24, 2007.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, from August 13, 2007. Version 1.0 attempt.
JigsawPuzzle-0.xo history	Jigsaw Puzzle bundle, first release.

Resources

Jigsaw Puzzle, a java application hosted at MaMaMedia.com.

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