Build Puzzle 15 - Walkthrough

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Introduction

In one of my articles I wrote about My First Windows 8 Application – Metro Puzzle there I talked about Windows 8 Metro application and demonstrate how to build app for Win 8, the application I built was Puzzle 15. later I started to get requests to explain the steps for building that game.

So I'm writing the steps for building a Puzzle 15 Game.

Background

The 15-puzzle (also called Gem Puzzle, Boss Puzzle, Game of Fifteen, Mystic Square and many others) is a sliding puzzle that consists of a frame of numbered square tiles in random order with one tile missing. The puzzle also exists in other sizes, particularly the smaller 8-puzzle. If the size is 3×3 tiles, the puzzle is called the 8-puzzle or 9-puzzle, and if 4×4 tiles, the puzzle is called the 15-puzzle or 16-puzzle named, respectively, for the number of tiles and the number of spaces. The object of the puzzle is to place the tiles in order (see diagram) by making sliding moves that use the empty space.

Step 1: The Puzzle Base

There are several ways to build the puzzle layer, In my demo I chose a simple way of a Canvas with 16 children's type of StackPanel.

Basically I have a lower canvas with the Board image, on top of it I put another canvas with 16 Stack Panels, each panel spread to 100X100

Now, when I have the main puzzle structure I added an image of size 95x95 to each Stack Panel. (the reason it’s not 100X100 – is to leave a space between each), for each image I set the Tag property with the value of the image – 1.png Tag = 1

I’ve also add a timer for counting the time took to solve this puzzle and another int property to count the moves the user made.

Step 2: Find

One of the most common things we’ll use in our code, is FIND:

• Find Stack Panel by Image Id
• Find the Empty Panel
• Find the Value by position

Find the parent of image with a specific Tag value

StackPanel FindStackPanelByTagId(int tag)
{
  if (tag == 16)
  {
     return (from stackPanel in ContentPanel.Children.OfType<StackPanel>() 
          where stackPanel.Children.Count == 0 select stackPanel).First();
  }
  else
  {
     return (from stackPanel in ContentPanel.Children.OfType<StackPanel>()
             from img in stackPanel.Children.OfType<Image>()
             where Convert.ToInt32(img.Tag) == tag
             select stackPanel).First();
  }
}  

Find the position of StackPanel without children

int FindEmptyItemPosition()
{
    int index = 15;
    for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++)
    {
        if (((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i]).Children.Count == 0)
            return index;
 
        index--;
    }
    return 0;
} 

Get the Tag value by StackPanel position

int FindItemValueByPosition(int position)
{
  return ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[position]).Children.Count > 0 
          ? Convert.ToInt32(((Image)((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children
            [position]).Children[0]).Tag) : 16;
} 

Step 3: Scrambles

Now we have are puzzle structure and Find method helpers, the first thing is to Scramble or puzzle.

So I wrote a method that runs n times and generate random numbers from 1 to 16, for each number find the current StackPanel that hold him. (FindStackPanelByTagId) .

If First and Second number are smaller then 16 then - swipe the images and tag values.

If One of the values is 16 the swipe - One Stackpanel will be cleared of Items

 void Scrambles()
{
    var count = 0;
    while (count < 25)
    {
        var a = _rnd.Next(1, 17);
        var b = _rnd.Next(1, 17);
 
        if (a == b) continue;
 
        var stack1 = FindStackPanelByTagId(a);
        var stack2 = FindStackPanelByTagId(b);
 
        if (a == 16)
        {
            var image2 = stack2.Children[0];
            stack2.Children.Clear();
            stack1.Children.Add(image2);
        }
        else if (b == 16)
        {
            var image1 = stack1.Children[0];
            stack1.Children.Clear();
            stack2.Children.Add(image1);
        }
        else
        {
            var image1 = stack1.Children[0];
            var image2 = stack2.Children[0];
 
            stack1.Children.Clear();
            stack2.Children.Clear();
 
            stack1.Children.Add(image2);
            stack2.Children.Add(image1);
        }
 
        count++;
    }
} 

Step 4: Check Board

Each move the user do, perform a loop and checks values from 1 to 16. if the numbers are not in the correct order than nothing happen.

Else You stop the game timer and display a win message.

 void CheckBoard()
{
    var index = 1;
    for (var i = 15; i > 0; i--)
    {
        if (FindItemValueByPosition(i) != index) return;
        index++;
    }
 
    _timer.Stop();
    WinGrid.Visibility = System.Windows.Visibility.Visible;
} 

Step 5: Move Items

Before we can apply move of items we need to check several things, the first thing is:

Check if the Item Can move, Checking all panels around the specific item with -1 +1 -4 +4, if one of them is empty then he can move.

 StackPanel CanMove(UIElement itemToMove)
{
    var count = ContentPanel.Children.Count;
    for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
        if (!(ContentPanel.Children[i] is StackPanel)) continue;
 
        var stackPanel = (StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i];
        if (!stackPanel.Children.Contains(itemToMove)) continue;
 
        if (!IsBorderSwich(i, i + 1) && i + 1 <= 15 && ContentPanel.
            Children[i + 1] != null && 
           ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i + 1]).Children.Count == 0)
            return ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i + 1]);
 
        if (!IsBorderSwich(i, i - 1) && i - 1 > -1 && ContentPanel.
            Children[i - 1] != null && 
           ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i - 1]).Children.Count == 0)
            return ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i - 1]);
 
        if (i + 4 <= 15 && ContentPanel.Children[i + 4] != null && 
           ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i + 4]).Children.Count == 0)
            return ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i + 4]);
 
        if (i - 4 > -1 && ContentPanel.Children[i - 4] != null && 
           ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i - 4]).Children.Count == 0)
            return ((StackPanel)ContentPanel.Children[i - 4]);
 
    }
    return null;
} 

The Second - if both of the items you want to swipe are in the Board borders do nothing.

private readonly int[] _bordersNums = { 0, 4, 8, 12, 3, 7, 11, 15 };

bool IsBorderSwich(int a, int b)
{
    return _bordersNums.Contains(a) && _bordersNums.Contains(b);
}

 private void ItemManipulationStarted(object sender, 
                                          ManipulationStartedEventArgs e)
{
    var item = (UIElement)e.OriginalSource;
    if (!(item is Image)) return;
 
    var to = CanMove(item);
 
    if (to != null)
    {
        _moves++;
        txtMoves.Text = _moves.ToString();
        MoveItem(item, to);
        CheckBoard();
    }
 
    e.Handled = true;
    e.Complete();
} 

 void MoveItem(UIElement item, StackPanel targetPanel)
{
    foreach (var stackPanel in
        ContentPanel.Children.OfType<StackPanel>().Where(stackPanel => 
    stackPanel.Children.Count > 0 && stackPanel.Children.Contains(item)))
    {
        stackPanel.Children.Remove(item);
    }
 
    targetPanel.Children.Add(item);
} 

bool CheckIfSolvable()
{
    var n = 0;
    for (var i = 1; i <= 16; i++)
    {
        if (!(ContentPanel.Children[i] is StackPanel)) continue;
 
        var num1 = FindItemValueByPosition(i);
        var num2 = FindItemValueByPosition(i - 1);
 
        if (num1 > num2)
        {
            n++;
        }
    }
 
    var emptyPos = FindEmptyItemPosition();
    return n % 2 == (emptyPos + emptyPos / 4) % 2 ? true : false;
}

public void NewGame()
{
    _moves = 0;
    txtMoves.Text = "0";
    txtTime.Text = Const.DefaultTimeValue;
 
    Scrambles();
    while (!CheckIfSolvable())
    {
        Scrambles();
    }
 
    _startTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(1);
    _timer.Start();
 
    GridScrambling.Visibility = System.Windows.Visibility.Collapsed;
}