Introduction
I first ran into Comboling through random web surfing. I quickly found it addictive and fun. I had an up and coming project for a GUI class, and decided to port this game as best as I could in the time frame that was available for me. I had to do as much research on the game as I could to give proper rights to the person who conceptualized the game. I found no help in determining the algorithmic means of tile placement. Through much testing, I derived my own.
Background
Comboling was conceptualized by Jerome Lulling in the mid 80's while he was staring at the tiles on his bathroom floor. To play the original game, please visit www.comboling.com
To learn more about Jerome Lulling, please visit www.jeromelulling.com.
Points of Interest
I learned how to create a solvable puzzle for every tile-placement iteration. I started the problem off very complex to try and find a clever way to determine that the "path" that the tile placement was going would come up with "traps" that would inevitably make the puzzle unsolvable. I even ran into gruff when I threw in a slope calculation on accident. I eventually ran into the simple solution that if a tile were placed, then the direction of the previous tile must not be an available option for the next tile placement. That, and simply only that, made my algorithm work, and through rigorous beta testing, I was able to prove to myself enough that I did it. Please Enjoy!
