Document game description / game ID formats

[goyalyashpal]

Summary

Some documentation to enable manually writing the game id for a given game

Details

• the game-id is definitely generated by following some parameters of the game
• So, some documentation regarding that shall be there somewhere.
• maybe at least for the games for which it is reasonably simple

Use case

• Many of the games included in the package (like sudoku, loopy, etc) are also popular games in external places like:
  • Puzzles book
  • Newspaper
• This feature request will enable the user to translate that external game into this puzzles collection
• Combined with #511 , this will make the mentioned use case much much more user friendly

example of game ids:

### (Mostly) Confirmed:

game	sample-id (min size)	breakdown	id complexity (worst case)	comments
Solo	solo# 2x2: a3 e3 _1 e2 a	size (inter- columns x rows of sub-blocks) (not intra sub-blocks) 3 - digit on grid _ - continuous digits (no blanks) a , e - blank spaces	size 2
Towers	towers# 3: 2/1/2/ 2/3/1/ 2/1/2/ 2/3/1	grid size: Edge clues ordered as: Top, Bottom, Left, Right	4 x size
Loopy	loopy# 3x3 t0: a3 a203 c loopy# 3x3 t1: 0_ a1 a1 a1 22c1a1a2202	width x height t grid_type : Grid numbered squares Similar to solo without underscores, and CAPS for grid numbers > 9	??	see below
ADD_NEW_HERE

Loopy:
regular grid types like `t0` squares, `t2` honeycomb hexagons are simple
`t1` triangles: numbers layer wise: row major, triangle layer minor, column most minor (aka patch in semantic versioning lol)
for other grid types - not worth it imo 😅

Confirmed Trivials:

grid numbers in row major order - optionally with some separator

game	sample-id	breakdown	id complexity (worst case)
Dominosa	dominosa# 1: 001 110	order: Grid numbers	(n + 2) (n + 1)
Fifteen	fifteen# 2x2: 0,2, 1,3	width x height: Tiles: 1, ... , 9, ... , 13, ... Hole: 0	size
Singles	singles# 2x2: 22 12	width x height: Grid squares	size
ADD_NEW_HERE

### Non-confirmed

game	sample-id	breakdown	id complexity (worst case)	comments/ guesses
Blackbox	blackbox# w2h3m1M1: 39727ad7	w width h height m ?? M ?? : ??	??	number of balls
ADD_NEW_HERE

[chrisboyle]

@yashpalgoyal1304 Can you add some more detail of what you mean? Thanks

[goyalyashpal]

Hi chrisboyle, yes, i would add more detail. But i have got some work at hand at this moment. So, I cant say till when i will do that.

[goyalyashpal]

so, i meant that the game-id is generated by following some parameters of the game. So, some documentation regarding that shall be there somewhere. maybe at least for the games for which it is reasonably simple

example:

Edit: Moved in description, kept here just for archival

| game | sample id | breakdown | | -------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | Blackbox | w8h8m5M5:
674439b4a0ff341956e72d23 | w8h8 - width 8, height 8
*5 - 5 balls
rest - ??? | | Fifteen | 3x3:
8,5,3,
4,6,2,
1,0,7 | 4x4 - size
9, 13, ... - tile numbering
0 - the blank tile | | Dominosa | 3:
33203
02121
03201
31210 | 3 - order
rest - digits on the grid | | Loopy | 3x3t0:
a3a
203
c | 3x3 - size
a3a - digits on grid
a, a, c - ?? | | Solo | 2x2:
a3
e3
_
1e
2a | 2x2 - size
3 - digit on grid
_ - the solid dividing line
a, e - ?? |

[goyalyashpal]

i hope it makes sense 😅

[goyalyashpal]

| Solo | 2x2:
a3
e3

1e
2a | 2x2 - size
3 - digit on grid
- the solid dividing line
a, e - ?? |

per the explorations today, the format for solo (sudoku) is simple:

game	sample id	breakdown
Solo	2x2: a 3e 3_ 1e 2a	2x2 - size a/e (alphabet) - 1/5 blank space 3 - digit on grid _ - 2 consecutive digits (i.e. no blank space)

---

(Copying over from the other issue:)

ANDDD.... i deciphered the game description id for solo game:

2x2: a 3e 3_ 1e 2a spaces added by me are just for clarity only

In BNF, it would be:

STATEMENTS
<game_description> := <size>:<terminal_blank><other_cell_description>
<size> := <digit>x<digit>
<other_cell_description> := <cell_description> [ no. of given digits times ]
<cell_description> := <digit><blanks_with_next_digit>
<blanks_with_next_digit> := if not last cell then <digit_blank> else <terminal_blank>

LITERALS
<digit_blank> := <lower_alphabet> | <underscore>
<terminal_blank> := <lower_alphabet> | <nothing>

OBVIOUS LITERALS
digit
lower_alphabet
underscore
nothing

[goyalyashpal]

hi @chrisboyle

so, with recent success in decoding the game description / game ID for solo/sudoku, i am feeling fairly confident.

i was thinking of doing it on a - part-wise fashion, rather than all-or-nothing. the above tabular format : game | sample-id | breakdown feels good enough.

so, do you have any preference on at which file should i document these in? somewhere accessible by web as well would be good.

thanks

[chrisboyle]

As the description/ID formats are not Android-specific, I think this should appear as part of the upstream documentation. Places it could live include:

• The manual, the source for which is in puzzles.but and which appears on the web here as well as being built into the Android app and possibly other ports. I imagine it could fit nicely at the end of each game's page (edit: or maybe a new Appendix or other chapter)
• The developer documentation, source in devel.but, which appears here. This doesn't currently mention any specific games at all, so seems less appropriate.
• A new and separate document. Since the above two are written in Halibut, I imagine Simon might prefer any new docs to use Halibut too, but I haven't asked.

[goyalyashpal]

had already figured out singles, figured out towers too today (added in description)