Refractor
I plan to write more about the process but for now, there will be no more daily puzzles.
I do wish to pick up the project in the future. I had ideas and did some preliminary programming to support ideas like " portals". I will post an update if/when any such progress happens.
Concept
I wanted something fun for my newborn daughter to eventually play. I also wanted to build something semi-educational.
Refractor is a game about combining colors to reach the goals. The goal is to teach primary and secondary colors and sharpen problem solving skills.
New puzzles daily!
Tech
- Laravel
- Filament
- SQLite / LiteFS
- React
Architecture
The game is built using a single React context with over 50 unit tests. There is only one method exposed by
the context: interact(x: number, y: number): void.
All logic for moving around the board is handled within this interact method. It checks for tile availability, if the
next tile is a combination (refractor), and/or if a goal is reached.
On each turn, all goals are checked for completion. When all goals are completed, the game state is set to complete and the puzzle ends.
Admin
I built a small admin in Filament to view player and puzzle stats. That's really all it does at the moment.
Editor
As an admin, I have access to an editor which is driven entirely by shortcuts only I know. The editor looks exactly like the play screen but I've enabled keyboard shortcuts to place colored tiles, refractors, and goals. For example, I can hover over a tile and press "x" multiple times to cycle through the available refractor styles. Additionally, I can press "space" to clear the tile.
Hosting
Refractor is hosted on Fly.io. I'm a fan. It's easy, simple, and cheap. Refractor costs a little over $6/month to host, including the distributed SQLite database.
Future Plans
I really need to make a maze generator. Right now, I'm creating all puzzles by hand the night (or a couple nights) before.
It's not too hard, and I enjoy doing it, but I'm also missing out on the fun of a daily puzzle. Creating a maze generator would allow me to generate an infinite number of puzzles without additional effort.