Inakube

Inakube is a puzzle video game currently available for the Apple iPod touch and iPhone devices.
The puzzle itself is essentially a 3D version of the Fifteen puzzle in which a scrambled set of tiles must be rearranged to form a picture, or a sequence of numbers. Rearrangement of tiles is possible, because one tile is missing leaving a vacant slot into which an adjacent tile may be moved.
However, an Inakube puzzle differs from the Fifteen puzzle and similar puzzles in that it is three dimensional, consisting of multiple (translucent) 3D cubes rather than 2D tiles, with one cube missing allowing an adjacent cube to be moved into the vacant slot. Also, instead of the user being required to complete a picture or pictures on the outside faces of the combined cubes, the user is instead required to complete an embedded 3D model that is contained within the translucent cubes.
This combination of a 3D slider puzzle within which is contained a 3D model is novel, so far as is known.
Choice of models
Once the user has tapped the ‘Start’ button on the initial screen, a choice of Inakube puzzle models is presented from which one is selected by the user. In the current version 5 models are available: Earth, Frog, Medieval City, Turtle and Skull.
The user can also choose between Challenge and Practise mode:
• In Challenge mode the selected model is automatically shuffled a number of moves depending on whether easy / medium / hard is chosen; the user then has a fixed time in which to ‘solve’ the puzzle.
• In Practise mode the selected model is not shuffled; instead the user becomes familiar with it by exploring the model while it is complete. Furthermore, the puzzle can be shuffled and reset by tapping the controls at the bottom of the screen. However, in this mode there is no ‘reward’ for completing the model.
If a particular puzzle was partially completed and aborted by the user then it may be continued by tapping the model followed by Continue (applied to Challenge mode only); otherwise tapping Start restarts the puzzle.
Game play
Once a model has been selected the ‘puzzle’ screen appears with the selected model displayed within its translucent cubes. As described above, one of the translucent cubes is necessarily missing which provides the vacant slot into which an adjacent cube can be moved by tapping it. The section of the 3D model contained in the vacant slot is also missing; however it is recovered by electing to show the ‘ghost cube’ via the options dialog box, (see the Options section below).
In Challenge mode (default), the model is shuffled as explained above by a number of moves (depending on whether easy, medium or hard was selected when the model was chosen) rotating as it does so. Once the model has ceased rotating (and therefore being shuffled) the no. of moves and the time remaining in seconds are displayed at the top of the screen, and a set of buttons displayed at the bottom (Help, Options and Quit).
In Practise mode, the model is displayed without being shuffled and no time limit is imposed to allow the user to become familiar with it. To assist the user in solving the model, two additional buttons, Reset (resets the puzzle to its unshuffled state) and Shuffle (shuffles puzzle), to those in Challenge mode are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
In both Challenge and Practise modes, the model is rotated by sliding a finger across the screen and zoomed in and out with the 'pinch' gesture; a cube is moved into the vacant position (or the 'ghost cube' if selected) by tapping a cube adjacent to it.
Solving a model puzzle (Challenge mode only) results in the ‘glass’ faces of each of the model’s cube shattering, followed by the model rotating and zooming in to be viewed in detail, and then zooming out into the distance whereupon the user is invited to restart the current model or to choose another.
Options
During play, the following options are available via the Options button at the bottom of the screen:
• Cube tap sound on / off.
• Show / hide the ghost cube.
• Background colour: black, red, green or grey.
These options may be changed at any point during the solving of the cube; during the display of the Options dialog box countdown of the remaining time is paused.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu