Introduction

Symbol Puzzle is a single-player puzzle game where the user needs to place symbols into a grid, building up patterns. Each time the user places a new symbol into the grid, the application compares cells in the grid, looking for pattern matches. The objective of the program is to get the highest score possible by adding valid patterns into the grid.

The application can either be played using an 8 × 8 standard puzzle grid, or load in a 5 × 5 external file with a partially complete puzzle.

The user can place Q, T or X symbols into empty cells in the grid, attempting to make larger patterns of these letters. Each valid matched pattern awards the user 10 points. The application has a fixed number of symbols available – either 64 for the standard puzzle or varying amounts, dependent on which external puzzle file the user loads. A user can place each symbol as a Q, a T or an X into the grid, subject to there being space and subject to the placement rules.

Patterns are matched in a 3 × 3 section of the grid – a pattern is nine cells in total in a specific order. Once a valid match for a specific symbol has been identified, the cells in that 3 × 3 section are modified so that the same symbol cannot be placed into any of the cells in that 3 × 3 section of the grid in a future move. This prevents overlapping patterns of the same symbol type being placed into the grid. Symbols of a different type can be placed into those cells, however, allowing for patterns of a different symbol type to overlap. The grid can also contain blocked cells – denoted by an ‘@’ symbol. The user cannot place a symbol into these cells.

When the user has exhausted all their symbols, the puzzle is complete.