Do you remember the Memory game? It's a simple game that is easy with small grid sizes, but increases substantially in difficulty with larger grids. If your short term memory is anything like mine, it becomes a click fest as opposed to any feat of skill... but let's remind ourselves of how the game works:
- A grid of hidden squares is laid out. The grid is filled with randomly placed (currently hidden) images, each of which has a matching partner elsewhere on the board.
- The player selects a place on the grid, and the image is made visible.
- The player selects another place on the grid, and if the images match both are left permanently revealed. If not, after a short delay both are hidden again.
- Steps 2 & 3 are repeated until the whole grid is uncovered. Scoring is done by time taken or number of failed attempts to match a pair.
Really simple, right? Let's look at how our pseudocode will make this work. We begin by creating our grid:
[grid] = Grid of tiles size = (width x height) while([grid] is not full): insert [image] into random free place in [grid] insert [matching image] into random free place in [grid] set [image], [matching image] to hidden
The product of width x height must be even! 7x7 will not work - 6x7 is fine!
Next, we'll do a bit of processing for the game loop itself:
[previous image] = nothing while(all [images] in [grid] are not visible): if([click] on [hidden image]]): make [hidden image] visible if([previous image] == nothing): [previous image] = [hidden image] else if([previous image] matches [hidden image]): mark [previous image], [hidden image] visible else: (short delay): hide [previous image], [hidden image] [previous image] = nothing
There's a bit more to it than that, but this should give you a good idea. Continue on to see how we'll build this game in Javascript...