Sliding tile puzzles in video games

Comments

• Imipolex G

  2016-11-04 02:41:04

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  I find these rather annoying, personally
  
• Bee

  2016-11-04 16:03:26 edited 2016-11-04 16:06:32

  Bee's guide to solving sliding n-tile puzzles of arbitrary size!

  
  

  0) Identify where the empty square must finally rest.

  1) Fill in the row opposite to that space, one tile at a time, until there are only two tiles left in a corner.

  2) Find the two tiles that need to go in the two remaining spaces, and move them into the 2x3 block starting at those remaining spots.

  3) Use the middle row of that 2x3 to shuffle the tiles until they form a cycle where the two target tiles are in the correct order to drop into place in the now-completed bottom row.

  4) As each row is complete, never touch them again.  Repeat 1-3 until two rows remain.

  5) Use 3x2 rectangles on the left to fill in columns the same way as in 2x3.  Repeat until only three squares (and the empty) remain in the corner.

  6) The remaining three tiles and empty square will already line up in way that may be simply cycled into place.  If they don't, the puzzle was mathematically unsolvable to begin with.