The Goal of the Game.

The goal of this logic puzzle game for a single player is to gain maximum amount of scores in the process of clearing away the mound.

Game board.

The game is played on the square board 8x8 squares. Two lines of squares adjoin every outer side of the board. These lines are occupied by the bricks of various coloring. The lower part of the playing board is partly occupied by the bricks which form the mound.

Move.

To make a move you should choose the brick, adjoining the board.

There are three kinds of the move in this game:

Drop – if you choose the brick, adjoining the board from above, it starts falling down, until it meets one of the bricks on the board, or it may fall down to the floor.

Throw – if you choose the brick on the right or on the left side of the board, it will move horizontally to the opposite side of the board, until it meets the obstacle of bricks on the playing board. If there's a vacant place under the brick after the contact, it falls down as in the drop.

Lift – if you choose the brick adjoining the board from below, it will raise one square higher onto the neighboring square of the board. If there's a column of bricks above it, the whole column will raise one square higher together with the chosen brick.

As a result of the move, the chosen brick goes onto the board. Vacant place at the edge of the board gets occupied by the brick that stood after it, and its place is occupied by a brick from a stack.

If as a result of your move, on the board groups of three and more similar bricks adjoining each other appear (blocks, as we can call them), they are eliminated and you gain scores. After the elimination of the block a vacant place appears, so the bricks having some vacant space under them, fall down. After all the bricks fall down, on the board there may appear new blocks, which will be eliminated as well etc., until all the bricks on the board get some stable position.

You get scores for all eliminated blocks, and this depends on the size of the block. You get one point for the three-piece block. The block of four bricks will make 2 points. The block of five bricks – 4 points, six – 7 points, the block of seven bricks will give you 11 points … etc.

After this the move is supposed to be completed.

Going over to the next level and the end of the game.

The game consists of the levels that differ by bricks' coloring and the way they are situated on the board when you begin a new level.

To proceed to the next level, you have to clear the board, so that there'd be no bricks left on its surface, and while doing this, you eliminate not more than 64 blocks.

If you've cleared the board and managed in less than 16 eliminated blocks – you get an additional bonus – 128 scores.

If you’ve kept within 16-31 blocks, you bonus will be 64 scores.

The game is over if to clear the board completely you haven't managed in 64 allotted blocks. Also the game is over if the board is covered by the bricks completely or you stopped the current game to start the other one.

If at the end of the game the player has set the best result out of eight primarily set parameters, it is registered in the High Score table.

Game types and its parameters.

There are three types of the game: Classic, Knockout and Mixed, which differ by the way the side move is made.

In "Knockout" variant the side move is called "knock". Its peculiarity is that when the brick meets the obstacle, it doesn't stop but proceeds on its move for one square together with the whole line of bricks that are in front of it. The bricks, under which a vacant place appears, fall down.

In "Mixed" variant both variants of this move are possible. Here you have to choose the brick at the edge of the board for the throw, and for the knock – a brick standing under it (in the latter case anyway the brick adjoining the board will move).

It should be mentioned, that every game requires some definite kind of your strategic and tactic skills. Though the games may seem very much alike, their essence is completely different.

Game parameters are the following: the range of the possible number of bricks' coloring (their minimum and maximum number), from 4 to 10, and the quantity of levels which you’ll have to pass before the number of colors increases by one.

When you start the game for the first time, your parameters are the following: the range of bricks' coloring from 5 to 8 with their increasing after every 5 levels. You may change these parameters when you start playing a new game. The first level requires the min. number of bricks' coloring. The initial arrangement of the bricks on the board depends on the levels passed with this number of bricks' coloring. The higher the level the larger number of bricks the mound has at the beginning of the level.

When you pass the set quantity of levels, the number of colors increases by one from the min. number of patterns to the max. one.

When all the levels are passed with the max.number of colors you come back to the min. number and its repeated in a circle. But the game gets complicated at every circle as the number of the bricks on the board increases at the beginning of every level.

You may change the parameters in many ways, as there are 70 game scenarios. It gives the opportunity to organize the game according to your wish. Every scenario has its own High Score table.

Interface.

Game interface is represented by a main form, at which the play board is situated. The move is fulfilled when you choose a brick outside the play board. The board itself does not occupy all the four corners of the computer's screen.

In the upper left corner there is the logotype of the game. If you click it there will appear a form "About".

In the upper right corner you see the informational field, which includes your current achievements. The score, the level number and the number of eliminated blocks at the current level are represented here from top to bottom. If you click the field, you'll see more detailed statistics of the current game.

In the lower right corner there are the records of the first three bricks from the stack which replace the spaces that become vacant after the last moves. When you click this area, your last move at this level will be reverted.

Control panel consisting of four buttons is situated in the lower left corner.

Upper left button stops the current game, shows the results of it and gives the possibility to go over to a new game. If it's necessary, you may also change the game type and its parameters. This form will appear automatically as well when the game is over.

Upper right button of the control panel gives the possibility to set the game preferences.

The lower left button of the mentioned area gives the possibility to get a High Score table according to the current parameters of the game.

Lower right button will show the form with the rules of the game, that you're reading now.

You may get to these functions using the program menu.

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Thank you for showing interest in logic games. We hope that this game will soon become your favorite game. Have a good time!