A game that combines wordplay with Sokoban-style block pushing? Are they mad?!?
Or am I in love?
Yes, it's a banner day for puzzler fans. Guilherme Töws—you may remember him from Bisection Dominion in CGDC4—has released a game which combines the joy of jumbles with the befuddlement of block-pushing. It's called Alphabox, and here's how it works: see those boxes with the letters on 'em? You've got to arrange them so they all spell out something, and so that all of them touch. They can be horizontal or vertical, just as long as each set of neighboring blocks forms part of a complete, valid word.
There are three parts to each level: figuring out how to arrange the letters, figuring out where they need to go and then actually getting them there. The first part is usually the easier task, but if you do need help, you can always click the hint button to get an idea of the word(s) you need to spell. Then,you have to decide where to put them—it's not always obvious right away and you might sometimes play around with the blocks for a while before realizing that you're just going to have to put the words somewhere else.
Luckily, Alphabox recognizes solutions apart from the one intended, so sometimes you can get creative and mix the letters around, saving a few moves. If you do screw up, there's both an undo and a reset button, although since the [arrow] keys are used for movement, it would be nice if there were hotkeys to match. There's also an easy-to-use level editor, so the possibilities are as endless as the English language. In fact, I challenge you to make a puzzle that, when solved, spells out a complete sentence! So what are you waiting for? Get cracking! Play Alphabox.
Hah. I read "combines wordplay" as "combines swordplay" only to be sorely disappointed when I started playing :P
Actually, there are hotkeys for Undo and Restart - U and R do the trick.
I'm definitely in love. <3
Funny thing though, I'm stuck on Easy 1, because I have no idea what a Progenitor is. :-S
A superb idea, definitely good for a place in the "simple idea" category of this years JIG-Game voting!
LSN :DDDDDD
I got agree with bioLarzen about that.
And I managed to get Easy 1 shortly after, despite still not knowing what Progenitor means. :P
Oh, and zxo, you use R to Restart and U to Undo. I don't know if it's something the author added after your review though.
Normal 6 anyone?
"Vulpine" is FOX and what is the word for "Praise"?
I have an E, O and D left to intertwine somehow with FOX
Normal 6
ack, that was a terrible level, too cramped
I have no clue what it was supposed to be, but in the lower left corner I did FOXED across and DO down
Hehe, JIG has a level!
SHA, I was stumped on 6 for a fair while too. I eventually came up with
FOX vertically on the far right wall, and ODE vertically alongside it, hence creating horizontally OF, DO, and EX in the process ;)
I'm glad Zara brought this back, definitely one of his best. I'm hoping he'll bring back Fugue sometime soon too.
That works too, thanks. By terrible, I mean difficult, terrible for me because it took forever to finish.
This game is quite challenging. A nice change for this type of game where you are moving boxes around and it is generally easy to win.
I can't get past easy 1. can someone help me???
Here's how I solved Easy 1, though I doubt it's the intended solution:
Leave MOM where it is, spell MAD vertically using the second M in MOM, and then use the final D to spell AD with the A in DAD:
MOM
AD
D
What I did for Easy 1 was
Move Dad above Mom like this:
DADMOM
Not sure if that's what the solution was supposed to be.
I'm stuck on Normal 2, however. I know
You need to spell POT and PAN by sharing the P
but can't quite figure out how to get the letters in that order.
Okay, not sure what HTML I needed to use for that previous post, but it didn't display how I wanted:
The MOM should be one space to the right of DAD, spelling AM and DO going down.
Being limited in HTML tags is somewhat annoying. ¬_¬
[Edit: I've fixed your comment above. Sorry about the annoying limitation in HTML tags. Trust me, though, if we didn't limit what HTML you can use, the comments here would appear much more annoying than the limited HTML is to you. -Jay]
The words for Normal 2 are actaully top and tan, not pot and pan
Does anyone know the words for Hard 2?
I personally went for peg, echo, and cog, but there's likely to be other (better?) solutions.
Whether those are the correct words or not they word and they sound like they could be right, but next time when you give answers please try to use html spoiler tags. The html codes are right above where you type in your comments.
Excuse my misspelling above. Whether those are the correct words or not they *work*
What it looks like when you use spoilers:
Layout and words for Hard 2 The correct words thanks to shockedfrog
In the box on the left put PEG to the right edge so that the C from ECHO is in the "doorway". dashes - are blank spaces
P--C
ECHO
G--G
I am familiar with spoiler tags, I just chose not to use them in this particular case. :)
I'm noticing that very few players are signing up for the highscores, which is a shame as this is one of the game's biggest strengths. If I remember correctly, the original java version allowed players to just enter a name after completing a level instead of having to sign up, perhaps it would be better to bring that option back.
There, you are now free from the tyranny of website logins for scores and levels. The game will automatically pick a guest name for you if you don't type one in.
If you're one of the 'Guest unknown' levels and would like to be credited, mail me.
Woo, nice :)
Gotta love the Undo function - I'd be lost without it...
can anybody help me with the one with 2 cats??
Managed to get as far as Hard 7 (missing out Normal 10 and Hard 5 along the way), but aaarg this is just to complicated now. If there were better hints...
For whoever mentioned "combines swordplay with Sokoban-style..." — check out Deadly Rooms of Death.
As for this game, a clever concept, and well executed. Not holding my attention just at the moment, though, but that's my attention for you, and no fault of the game's.
Two Cats:
I Switched the letters in the first Cat to spell "Act" I then moved the second "cat" under the first so that the A from Act and the T from cat spelled "at"
help on easy 4 please
Update