news

Polished, Expanded & Lite!

The Hard Puzzle Team has been hard at work on a *completely re-coded* version of Hard Puzzle, available to all current players in the very near future!  Features include;

  • Smoother performance and gameplay
  • The much anticipated “Ultra Hard” mode
  • At least one hidden mode!
  • A patented “Speed Sense” feature that should allow sub-10 second solutions to Hard Puzzle!

We will also be releasing a sister app, “Hard Puzzle Lite,” as a free download, with a reduced feature set from the paid version.

Keep on solvin’!

The Hard Puzzle Team

Speed and Hi-Scores

Wow, a new 14.36 second solution for Hard Puzzle for iPhone was recorded today; that’s mighty fast puzzle solvin’!

Other puzzlers out there, don’t be too daunted! - the “weekly” hi-scores charts are still up for grabs, with only the top 3 slots filled; just solve Hard Puzzle one time and get your name in lights!

In other news; Oh Lordy, the “Insanity” puzzle mode is almost ready and should be pushed out with the next update; can you say “over 28-thousand moves!?”  Yep, Hard Puzzle is determined to live up to its reputation as…  ”The Hardest Puzzle in the App Store!”

Peace, outtie,

The … Continue Reading

Live!

Hard Puzzle is now alive and kicking on an Apple App Store near you!  Naturally an updated version is already in the works to address a few minor quirks.  Updates are of course free if you have already purchased Hard Puzzle.

For those of you already enjoying Hard Puzzle, we encourage you to hone your skills and try for a solution in under 30 seconds; we are preparing some unlockables for your efforts…

Cheers!

The Hard Puzzle Team

The Gray Code

Spending some time researching Gray Codes via Wikipedia; these things are all over the place! It looks like Chinese Rings has been around since 2nd century A.D., not 15th century as previously thought. There’s also a million patents out there for “fast” solutions and exotic permutations of the code. Almost every complex circuit uses the codes as a form of error correction, and Beckett even wrote a play with the actors entering and leaving the stage in a special Gray code order! Actually, Beckett was unable to “solve” the code with only 4 actors following his … Continue Reading

Getting Ready for Beta

Hard Puzzle has a new look, and its almost ready for prime-time! It is taking longer to code the HiScore list than the actual puzzle!

Progressing

Working on squashing a bug in the sound engine for Hard Puzzle that is causing delays in responding to touch events and preventing the otherwise inevitable sub-20 second solution. Strongly suspect Apple’s AVAudioPlayer library is not yet ready for primetime – no worries, Apple, we still love you and your adorable little iPlatform.  Switching to OpenAL should fix things up pretty nice for the time being.  Props to this guy for the only (apparently) working OpenAL example on the ‘Net as of this writing, btw.

Also on the subject of sound; do we go with some “fusion/free” jazz … Continue Reading

Greetings!

And a salutation to boot…