The roads ahead are long and winding...

May 2, 2015 5:07 AM

Alcazar is a neat little path-finding logic game. There are also printable puzzles, strategy tips and metapuzzles to be had.

The author has a two-part post (Part 1, Part 2) on the use of parity in the puzzle, and another author writes briefly about programming and problem-solving skills.

posted by Wolfdog (15 comments total)

Fun game.
Protip: The game lets you start multiple paths that you can join-up. So, you can work your way around from different starting points at the same time.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:40 AM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Using the ability to start multiple paths, just assess each square for the number of possible entrances/exits. Mark a path through those with only two, then go back and assess any squares which now have a reduced number of entrance/exits. Repeat.
posted by Thing at 5:51 AM on May 2, 2015

Alcazar is a great game, and it's astonishingly well implemented on all platforms. I've torn through all the puzzles on the iOS app... I want updates!
posted by painquale at 5:51 AM on May 2, 2015

Nice! Although I appear totally, completely stuck on number 3.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 7:14 AM on May 2, 2015

I bought it for android (from some "puzzle game recs" ask here at some point) and find it really enjoyable.
posted by jeather at 7:30 AM on May 2, 2015

Wait a second, I'm confused. Do I not have to touch every single square in the room with my path? The directions say "cross every square exactly once", which I assumed meant that I had to touch every single square, but now I think means that the squares in my path just can't be crossed more than once.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 7:33 AM on May 2, 2015

You need to go through every square one time, yes. (There are some puzzles where a few specific squares are marked as optional, they have a design printed on them.)
posted by jeather at 8:18 AM on May 2, 2015

Yeah, this is really well-designed.

The recently discussed Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection has a couple more path-finding puzzles with a vaguely similar flavor, namely "Pearl" and "Tracks".
posted by teraflop at 8:38 AM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Lovely visuals, and it turns I now less about graph theory than I thought. Thanks.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:45 AM on May 2, 2015

This is fun, and extremely elegant.

Pearl has made me wish to huck my tablet out a window more than once.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:03 AM on May 2, 2015

Alcazar is excellent and the touch interface on iOS is extremely intuitive, accurate and pretty.
posted by EmGeeJay at 2:02 PM on May 3, 2015

This has completely taken over my weekend. I got through the first nine pretty easily (surprisingly so -- I don't think of myself as being really good at these sorts of puzzles), tried #10 for several hours yesterday and finally got it this morning, and I've been stuck on #11 for several hours today. It's been nice to have that intellectually-frustrated feeling of working on something juuuuust beyond my reach. Thanks!
posted by jaguar at 8:43 PM on May 3, 2015

Oh excellent. Time? What time? We don't need no steenkin' extra time on our hands.
posted by Quasirandom at 11:55 AM on May 4, 2015

New obsession, thanks :)
posted by harriet vane at 7:06 AM on May 5, 2015

JUST GOT 11!

My brain must have been working it in my sleep. I've been working at it on and off for a few days, then Xed the whole thing out this morning and started from scratch -- and got it on my first try. That was fun.
posted by jaguar at 7:24 AM on May 5, 2015