JigPlay
Version 0.5
Oct 2010
François Pessaux
Jigplay is
a simple jigsaw game allowing to create and play custom jigsaws from
JPG or PNG image files.
Not surprisingly, jigsaws are the well-known game in which a picture is
scattered into multiple parts randomly spreat on a board and that you
must connect in order to recover the original picture.
JigPlay is
free software, provided with no charge ... and no warranties
This means that you do not
have anything to pay to
use it.
This also means that I
won't be responsible
in any case of whatever happens if you use it. I also have no
obligation to change, fix,
upgrade or whatever
JigPlay. This
program is
gracefully provided to who
wants and need it, in any case I remain the author, with the right to
do whatever I want
with it and its source code.
Once it will reach a stable state, sources will be released to
provide support and example for people wishing to develop on the
machine. Source code liense doesn't follow a particular licence,
instead here are the rules to apply when using this source code. The
source code can be freely distributed, it can be used as inspiration
but if you intend to extend
JigPlay reusing
entire parts of the source code, then you will have to make your
program also free as well as its source code. In other words, you can
borrow some parts but if you borrow all, then make your software and
its code as free as
JigPlay.
JigPlay is
completely finger-driven, providing modal dialogs for actions other than pieces
movements. Pieces are selected by clicking on them on the play-field
with a finger then dragging them holding the finger down
while moving it.
Scrolling around the play-field is done the same way but touching the screen at a location without piece.
Important
note: Currently, in order to "activate" the scrolling mode, the screen
must be touched on a blank area once to switch from piece dragging to
scrolling. Then, pressing and dragging the screen on a blank area
really scrolls. This is currently a technical issue I didn't get rid
of... Hence, the process looks like, tapping a first time on a blank
area of the play-field, then tapping and holding down while dragging to
move around the play-field.
To start a new game from the introduction screen, select
the "New Game" button.
A dialog then pops allowing to specify the picture file to use and the
number of pieces it must be scattered in and optionnally a scale factor to apply to the image.
Selecting the image to map on the jigsaw is simply done via the "Select Image" button. Supported
image formats are JPG and PNG.
Pictures are not limited in size. However, if the selected image is
larger than the screen, the play-field will scroll in order to access
the whole image. Note that the size of the play-field is always larger
than the image in order to leave room enough to move pieces around and
leave the central part of the play-field available for the image
reconstruction. It is however possible to resize an image to make it
fitting a desired dimension. To do so, check the "Resize Picture" button and move the slider
to select the desired width and height for the image. Image can only be
shrunk, not enlarged, by a factor ranging between 0.2 and 1 time the
original size (i.e. between 20% to 100% of the image size).
The number of pieces can be selected among a popup displaying the
suggested dimensions. These dimensions are computed to that, according
to the image size (possibly scaled) pieces are pretty square and not
smaller that a certain dimension (currently 30 pixels). Enforcing
quasi-square pieces makes a better visual rendering of them. Modifying
the size of the picture (either by scaling it or changing the picture)
will result in different suggested resolution because the need to get
square pieces divides the image width and height differently. When a
suggested dimension is selected, the average piece size is displayed as
information.
This is currently not supported on iPhone. Sorry, this will come later
.
This is currently not supported on iPhone. Sorry, this will come later
.
Initially, pieces are sprout randomly on the play-field. The "Actions" button in the upper part of the game window display several entries, among those "Arrange Pieces on Borders" sends the pieces all around
the corners of the play-field, hence leaving its central area free for
image reconstruction.
Depending on the picture background or most represented color tones,
the background of the play-field can be changed to contrast better with
the pieces by selecting the "Action button", then the item "Change
Background
Color".
A window pops-up allowing to select the color to use for painting the
play-field background. Simply select a color by dragging your finger on
the colors and selecting the "OK" button.
Currently JigPlay
is at an early development stage. More features are planned, among
which:
- Rotation of the pieces : currently pieces are not rotated, they
are just displaced (translation) randomly around the play-field.
Allowing them to be rotated by quarters of turns would add a bit of
challenge in the game.
- Localization in various languages : currently, all the software
is in English, other languages should make the game more friendly.
TODO
For any suggestion, comment, bug report, feel free ton contact me by
email at:
francois_pessaux<HAT>yahoo.fr
(replace
<HAT>
by
@)
and / or consult my Web page at:
