When you start a new game and you have never completed level 1, you will now see some instructions about how to solve puzzles. This is for all the players who feel that they don't need to go through the tutorial.
On your first move in a SOLO or COOP game, you can now use the "X" button on Xbox controller (and Tilt Five™ wand) or the "X" key to get a hint which rods to swap. Hopefully, this helps new players to get started with the puzzles.
Since there is now a proper hint available, the former "UI hints" have been renamed to "UI tips". (Probably still not the best name. "Tooltips" would be a good name, but the tips aren't tooltips in the usual sense.)
Speaking about UI tips: the UI tip to select a rod has been changed to "select rods" to clarify that you have to select more than one rod to swap a pair of rods.
Of course, the demo has also been updated, and I will update the manual soon. As always, please let me know any comments or problems in the comments!
First Weekly January Challenge
The first weekly challenge of 2023 is a play-through of levels 1+ to 12+ starting with code 1003-01. I didn't solve these puzzles before recording; therefore, it took longer to solve fewer puzzles than in previous weeks. If you want to challenge yourself and solve (some of) the puzzles before watching the video then make sure that MOVE LIMIT is ON (in SETTINGS > MODES) and start a game with NEW GAME (in the main menu) and select CODE instead of a level to enter the code 1003-01.
Note that you can play up to level 7+ even with the free demo version.
My plan is to continue with level 13+ next week.
icosi-do is part of Game Development World Championship 2022!
icosi-do has been accepted at the Game Development World Championship 2022! See the game's info page here: https://thegdwc.com/games/8dad6b67-a3ca-417a-9104-73691a5d4be2
Fifth Weekly December Challenge
The last weekly challenge of 2022 is another play-through of levels 1+ to 15+; this time starting with code 1002-01. If you want to challenge yourself and solve (some of) the puzzles before watching the video then make sure that MOVE LIMIT is ON (in SETTINGS > MODES) and start a game with NEW GAME (in the main menu) and select CODE instead of a level to enter the code 1002-01.
Note that you can play up to level 7+ even with the free demo version.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Steam Winter Sale Discount: -25%!
icosi-do is part of the Steam Winter Sale 2022 with a discount of 25%!
YouTuber Final Boss Editing reviews icosi-do!
YouTuber Final Boss Editing plays and reviews icosi-do making many good suggestions. I'll definitely look into providing an optional hint - at least for the first move. Thanks!
Fourth Weekly December Challenge
This week's challenge is another play-through of levels 1+ to 15+; this time starting with code 1001-01. If you want to challenge yourself and solve (some of) the puzzles before watching the video then make sure that MOVE LIMIT is ON (in SETTINGS > MODES) and start a game with NEW GAME (in the main menu) and select CODE instead of a level to enter the code 1001-01.
Note that you can play up to level 7+ even with the free demo version.
Also note, that the Steam Winter Sale is starting on December 22!
Happy Holidays to everyone!
Steam Winter Sale Is Starting December 22!
Third Weekly December Challenge
This week, I'm starting with posting videos where I play through levels 1+ to 15+; this time starting with code 1000-01. If you want to challenge yourself and solve (some of) the puzzles before watching the video then make sure that MOVE LIMIT is ON (in SETTINGS > MODES) and start a game with NEW GAME (in the main menu) and select CODE instead of a level to enter the code 1000-01.
Note that you can play up to level 7+ even with the free demo version.
Solving puzzles on higher levels is quite challenging; therefore, I had to solve all the puzzles before recording - otherwise the video would be way too long or I would have to edit out large parts. Apart from just solving the puzzles within the move limit, other possible challenges are to solve the puzzles in fewer moves or in less time.
As always, please let me know what you think of this kind of challenge!
Are there other puzzles like icosi-do?
I've started recording videos of me playing icosi-do, but after listening to them, I decided to start all over again with a new microphone. So, I ordered a new microphone, and while I'm waiting for it, I wondered whether there are other puzzles like icosi-do.
icosi-do is based on the concept of edge coloring, which is one type of graph colorings. The most important type of graph colorings is actually vertex coloring; and, in fact, every edge coloring of a graph is equivalent to a vertex coloring of another graph. So, are there other puzzles that use edge coloring or the more general vertex coloring?
Steam user Lilly told me about the game Npc Problems: Vertex Coloring, which is about vertex coloring small, individually designed graphs; but today I realized that there is a much more popular puzzle related to vertex coloring, namely Sudoku. This is actually well known and the relevant graph even has its own Wikipedia page: Sudoku graph.
All this made me wonder whether there is a Sudoku-like form of icosi-do, i.e., a puzzle that is equivalent to edge coloring an icosidodecahedral graph (like in icosi-do) but where you have to write numbers 1 to 4 into 60 slots with specific constraints (like in Sudoku)? For the answer, one has to find the equivalent vertex coloring problem and its graph. In general, edge coloring a graph is equivalent to vertex coloring the corresponding line graph. In case of the icosidodecahedral graph, the corresponding line graph is (as far as I understand it) the graph of a rhombicosidodecahedron with additional edges on the diagonals of all 30 square faces. To solve the vertex coloring of this graph, one could then assign the numbers 1 to 4 to the 60 vertices such that the vertices of each square face feature each number from 1 to 4 exactly once (similar to a 2x2 subgrid of a 4x4 Sudoku), and the additional constraints that the 3 vertices of each of the 20 triangle faces feature 3 different numbers.
The problem with a rhombicosidodecahedral graph (with or without the additional diagonal edges) is that it is best depicted in 3D. On the other hand, the vertices of Sudoku graphs are best arranged in a flat 2D grid, which is perfect for printing them on paper or showing them on flat screens; thus, my new Sudoku-like puzzle is unfortunately unlikely to become as popular as 9x9 Sudoku.
Talking about useless ideas: I realized that solving a Rubik's cube could also be considered a vertex coloring problem with 6 colors, for example using a graph of 6 x 9 = 54 vertices corresponding to the 54 colored squares of a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube where each vertex is connected to all vertices that correspond to squares on other faces of the cube, but not connected to vertices corresponding to squares on the same face. Of course, that's a relatively large graph and applying a rotation of a Rubik's cube to that graph is not trivial (each rotation changes the colors of up to 20 vertices).
In any case, it's nice to know that two of the most popular puzzles (Rubik's cube and Sudoku) may be solved as vertex coloring problems and are therefore at least somewhat related to icosi-do. I'm sure that's a good omen! ;)
