Darkwaar is an experiment in creating and publishing small playable ideas regularly.
Today's puzzle
Today's Darkwaar is The Count.
The Count is a small deterministic puzzle built around a simple tension: every action reveals information, but also gives hidden threats time to move.
How to play
The board is 25 cells. Some of them hold threats. One of them is the keep.
- A digit counts threats on the four sides of that cell. The cell itself is not counted
- Open a covered cell that touches a cell already open
- Opening a threat loses, and the threats stay where they are
- Opening the keep wins, and the threats stay where they are
- After any other open, each threat takes one step toward the keep
- A step is the first side, in the order up, right, down, left, that gets closer
- A threat will not step onto a cell another threat already occupies
- A threat that reaches the keep loses the game
- Restart, or R, begins again
Screenshots
The core
The number is a count of the four sides. It is not a mine on the cell, so a zero can still be the next step of a threat.
One cell starts open. The keep starts covered, one step past the cells you can touch. Opening the cell under that clearing is safe. The threats then move, and the keep's digit changes from 0 to 2. Opening the keep on the next turn wins before they step again. Opening the zero above the clearing puts a threat on the cell you will want next.