Square routes
A new kind of puzzle game from renowned puzzle designer, author, and former editor of Games Magazine R. Wayne Schmittberger.
"...a perfect challenge for GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES readers."--Thomas L. McDonald, GAMES World of Puzzles
Maneuver your Adventurer through woods, rivers, and mountains, choosing among five modes of transportation each turn. Good planning is the key to completing your round trip within each puzzle’s move limit.
Square Routes is not ad-supported!
Download Square Routes today and enjoy a new kind of puzzle experience that exercises your brain and not your fingers.
The app comes with 15 free puzzles, and additional packs of 50 puzzles are available for purchase.
Maneuver your Adventurer through woods, rivers, and mountains, choosing among five modes of transportation each turn. Good planning is the key to completing your round trip within each puzzle’s move limit.
Square Routes is not ad-supported!
Download Square Routes today and enjoy a new kind of puzzle experience that exercises your brain and not your fingers.
The app comes with 15 free puzzles, and additional packs of 50 puzzles are available for purchase.
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FEATURES
- This new kind of puzzle uses a grid of squares representing a map.
- These squares each show one type of terrain: Field, Road, Water, Woods, Mountain, Bridge, and Goal. The Bridge square is both Road and Water.
- To solve a puzzle, start your Adventurer on any Goal square by tapping it.
- Next, choose a mode of transportation by tapping on the Horse, Bicycle, Canoe, Hang Glider, or Hot-Air Balloon icon below the puzzle grid. The possible squares your Adventurer can reach using that mode of transportation are highlighted.
- Tap on a highlighted square to select it, and your Adventurer moves there. Continue this way until you reach the other Goal square(s) and complete a return trip to your starting Goal square.
- But there’s a catch! Each mode of transportation may only be used a limited number of times, as indicated by the numbers accompanying their icons. A transportation mode’s number decreases by one each time it is used, and once that number reaches zero, it may not be used again in that puzzle. The number of times each mode may be used varies from puzzle to puzzle, and some modes are not available at all in some puzzles.
- Different modes allow you to move onto one or more squares of specific terrain types, as follows:
- • Using a Horse allows you to move 1, 2, or 3 field squares (which include Goal squares); or 1 or 2 woods squares; or 1 mountain square.
- • Using a Bicycle allows you to move 1, 2, or 3 road squares.
- • Using a Canoe allows you to move 1 or 2 water squares.
- • Using a Hang Glider allows you to jump from a mountain square to a field square that is exactly three squares away in the same diagonal.
- • Using a Hot-Air Balloon allows you to jump from a field square to another field square that is exactly five squares away in the same row or column.
- Movement Rules
- 1. When you move by Bicycle, Canoe, or Horse, each part of the move must be made onto a square of the appropriate terrain type that shares a side (not just a corner) with the square that you are leaving. You may have begun the move from any kind of square.
- 2. A Horse move must be made entirely onto squares of a single type (field, woods, or mountain)—not a combination of different terrain.
- 3. Goal squares count as field squares for Horse movement purposes, but they may not be used as the starting or ending squares for travel by Balloon or Hang Glider. Reaching a Goal square ends a Horse move.
- 4. Bridge squares are considered to be both water and road squares, and so may be traveled onto by either Bicycle or Canoe.
- 5. The choice of starting Goal is never important, since the different legs of the trip can be made in a different order without changing the moves needed for each leg. However, if there are more than two Goal squares, the order in which the other Goals are visited usually does matter.
- Certain basic strategies will quickly become apparent to the solver. For example, since only a Horse may be used to reach a Goal square, one Horse must be kept in reserve for the move that completes the round trip. If water must be crossed more times than the number of available Canoes, then Hang Gliders and/or Hot-Air Balloons must be reserved for those other crossings.
- If you get stuck in a puzzle, you can Undo one or more moves, get a Hint, or Reset the entire puzzle.
- The Hints allow you to see:
- • which of your moves are correct
- • what the next move is
- • how to get to the next Goal
- • the entire solution to a puzzle
- You can change your Adventurer’s appearance, choosing from 32 avatars.
- Help allows you to review the rules.
- You can display the history of your moves or hide them for a cleaner map.
- But there’s a catch! Each mode of transportation may only be used a limited number of times, as indicated by the numbers accompanying their icons. A transportation mode’s number decreases by one each time it is used, and once that number reaches zero, it may not be used again in that puzzle. The number of times each mode may be used varies from puzzle to puzzle, and some modes are not available at all in some puzzles.
- Movement Rules 5. The choice of starting Goal is never important, since the different legs of the trip can be made in a different order without changing the moves needed for each leg. However, if there are more than two Goal squares, the order in which the other Goals are visited usually does matter.
- Certain basic strategies will quickly become apparent to the solver. For example, since only a Horse may be used to reach a Goal square, one Horse must be kept in reserve for the move that completes the round trip. If water must be crossed more times than the number of available Canoes, then Hang Gliders and/or Hot-Air Balloons must be reserved for those other crossings.
