Read the paper concerning Puyo's Genetic Programming
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PuyoPuyo on the Web v1.1
by Juno Suk
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1. How to Play
2. Future Releases
3. Feedback
4. Acknowledgements
1. HOW TO PLAY
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OBJECTIVE
The object of the game is similar to Tetris and
many other similar games. The goal is to prevent
your pieces from reaching the top of your pit
by maneuvering them into favorable positions.
GENERAL OVERVIEW
In PuyoPuyo, your piece consists of two adjoined
colored balls. You can move the piece left or right,
rotate it, or send it down to the bottom of your
pit-like area.
The goal is to arrange the pieces in such a way
that four or more of the same colored balls are
grouped together, horizontally, vertically, or both,
but not diagonally.
When this is done, the group of same colored balls
will disappear and all the balls above them will
fall drop to fill in the resulting gap.
ADVANCED GAMEPLAY
The elegance behind the game, and therefore its
tremendously addictive quality, lies behind the
ability to cause groups of balls to disappear in
sequence. The experienced will often arrange the
balls in such a way that when one group disappears
and the balls drop to fill in the gap, the new
arrangement of balls in turn form a new group of
four or more same colored balls which, in consequence,
disappear as well. This "chain reaction" leads to
higher points in solo gameplay, and more rocks in
head-to-head matches, both of which are explained next.
SOLO PLAY
Playing alone is straightforward in PuyoPuyo. You
are given piece after piece which you maneuver
and place with the best of your ability, preferably
attempting to create the aforementioned group sequences.
In this particular implementation of PuyoPuyo, there
is a scoring system and level advancement feature
during solo play.
SCORING SYSTEM
The score is incremented after every group, or sequence
of groups, disappear.
Chains of multiple groups yields higher scores:
1 group: 100 points
2 groups: 500 points
3 groups: 1200 points
4 groups: 2500 points
5 groups: 5000 points
6 groups: 7500 points
7 groups: 10000 points
Also, for groups that have more than the necessary
four same colored balls, there is an extra 25 points
for every extra ball. For example, a group of 6 same
colored balls will yield not only 100 points, but
also 25*2=50 points (assuming this is not a multiple
group chain reaction) for a total of 150 points.
LEVEL ADVANCEMENT
Level advancement occurs after x many groups disappear.
The value of x depends on the level you are working
towards. After each level advancement, the speed of the
dropping pieces increases.
Here is a brief listing (the pattern is readily apparent):
Level 2: 16 groups needed
Level 3: 20 groups needed
Level 4: 24 groups needed
Level 5: 28 groups needed
Level 6: 32 groups needed
HEAD-TO-HEAD PLAY
In head-to-head play, you play against another person and
try to outlast the opponent. You do this in two ways,
the defensive, and the offensive.
DEFENSIVE
The defensive is the goal of keeping the level of balls
in your "pit" low by grouping like colors to make them
disappear. The defensive element is, in general, the basic
gameplay of PuyoPuyo, existent in both solo and head-to-head
play. Only now in head-to-head, there is no scoring. Survival
is the goal. (Level advancement is still present though, but
not a significant factor)
OFFENSIVE
The offensive aspect of head-to-head play is what makes
PuyoPuyo as popular as it is. Head-to-head play introduces
the element of rocks. Whenever a player eliminates a group
or groups, rocks are sent down the other player's pit. To
the recipient, these rocks serve as a tremendous hindrance
as they can ruin the player's well setup arrangement as well
as bring the player's pile of balls higher to the top and
closer to the end of the game. Rocks will disappear when a
ball adjacent to them disappears.
The more groups a player chains together, the more rocks he/she
sends over to the opponenent:
1 group: 1 rock
2 groups: 1 row (6 rocks)
3 groups: 2 rows (12 rocks)
4 groups: 3 rows (18 rocks)
5 groups: 4 rows (24 rocks)
6 groups: 5 rows (30 rocks + 1 indestructable)
Similar to scoring, for every extra ball over four in a group,
an extra rock is sent.
Also, if 5 or more rows (>=30 rocks) are sent, then one black
ball is sent too. The black ball is indestructable, there is
no way to get rid of it.
2. FUTURE RELEASES
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As of 4/30/98, the current release is 1.1
Couple things hoped for in the future of PuyoPuyo on the Web:
- Computer Players with different levels of AI (by 5/15/98)
- Networked head-to-head play
These will be put up on the PuyoPuyo page as soon as they
become available.
The most current release will be kept at my homepage:
http://members.aol.com/JunoWhoIM/
3. FEEDBACK
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Any comments? E-mail me (Juno Suk) at thats-me@juno.com
Bug reports are always welcome.
4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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PuyoPuyo is copyrighted by Compile Co., Japan
If you would like the official Win95 version of
PuyoPuyo, please visit their homepage at
http://www.compile.co.jp/
PuyoPuyo on the Web v1.1 was created as a final
project for CS W4771, Machine Learning, at Columbia
University.