Read the paper concerning Puyo's Genetic Programming
************************************************** PuyoPuyo on the Web v1.1 by Juno Suk ************************************************** 1. How to Play 2. Future Releases 3. Feedback 4. Acknowledgements 1. HOW TO PLAY -------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------- Any comments? E-mail me (Juno Suk) at thats-me@juno.com Bug reports are always welcome. 4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -------------------------------------------------- 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.