Puzzle lovers have a new game to master, which pairs the aesthetics of Tetris with the concept of 2048. Called Niaki, the game claims it is easy to play and hard to master. The premise is to regroup colored tiles on the board -- it’s essentially a more challenging version of a match-3 game.
“I had this idea a few months after the game 2048’s release,” Creator Iñaki Cervera-Marzal told iDigitalTimes. “I started to develop it in November 2015, but I had no knowledge in developing games (I had a background in biology/bioinformatics), so it took me one year to develop this app. The game hit the app store in November 2015. I think that it took me two or three weeks to come up with this idea.”
Playing the game is simple: users receive an artboard filled with colored tiles that they have to regroup based on color. According to the game’s rules, “a group can be formed only if it is bigger than the one destroyed.” Should the game get too complex, users can select the “?” tool and get hints on available plays.
At the end of the game, the tiles explode and the player has an artboard, of sorts, which they can save and share with friends. Niaki is available in three modes: day, dark and colorblind.
“I wanted to create a colorblind mode because my game is completely based on colors and I didn't want that people will not be able to play my game because of their disability,” said Cervera-Marzal. “Also it's funny because I found out that a lot of people around me have a small color vision deficiency and they thank me for creating a colorblind mode.”
For Cervera-Marzal, the inspiration for the game came from playing 2048, loving, and learning that there was a deficit of challenging puzzle games.
“I started thinking about a new game,” said Cervera-Marzal. “I liked playing match-3 games (like Candy Crush) but I thought that there was too much luck or chance. Indeed every time 3 blocks exploded or disappeared, you never know what kind of blocks will replace them. So I took the idea of a checkerboard where you can move blocks, but instead they explode like in Candy Crush, I wanted to leave them on the board and to group them. This way, the randomness is removed. The idea to combine colors comes from the Rubik's Cube. And the idea that a group of blocks keeps its same structural shape as it moves comes from Tetris. Indeed in Tetris, there are blocks with special shape that cannot change, but you have to move them and assemble them.”
According to Cervera-Marzal, the game is ideal for those who enjoy challenging games like sudoku or chess.
“If a user likes games where you have to think like 2048, Threes, sudoku, or chess, then he will love Niaki,” said Cervera-Marzal. “Users should consider playing this game because it brings all the joy of a match-3 game with the difficulty of the Rubik's Cube. It's easy to learn, yet difficult to master and completely addictive. Also when a user will find a new strategy to get to 100%, they will feel powerful and released. Niaki will resurrect their addiction to puzzle games. I think that Niaki is a true brain teaser.”
