Crosswind Puzzle

What it does

Six puzzles, one framework

Each puzzle implements a single `IPuzzle` interface — init, event, update, render, solved. Adding another means one new library and one line of registration, touching neither the engine nor any screen.

A falling-block puzzle with weather

Crosswind Drop's own mechanic is the gust: a banner warns about a second ahead, then a crosswind nudges the falling piece one column sideways. Original mixed-size pieces of three, four and five cells rather than the familiar seven.

Merge III moves one cell at a time

Where 2048 slides tiles the whole way, a Merge III swipe shifts each tile exactly one cell, so a chain of equal tiles needs one swipe per merge. A 1 and a 2 make 3; equal tiles double.

Generated boards, not bundled ones

Letter sudoku generates a fresh, uniquely solvable board per game by randomised-backtracking fill and uniqueness-preserving digging, so there is no puzzle bank to exhaust.

Picks up where you left it

Leaving a puzzle mid-solve saves it, keyed per puzzle type, and the picker marks it "(resume)" next time. A solved board clears instead of saving, so starting again starts fresh.

Best times and best scores

Completion times are tracked lowest-first, while an open-ended score like 2048's is tracked highest-first and recorded separately — reaching the 2048 tile is rare enough that time alone would say nothing.

Animation the board does not know about

2048's state updates immediately, but tiles slide and merge over about 0.12s: the move logic records where each tile came from and the renderer interpolates, so saving and solving stay unaffected by what is on screen.

iOS gestures handled centrally

A left-edge swipe-right goes back, deliberately restricted to starting near the edge so it cannot collide with 2048's own rightward swipes. Screens crossfade without either screen knowing transitions exist.

Built with

• C++20
• SDL3
• SDL3_ttf
• CMake
• iOS
• Linux
• macOS

Worth knowing

More work