Simple to Expert Game of Design and Logic

Far East Asia Development Co. has announced the release of Chrome-8 v8.4, an update to their highly successful puzzle game for iPhone and iPod touch. Based on ideas from the Graph Coloring problem, Chrome-8 is very simple to learn, but very difficult to master. This game provides two playing modes, Apprentice and Master, with each mode containing 150 puzzles of increasing difficulty. Players can save puzzles in progress, access any puzzle, post on OpenFeint, and try to solve puzzles in the minimum number of moves.

Each puzzle consists of a number of empty circles, or nodes, symmetrically arranged. Each node has at least 2 lines connecting it with adjacent nodes. All nodes but one are filled with a color dot. Puzzles may have dots of 2, 3, or 4 different colors. Now, "Solve the puzzles by re-arranging color dots until all connected dots have different colors." Dots are re-arranged by sliding them along a line to a vacant circle. At higher levels of play some dots may be designated (!) absolute, and are immovable.

Feature Highlights:
* Hints now available in advanced mode
* Loads quickly
* OpenFeint/Facebook/Twitter connected
* Apprentice and a Master mode
* Saves/restores the complete game state
* Respects built-in iPod player
* Provides benchmarking for each puzzle (minimum number of moves required)
* Available in English, French, Chinese, and Japanese
* Puzzle generator based on proprietary technology


Version 8.4 adds optional hints while playing in Master Mode. Chrome-8 offers the sheer pleasure of concentration, for a few minutes, or many hours. A branch of mathematical graph theory, graph coloring studies vertex coloring (the basis of Chrome-8), edge coloring (no two adjacent lines the same color), and face coloring (no two regions or faces the same color).

"It's possible to expand (a lot) on the actual underlying problem in the game. Each puzzle is an instance of a Graph Coloring problem," said Marten Saflund, founder of Far East Asia Development Co. Ltd. "Graph Coloring is an NP-complete problem, making the puzzle generation rather an interesting job."

Language Support:
* US English, French, Simplified Chinese and Japanese

Pricing and Availability:
Chrome-8 v8.4 for the iPhone OS is only $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category. Review copies are available upon request.


Read More