Random Play now has a free preview, with the possibility to try out some puzzles in the different play modes. This preview includes lots of free new puzzles!

This is the main change in version 1.27.0, which has gone live today.

Version 1.26.0 provides better support for offline use and some visual enhancements to assist players with solving a puzzle. This version has gone live today. The changes in detail:

• If points are scored when the player is offline, the leaderboard will be updated when the player goes back online later. This makes the app an ideal game for extended periods of offline use, such as a plane journey or a holiday to a remote region!
• The settings option to “show if sums add up correctly” has been enhanced to provide more visual feedback for when the candidate values form a valid sum combination (or not, as the case may be).
• Changes to the way a leaderboard is shown, with the aim of resolving a problem where a blank page was sometimes being shown instead of the expected leaderboard. This problem was occasionally happening on an iPhone, but more commonly on an iPad.

More information about playing offline can be found in the FAQ sections app insights and leaderboards. The new visual feedback is illustrated in the FAQ section playing a puzzle.

Improvements for dark mode have been added in version 1.25.0:

• In the settings, players can choose the appearance for a puzzle when dark mode is active on the device. Three lighting variations are supported: bright, dimmed or dark.
• Adjustments throughout the app to reduce glare when dark mode is in operation.

This version has gone live in the App Store today.

Version 1.24.0, which has just gone live in the App Store, brings more enhancements to Random Play:

• Added new logic to the puzzle generator in expert mode, making it possible for puzzles with hidden sum values to be generated with even more cunning!
• Tweaked the way that the difficulty of puzzles is estimated for puzzles with hidden sum values. These puzzles are now more likely to be estimated as one level harder than previously. This can mean, 5x5 puzzles generated in expert mode may be Very Difficult. A higher difficulty rating means more points are earned when these puzzles are solved.
• If an 8x8 puzzle is taking too long to generate, a new button makes it possible to skip to a smaller puzzle instead.
• When Keep It Simple is selected as play mode and an 8x8 puzzle is generated on demand, it will often be generated faster than previously.

Other changes in this version, benefitting all players:

• Minor cosmetic improvements to the menu page and Puzzle Sets overview.
• Improved error handling for when the app is unable to start up properly due to problems loading saved data.

A problem was identified with the new play mode Keep It Simple in Random Play, introduced in version 1.23.0. If an attempt was made to generate a large puzzle in this mode (either a 7x7 puzzle with the possibility of hidden sums, or an 8x8 puzzle), the generator would sometimes not finish working - it just went on whirring.

The problem has been resolved in version 1.23.1, now available in the App Store.

The play mode Keep It Simple has been added to Random Play in version 1.23.0. This mode is ideal for novice players - the puzzles are never harder than MEDIUM and the puzzle generator can be configured to generate 4x4 puzzles!

Other Random Play players may enjoy playing a 4x4 puzzle now and again too. This is possible without switching play mode if the buttons for selecting the size of the next puzzle are enabled in the Random Play settings.

Also in this version:

• A fix for rare cases of the help not performing any changes (only affected Random Play in expert mode).
• Support for iOS 13 has been dropped (ref. previous post).

The next release of the app is currently in development and will probably be released around the middle of January 2022. It is planned that support for iOS 13 will be dropped with this next release.

Devices still running iOS 13 will be able to go on running older versions of the app, but to install future app updates it will be necessary to update the devices to iOS 14 or iOS 15.

The reasons for this move are explained in the FAQ section on app insights.

The scoring has been tweaked in version 1.22.0 so that more points are awarded for solving harder puzzles. This version has gone live in the App Store today (Happy New Year!).

For Random Play players wanting to climb the leaderboard, this change makes it more worthwhile to take on the challenge of a higher play mode or puzzles of a larger size. But don't worry, none of the puzzles score less than before, so points can still be earned just as quickly with the smaller and easier puzzles.

Other changes in this version:

• Random Play reports the size of the puzzle being generated.
• Improvements to the contrast ratio of some puzzle elements.
• The screenshots used in the introduction have been updated and are now high resolution.
• Fixes to the info overlay and pencil mode settings for when dark mode is in operation.

In version 1.21.0, the help explanations have been extended to accompany the help hints too. This means, when a hint is shown, it is now possible to see an explanation of what can be done. This version has gone live in the App Store today.

For more information about how the help works and the way the help can impact the scoring, please see the FAQ section on Help and scoring.