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LEVELS.md

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Level Generation

Cellular has two planned game modes.

Puzzle Mode

Puzzle levels are generated offline, checked by the C# sim, and shipped only after they have an accepted solution.

Rules for the first puzzle progression:

  • Level 1 has 4 producer cells.
  • Level 2 has 5 producer cells.
  • Level 3 has 6 producer cells.
  • In general, cell count is levelNumber + 3.
  • Every producer cell has one unique produced resource.
  • Every producer cell has exactly three Need resources chosen from resources that exist in that level.
  • A cell never needs its own produced resource.
  • Level 1 has four resources, so every cell necessarily needs the other three resources.

Generated puzzle levels record both:

  • startingLayout: the separated player-facing starting position on a compact board one tile larger on each side than the solution bounds.
  • solutionLayout: the best known arrangement found by backend search.

The solution is used for verification, hints, and post-level review. The start layout should usually leave empty movement space so the player can drag cells into better contact without forcing the board into a long horizontal row.

Approved solution layouts should fit inside that level's starting grid, so a player can reproduce the hint map without needing cells outside the playable board.

Levels 1-20 are currently shipped in levels/puzzle/. Each has:

  • level-NNN.json: compact randomized player start fixture.
  • level-NNN-solution.json: verified backend solution fixture.
  • level-NNN-solution.txt: compact ASCII solution map.
  • level-NNN-definition.json: generation seed, cells, start layout, solution layout, and solver summary.

The first levels use a seeded solvable need graph and an optimized compact 2D solution search. The solver checks folded-line serpentines before the full straight-line fallback, and it keeps searching later need graphs when the only win so far is a long one-row layout.

Arrangement Search

The puzzle generator creates cell definitions first, then searches layouts.

For each candidate layout it:

  • builds a fixture,
  • runs the deterministic C# sim,
  • records swaps, reactions, glowing cells, strain, score, and win state,
  • keeps the best winning layout, or a near-winning layout only when explicitly allowed.

Strict puzzle generation rejects unsolved levels. Near-winning output is useful for design exploration but should not become a shipped puzzle unless manually approved.

Example command:

dotnet run --no-restore --project sim/CellularSim.Examples -- --generate-puzzle-level --level 1 --level-seed 1001 --need-attempts 1 --layout-candidates 256 --solution-ticks 200 --save-dir sim/generated/level-001

Generated files:

  • level.json: level metadata, cells, start layout, solution layout, and solver summary.
  • starting-fixture.json: fixture for the player start.
  • solution-fixture.json: fixture for the best known solution.
  • solution-map.txt: compact ASCII solution map.
  • results.txt: human-readable solver summary.

Generated output directories also include starting-map.txt for quick inspection before copying fixtures into levels/puzzle/.

Arcade Mode

Arcade mode is planned after puzzle generation and movement are stable.

Initial direction:

  • continuous board,
  • hand of three random cells,
  • drag one cell from the hand onto the board,
  • completed circuits clear from the board,
  • game over when no placement remains.

Arcade should reuse the same C# swap/reaction engine, but its generation and scoring can be looser than Puzzle mode.