![]() ![]() Consider two moves, A and B, where A is directly above B on the board. My primary heuristic for choosing moves is "Top Down". Since there is a random element, this cannot always be done perfectly, but one can still have a strong effect on those odds. The trick in *choosing* a move is clearly to attempt to maximize the energy of the resulting board configuratiion. Hence, a randomly-chosen move will not generally tend towards a losing board, though a long enough drunkard's walk will eventually reach one. A randomly chosen move will tend to drive the board towards the median Energy of a random board (about 4?). All moves will change the board configuration, usually to one with a different Energy, greater or lesser. A randomly-chosen board configuration is very unlikely to be at zero Energy, however. A boars with zero Energy is a losing position. Let us define "Energy" as the number of available moves for a given board configuration. So, how, in practice, does one "not lose"? There are some simple heuristics, but they depend on some underlying theory. In short, the way to win can be summarized as "Don't lose." It doesn't matter how many points you score in a given move if you have an infinite supply of moves. This is because the game is, at least theoretically, infinitely extensible. ![]() There are further details about scoring, but they are not relevant to actually getting very high scores. Play continues until there are no more legal moves. Every so often, the player "finishes a level" and the board is randomized. As a result of these falling jewels, more sets may be formed, which in turn vanish and are replaced, until the board contains no more complete sets bonus points are scored for such combos. After each move, all rows of 3 or more disappear, the jewels above the empty spaces fall down to replace them, and new random jewels are seeded in from the top to fill out the board. Moves are only valid if at least one of the jewels, in its new position, forms a row of 3 or more of the same color. A move is made by swapping two orthogonally adjacent jewels. For the few of you who haven't played, a quick overview: it is played on an 8 x 8 board, with each square containing a jewel in one of 7 different colors. The advent of Bejeweled 2 led me to revise my strategies in ways I thought interesting enough to talk about.įirst, I will discuss the original Bejeweled. Although I don't generally play when I have a lot of brainpower, I have nonetheless come up with a few useful strategies. When I am in a somewhat brainless mood, I often occupy myself by playing Bejeweled on my exo-cortex.
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