Putta

The new version 1.4 have multi-resolution support motivated by the new iPhone 6 with a changed screen size. As part of this update the player bar lamp function has changed to only flash briefly on a win and continously on a pending and unclaimed win. Support for old OS has been removed, please use iOS 8.

Welcome to the addictively simple game that should take only seconds to understand and minutes to master. Relax with Putta whenever you have a spare moment. Putta is also the perfect party game for up to four players.

Simply slide the counters of your choice over the game board and score by matching two or three similar symbols. Move a counter to peek at those outside the board, then return it to its original position. Please note that a match is only registered when a counter is left in a new position. Plan ahead, use the presence of a match to move another row or column into a favorable position.

Select your favorite game with the tab buttons. Play on your own, or against one to three other players. The game board can rotate to each successive player.

Seemingly simple, there is more to this tiny game than meets the eye. Please have a look at all the possibilities in the info pages. Touching the ‘i’ button flips the game page to the settings for the current game. Choose between different faces for the counters, set the level of difficulty, and enable the board to rotate between all players.

Version 1.3 is addresses a bug introduced by iOS 7.0 and a bug that could clip Roman letter descenders. It also adds one of the new features in iOS 7 – Motion Effects. The large Japanese titles shown on 4 inch screens will shift slightly when you move your device. For the best result, please use this version with iOS 7.1 that gives the Segmented Controls in the Settings pages their correct yellow color.

There are no new features in version 1.2 that was motivated by the many changes in iOS 7. During the work an old nasty bug was discovered and eradicated. The new system introduces significant changes to how the Status Bar is handled. Making Putta compatible with the new version, and still support iOS 6, required considerable work. As a result, the title bar is now black without a gradient.

Version 1.1 added some new features such as diagonal wins in Tokidoki and Uzumaki. All three games will indicate the presence of a winning combination by flashing the player lamp. Then just tap the player bar to claim your wins! The new version also supports the larger screen of the iPhone 5 with some flashy Japanese titles! In iOS 5 or later, Putta will be all red, yellow and gray, no more blue.
It was my intention to keep support for iOS 4.x but regrettably that did not work. The latest version of the development software made this difficult, to validate the finished upgrade I had to push support to iOS 5.0. Sorry about that, if you use an older device, there is still the option to continue using old Putta.

Tokidoki

Play with six die faces from three different sets. Choose between Western or Asian dice, or the cool Playing cards shown in the image. Three similar dice in a row, column or diagonal will score one point. Collecting more than one triplet at the same time will earn you more points, of course.
You may think that playing with only six dice should make this game extremely easy but that is not necessarily the case. Quite often, there will be different faces in all rows and columns with no obvious simple solution, just as in the picture! Then it is time to peek at the counters outside the visible board. As long as you return the counters to their original place, it is possible to move them freely in any direction.
This image comes from the larger 4 inch screen of the iPhone 5 where I have added a large title in Japanese.

Each player has its own player bar that highlight the active player and shows a running score common to all three games. Tap the highlighted bar to claim wins. Enable or disable players by double tapping the bars. Change the active player by touching and holding another bar. Clear the score(s) by swiping a bar (left or right). You can try out the gestures on the sample bar at the bottom of the settings page.
The controls feature the new yellow tint available in iOS 5 or later. Please read the instructions for the player bar and try them out on the sample bar! The four commands examplify the iOS gestures tap, tap and hold, double tap, and the swipe (that works both right and left).

Here I have choosen the Asian die alternative and enabled all four players that preferably should be seated around your device. If you enable the Rotate game switch, the dice will rotate and present themselves to each player in turn.
This board shows another situation where no obvious move will collect any points. A simple solution may hide outside the board, however. Peeking is allowed!
This old screen shot have the original (default) blue tint on the selected tab bar item.

Yakitori

Score in the second game by matching two or three glyphs from one of three different characters sets. You can play with Roman letters, either small or large caps, or a mixture of both. Here they are shown rotated 180 degrees to the benefit of player North. The Roman descenders now show up as expected ;-)
The deafult is more fun and challenging, however. Japanese hiragana are cool characters, but you can also choose katakana, or both. Perhaps even more demanding are the complex kanji, similar to Chinese characters.
Hiragana and katakana are two sets of characters that mirror each other even if they look different for the most part. The combination should be fun and instructive to young Japanese and even more so to gajjin learning the language.
More often than not, the game will start out in the pictured configuration with almost all different glyphs. As mentioned before, a win may hide just outside the board. Although there usually are more symbols in this game, you only need to pair up two of them to score.
Another image from the iPhone 5 with a yellow tab bar item and the large title in Japanese. The four hiragana glyphs spell out Yakitori, of course.

First choose the general set and then a subset of characters. The level of difficulty reflects the number of characters in each set. The romans number 26, as expected, the kanas are both 46, while the single small subset of kanji totals 64. The default level is 11 which means that the game will start out with 11 different glyphs from the 26, 46, or 64. The selected character set and changes to the level are saved, of course.

Uzumaki

The third game is slightly different from the other two. The task here is to make the sum of the three numbers in a row, column or diagonal equal to a preset number between 0 and 27. The required sum is shown in the info bar. As before, it is possible to score on more than one triplet in the same move.
Here, some of the numbers have been rotated, an option that can make this game even more challenging! This is how the game will look on an iPhone 4 using iOS 5 or 6.

Choose the target sum by setting a range with the segment control and choosing the exact number with the slider.
The Rotate numbers switch adds another twist to this simple mathematical test. If enabled, the winning numbers will rotate 90 degrees after each move, as illustrated above. On the iPhone 5, the info is spread out over the full screen.

How does it work?

Although you can only see nine full counters at any time, all rows and columns contain seven counters, for a total of 33. Therefore, there are two rows or columns outside the visible board on all sides. A complete row or column can be moved one or two steps at the most.
By moving a row or column and then returning it to its original position, it is possible to have a peek at the glyphs that are hiding outside the board.
When a row or column is actually moved to a new position, one or two glyphs are lost at one end, and one or two new random ones are added at the other end.
When the game is started, or a new glyph set is choosen, the 33 counters on the full board will receive random pointers to dice, character glyphs, or numbers.
In the Yakitori game with many possible glyphs, the complete set is first scrambled, and then the first 11 (or another number reflecting the level of difficulty) are used to randomly fill the board. At a reasonable level, there should be a number of duplicate glyphs that can be paired to score with.

Version list

Version 1.0.1 first release. Jan 2011.
Version 1.0.2 corrects the backing color of the counters from gray to dark red. Jul 2011.
Version 1.0.3 removes several minor memory leaks and fixes the LCD font for xCode 4. Oct 2011. Not released.
Version 1.0.4 unifies the look of the app by applying a yellow tint to all controls (iOS 5+). Sep 2012. Not released.
Version 1.1 converts the app to ARC, fixes several bugs, adds several features, and makes the app compatible with the 4 inch screen of the iPhone 5 and the new iPod touch. The beautiful Japanese titles were created with the excellent drawing tool PaintCode. Oct 2012.
Version 1.2 fixes a bug where the default settings were read too late during the startup, which was only noticeable after a fresh install. Includes changes required for support of both iOS 6 and 7. Sep 2013.
Version 1.3 addresses the swipe bug in the settings pages as well as the occasional clipping of Roman letter descenders in the Yakitori game. Changes the random function to arc4random. It also adds a small motion effect to the Japanese titles. The technically inclined may read more about this here. Mar 2014.
Version 1.4 adds widespread support for Auto Layout that allows the app to adapt to new and changed screen metrics. The code base has been modernised and made ready for 64-bit processors. Now requires iOS 8. Mar 2015.

Downloads

iTunes link: Putta

E-mail your thoughts on the app to:

The Simple Game with a Twist (or two).