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Building a Web-Based User-Configurable Lights-Out Game |
INTRODUCTION
The "Lights Out" game is an electronic game, as shown above, originally marketed by Tiger Toys. The game panel is a 5 by 5 grid of buttons, and each button is also a light bulb. Pressing any button in the panel changes the state of each button that is adjacent to the pressed button as well as the state of the pressed button, where "changing the state" means turning a light from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON. The game is started with some random ON-OFF pattern, and the objective of the game is for the player to turn off all the lights by pressing the buttons. You may also refer to this page for further information about how the game is played.
In this project, the student will build a web-based Lights Out game on which the user can not only play the standard Lights Out game by clicking on the buttons, he can also design his own game (the underlying graph) and play it.
The project involves web programming for graphical interface. It is particularly suited for students curious about puzzles and having a mathematically inclined mind. Although being good at math is not necessary for building this online game, knowledge in mathematics (linear algebra) will certainly allow the student to learn more in this process. In fact, it can be shown that this game is closely related to the techniques of error control coding for data transmission. Some knowledge in that subject may also be developed in this process.
One fourth-year ELG, CEG, SEG, or CSI student with following prerequisite is needed.
If you are interested in working on this project, please contact me by email and specify how you meet the above requirements.