Cartographer

Goal

You are a mapmaker: an island has just been discovered and you must chart it. Every land square hides a tile (village, forest, mountain, lake, field, then lighthouse, harbour, bridge, windmill, volcano, reef or ruins). The geographer’s clues describe the island: “The lighthouse touches the sea”, “Every village is next to a field”, “No forest in column C”… Only one map satisfies every clue: find it.

How to play

• Choose a tile in the palette, then tap a square of the island (drag to place several). Tap the same tile again to erase it.
• Every tile in the palette appears at least once on the island; tiles marked with a gold dot (lighthouse, harbour, bridge, windmill, volcano, reef, ruins) appear only once.
• “Next to” means sharing a side, not diagonally. A square that “touches the sea” is on the edge of the island. Columns carry letters (A, B, C…) and rows carry numbers, with north at the top of the map.
• Clues tick themselves off when they are satisfied and turn red when they are broken. The numbers on the edge of the map count one tile per row and per column.
• The pencil notes possibilities in a square; the eraser clears. The hint first shows the square and the reasoning in one sentence, then places the tile if you ask a second time.
• When the map is right, it turns into a real illustrated chart you can keep.

Modes

• Solo: the campaign of five archipelagos of eight islands (from 4 × 4 to 8 × 8, with new tiles and new clues in each archipelago, up to three stars per island), the free island in five sizes and the island of the day, the same for everyone.
• Race the geographer: the same island for you and for an artificial geographer with five levels, who shows her reasoning for every tile. The first complete map wins.
• Two-player duel: on the same device, take turns placing one tile on the same island. A right tile scores 1 (2 for a special tile), a wrong one costs 1 and is crossed out for everyone.
• Online: a race on the same island; the fastest wins.

Levels

• Campaign: the Gentle Isles, the Lighthouse Archipelago, the Windward Isles, the Sea of Reefs and the Lands of Fire. An island unlocks when the previous one is mapped. Three stars without a hint, two with one or two hints, one beyond.
• Free island, race and duel: Easy (4 × 4) to Fiendish (8 × 8).

About the AI

Every island is created by the program: shape of the coast, a coherent landscape (lakes inland, fields near villages, lighthouse on the coast), then true clues chosen one by one. A constraint solver propagates each clue until every square is known, and a second, exhaustive solver checks that the solution is unique. Useless clues are removed. The artificial geographer has no access to the solution: she reasons with the same clues as you, one tile at a time.