# &app; Manual

## Playing &app;

&app; is a puzzle game. The goal is to remove as many objects as possible in as few moves as possible. Objects that are adjacent to each other get removed as a group. The remaining objects then collapse to fill in the gaps and new groups are formed. You cannot remove single objects.

### &app; at the beginning of a new game.

The board starts as a full grid of objects. Depending on the size of board you select, there are either three or four types of object. If a group of objects are adjacent and all the same type, then they can be removed simply by clicking them with the mouse (or by pressing the space bar). When you move the mouse over a group you can remove, the objects will start moving. The number of objects in the group, and the points you will score for removing that group, is shown in the lower left corner of the window. The more objects in the group, the more points you will score. Once the group has been removed the objects above them fall down to fill the space. If an entire column is cleared then the objects slide leftward to fill the gap.

## Playing &app;

1. Eliminate groups of two or more | 2. Objects fall down to fill the gaps
3. Objects move left to fill empty columns | 4. New groups are formed and the cycle repeats

Scoring is based on the number of objects you delete:

Number of Objects | Points Scored
2 | 0
3 | 1
4 | 4
5 | 9
6 | 16
7 | 25
8 | 36
9 | 49
⋮ | ⋮
n | (n - 2)2

If you clear the board there is a 1000 point bonus.

## Customization

### Changing the Look

To change the appearance of the objects use the Theme item under Swell Foop Preferences Appearance. Selecting an item from the list changes the theme immediately.

You can also create your own themes, although the process is not very straight-forward yet. Use a copy of an existing theme from `/usr/share/gnome-games/swell-foop/themes/` as a template and alter it with your favorite paint program. Put the result in `$XDG_DATA_HOME/gnome-games/swell-foop/themes/`. It will be automatically included on the themes list next time you run &app;. `$XDG_DATA_HOME` is usually `~/.local/share/`.

### Changing the Size

The Board size list under Swell Foop Preferences Setup contains three settings: Small, Medium and Large.

### Changing the Number of Objects

The Number of colors option under Swell Foop Preferences Setup allows you to increase the number of different objects.

### Changing the Speed

The default animation is designed to be smooth and graceful. If you like playing fast and furious then this may be too slow for you. By selecting the Zealous Animation option under Swell Foop Preferences Operation you can speed up game-play at the expense of animation quality.

## Strategy

The most important rule when aiming for a high score is to think ahead: each group you remove will form and destroy other groups.

Remove higher groups first, unless removing another group will make it larger. Vertically aligned objects can't be misaligned, but horizontal arrangements can.

Since the score increases quadratically, big groups of objects are always better. For example, the points difference between a six object group and a seven object group is nine points. In a situation where you have a choice between merging two groups of two into four or just adding one more to the group of six then you should add the single object. Even though the groups of two you are left with score no points, the bigger group scores more overall.

Don't forget the thousand point bonus for clearing all the balls. To get 1000 points from a single group you need 34 objects. You are very unlikely to be in a position where you have to sacrifice a group that large to clear the board.

## About &app;

&app; was written by Callum McKenzie (callum@physics.otago.ac.nz). To find more information about &app;, please visit the GNOME Games web page.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, follow the directions in the Feedback section of the GNOME User Guide.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public license as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license is included with this documentation; another can be found in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program.