The Black Mirror

Developing a Jigsaw Puzzle Game Part 1: Planning

I was recently playing The Black Mirror and one of the earlier challenges is a jigsaw puzzle where you have to reconstruct a torn up photograph.

The player clicks on a piece to activate it, then they can move it around using the mouse or right-click on it to rotate it to one of four preset rotations. They click again to release it. When a piece has the correct rotation and is near the correct position, it snaps into place, which works as visual feedback that it has been placed correctly.

A screenshot from The Black Mirror. It's a pile a torn up pieces from a black and white photograph
The beginning state of the puzzle from The Black Mirror.

It was an enjoyable break from the exploring and it got me thinking about how I might add it as an optional mini-game type in my adventure game engine.

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