Since my childhood I was fond of game of Minesweeper. I could play it for hours trying to beat my own record. Then it became sort of a meditative practice or a time burner, a way to take a rest and refresh my mind.
One thing I was missing always though - I was unable to compete against other players. Sure, I could complete an Expert mode in the best time possible and compare my time to other people's results on the ladder. But that is far from the experience when playing against other player in real time. My other favourite game (probably the most favourite one) was (and still is) Starcraft Brood War. I've had lots of fun playing it with my friends at computer clubs and people from all over the world on Battle.net. And probably that's how the idea of bringing that spirit of real time competition into Minesweeper first came to my mind...
Years later I've become a software engineer, got married, moved to another country, where my daughter was born. After settling down more or less, I've started thinking about some cool project I could make. And I've recalled this old idea. Now having necessary skills, it seemed totally doable, and I've seen a clear path forward. So I decided to create my own game where people could play the game of Minesweeper against each other in real time.
Quickly after the start I've realised that creating a true multiplayer game would require some significant efforts. Developing client-server application comes with a set of complexities, which would be a bit too much to tackle for a single person who develops a game in his own limited free time. So as the first version I've decided to make it a single player game where a person can play against computer. Additionally, creating an algorithm which can "solve" Minesweeper seemed an exciting programming challenge. It was important for me to actually build an engine that not just "knows" where mines are and opens safe cells, but actually can analyse the field and either open cells with a certainty, based on computed probabilities or, when necessary, guess the safe cell. Thus the player appears in equal conditions with computer and not being felt cheated.
After few months of development the first version of the game is ready, and I want to present it to you. There are five maps of various size and landscape (more gonna come). The landscape of the map suppose to bring that tactical element to the game - a player (so as their computer opponent) should not just solve the Minesweeper field, but also think about the direction of where they move. E.g. as it happens in various strategic games, it is more important to conquer the center rather then edges of the board. Or recognise certain key points on the field and attempt to take them under the control.
One important rule - a player can open/flag only those cells close to their border. It is impossible to open cells in an arbitrary places of the field. That makes the experience more similar to real life troops movement.
There are options to set the mines density (e.g. how many mines are there on the field) and the level of the computer. At the moment the level of the computer means just the speed with which it solves the puzzle, but I have few ideas how to improve that further, that will come with future versions of the game.
I hope you gonna enjoy Minesweeper Tactics as I'm currently enjoying it. The ultimate goal for this game is to have a real-time multiplayer, and I believe with the community support this feature will come.
Thank you!