Among other things, in general, a permutation puzzle game is provided whose object is to arrange a set of tiles in a prescribed arrangement, starting from an initial arrangement or a series of initial arrangements, using permitted game moves. Such a puzzle game can be played using physical tiles, or virtually upon a computer. Methods, systems, and computer-readable media related to permutation puzzle games are also provided.

A computer device has a display which display game elements. A first type of game elements is associated with a matching characteristics of an ordered set of matching characteristics. At least one processor is configured to determine that at least three game elements have at least one common matching characteristic to satisfy a match condition and at least one of said game elements satisfying said match condition is of the first type. The first type of game elements in the match are removed if a current matching characteristic is a last matching characteristic of the respective ordered set or changed a next characteristic of the set.

Embodiments of a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader are provided herein, which include an RFID interrogator; a detection surface for a game piece, the detection surface comprising a plurality of reader antennas in a geometric arrangement; and antenna switching circuitry coupled between the RFID interrogator and the plurality of reader antennas; wherein the antenna switching circuitry is configured to consecutively activate each one of the plurality of reader antennas for at least a detection time window, and wherein the RFID interrogator is configured to: for each reader antenna, detect whether a response signal is received by the reader antenna during the detection time window, and determine a geometric orientation of the game piece based on a subset of reader antennas that received the response signal.

A computer device comprising a user interface, a processor, and a graphics rendering component. The user interface is configured to display user actuatable game elements, each user actuatable game element displayed on a respective tile, and to detect user input when a user engages with at least one of said user actuatable game elements in a move. The processor is configured to determine, on detecting the match game condition, whether at least one tile of the respective tiles associated with the at least three actuatable game elements of the match condition has a tile characteristic indicating an attained background appearance and, if so, to modify the tile characteristic of each tile of the respective tiles associated with the at least three actuatable game elements of the match condition not indicating an attained background appearance to indicate an attained background appearance.

Embodiments of a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader are provided herein, which include an RFID interrogator; a detection surface for a game piece, the detection surface comprising a plurality of reader antennas in a geometric arrangement; and antenna switching circuitry coupled between the RFID interrogator and the plurality of reader antennas; wherein the antenna switching circuitry is configured to consecutively activate each one of the plurality of reader antennas for at least a detection time window, and wherein the RFID interrogator is configured to: for each reader antenna, detect whether a response signal is received by the reader antenna during the detection time window, and determine a geometric orientation of the game piece based on a subset of reader antennas that received the response signal.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for dynamic generation of an intelligent and location-based puzzle. The method comprises locating a mobile device within a proximity zone associated with an establishment and generating a user dataset comprising a counter representing how many times the user has been identified within the proximity zone. The method further comprises querying, receiving, and displaying a first media element associated with a puzzle. Upon locating the mobile device within the proximity zone for the second time, the method comprises adjusting the counter value and querying, receiving, and displaying a second media element associated with the puzzle.

A method for interactive image sharing includes receiving, by an image sharing application executing on a first computing device, from a second computing device, a plurality of puzzle piece images and an image associated with the plurality of puzzle piece images. The method includes generating, by a puzzle generator executing on the first computing device, a puzzle assembly interface. The method includes confirming, by the puzzle generator, assembly of the plurality of puzzle piece images by a user of the first computing device. The method includes displaying, by the puzzle generator, the image associated with the plurality of puzzle piece images upon confirmation of assembly.

A computer device has user interface configured to display user actuatable game elements and to detect user input when a user engages with a game element; and a processor configured to receive a detected user input and on detecting a match game condition to control the user interface to remove at least three game elements from the display and to provide on the user interface replacement user actuatable game elements, wherein the manner of providing each replacement game element has a graphical representation governed by a tile associated with each game element, wherein each tile has a selectable physics which controls at least one of (i) the direction in which it moves to replenish a vacancy left by the removed user game elements; and (ii) the speed at which it moves to replenish the vacancy.

A method and system for conducting a challenge event from which a computer code that supports software development for a client computer is obtained. The challenge event is communicated to at least two participants in a form of an event specification. A proposal for a solution that meets the event specification is received from each participant. Only one participant is chosen from the at least two participants, based on the proposal previously received from each participant. The solution is received in a form of a computer code from the chosen only one participant. The received solution is validated for quality and the received solution is accepted. In response to the validating and accepting of the received solution, the received solution is delivered to the client computer. The received solution is configured to be used by the client computer to support software development for the client computer.

A method and system for managing a challenge event from which a computer code that supports software development for a client computer is obtained. At least two participants are selected to participate in the challenge. Assets of software code are provided to the participants for assisting the participants to deliver respective submissions as outcomes of participation by the participants in the challenge event. A solution to the challenge event in a form of a computer code is received from only one participant previously chosen from the selected at least two participants as the only participant to submit the solution. The received solution is validated for quality and is accepted. In response to the validating and accepting of the received solution, the received solution is delivered to the client computer. The received solution is configured to be used by the client computer to support software development for the client computer.