The Calisson game is a form of Sudoku, in which you have to:

• add edges one by one to a hexagonal grid to go from an initial figure to a final figure:

  ⇒

  

or

• color diamonds (or calissons) to completely fill a hexagonal grid

  ⇒

the final figure is unique because it represents :

• a stack of small cubes in a large cubic room
• a planar hexagon paved with diamonds, or calissons

These two interpretations can be used when solving.

Stack of small cubes

In a large cubic room, we stack small cubic boxes, pushing them into the room as far as possible, the stacks increasing in height towards the back walls.

Example of cube stacking in a size 4 room :

The final figure is then composed of the edges of the walls of the room and the visible edges of the small cubes.

Flat hexagon paving with calissons

A calisson is formed by joining two equilateral triangles having a common side.

There are three types of calisson, with different orientations, shown here :

The edges to be drawn in solid lines delimit areas entirely filled with calissons of the same color :

⇒

Two rules must be observed :

• a calisson is never crossed by an edge
• no edge between two calissons of the same orientation (or color)

Objective of the resolution

To solve a grid, you must:

• draw all the missing edges (in this case, any calisson colored must be correct)
or
• color all the calissons correctly (in this case, any edges drawn must be correct)

Two techniques to facilitate resolution

The following two rules allow the resolution of all Level 1 grids, whatever their size.
They are, however, insufficient to solve Level 3 problems, which are all impossible to solve using just these two rules.

• Acute angle rule :
  Two known edges (solid or dotted) having a common point and forming an acute angle determine the entire orientation of the corresponding calisson (or face of the small cube)
• Fold rule :
  a solid edge on the boundary of a known calisson determines the orientation of the calisson with this edge in common (or of the face of the neighbouring small cube having this edge in common)

Drawing edges and coloring calissons

The initial edges cannot be modified, while the positions of the edges to be determined are drawn with a small circle in the middle.

Two resolution mode buttons are located on either side of the playing area: drawing edges on the left, coloring calissons on the right.

• On a computer, left-clicking on the midpoint of an edge draws that edge or colors the calisson centered on that point depending on the current mode, while right-clicking performs the opposite operation.
• On a tablet/phone/touchscreen, touching the middle of an edge causes the edge to be drawn or the diamonds to be colored, depending on the mode button setting.

In general, there are far fewer edges to trace than there are calissons to color.
To facilitate resolution and make the two resolution modes equivalent, coloring a calisson can automatically cause adjacent calissons that satisfy the acute angle rule (adjustable in the options) to be colored as well.

It's up to you to choose the resolution method that you think is most effective!

Sample resolution

Solution of a grid of size 3 using the two previous rules, with all calissons drawn.

Translation of french terms used in the video :

• "angle aigu"⇒"Acute angle"
• "Règle du pli"⇒"Fold rule"

Training mode

In this mode, there's no time limit on the game, and you can choose the size and level of the grids to be solved from a drop-down list (of the form "size.level").

For each grid solved, the score obtained is displayed, and a new grid is proposed.

In the event of a level change, the current grid is abandoned.

When returning to the home page, statistics for the current training session as well as the previous ones are displayed.

Challenge mode (Speedy!)

This mode lets you put your game skills to the test!

The aim is to achieve the highest possible total score in the shortest possible time, by solving grids of increasing size and difficulty similar to those on the training page (but with different grids!).

To progress through the different levels, the score obtained for a grid must be sufficient: it is then displayed in blue. If it is displayed in black, the score is too low to move on to the next level.

• initial time credit: 300 s
• every 500 pts, bonus of 60 s
• The game is over when the time credit is used up.

Advices

To obtain a high score, you must:

• find the solution to each grid as quickly as possible,
• a bonus is awarded for attempting to solve the last grid (don't give up, even if time is running out!)
• draw the edges or color the calissons, without mixing the two methods of resolution

The score for each grid increases with its size and difficulty:

• The easiest grids contain many more edges than necessary. They can usually be solved without using a single calisson.
• The most difficult grids contain a minimum number of edges, so solving them without a calisson is generally difficult.

In both modes, three buttons can be used to change the flow of the game:

•   <   allows you to go back.
   
•   Reset   resets the grid to its original state.
  Useful when you want to start from scratch if you get stuck. This has no effect on the score, but you'll certainly have lost time in "Challenge" mode...
   
•   Abort   is more radical:
  • the current grid is abandoned,
  • the solution is displayed for a brief moment,
  • In Challenge mode, a penalty is applied to the time credit ( - 60 s ),
  • the current grid is proposed again for solving.
  This is useful when you find yourself completely stuck, or when you want to make it easier to start solving grids with no obvious starting point.

To return to the home screen from the game pages, click on the home button in the top left-hand corner

Drawing of edges or calissons

The game pages display two buttons on the left and right of the hexagon that define the action mode when pressing the middle of an edge: drawing an edge (on the left) or coloring a diamond (on the right).

When playing on a computer, the selected action is performed by left-clicking, while right-clicking performs the opposite action.

On a touchscreen device where right-clicking is not possible, the selected action is performed by tapping the center of the edge.

To facilitate solving, coloring a calisson can automatically causes the coloring of adjacent calissons that satisfy the acute angle rule (see options).

• The limited screen size of a smartphone can make it difficult to play with large grids. To make it easier to play under these conditions, you can set the maximum size of grids to be offered using the drop-down list below the game launch buttons.
  The score obtained for each grid increases with this maximum size, so that the duration of the game remains more or less constant.

• You can also set the length of time the grid remains displayed (from 0 to 5 seconds) at the end of a resolution, so you can admire your work!

• There is a checkbox to enable/disable automatic coloring of neighboring calissons according to the acute angle rule when solving grids by coloring. This allows coloring resolution times equivalent to those obtained by drawing edges.

• A drop-down list allows you to choose the resolution mode associated with the left mouse click: edge tracing or calisson coloring.
  The right click is then associated with the opposite resolution mode.

"Speedy Calisson" is inspired by the Calisson game invented by Olivier LONGUET. For a presentation, to learn more about solving techniques and to test yourself against the grids proposed by the author, please visit the original website (in French).

The game zone code has been modified from Arnaud DURAND's original code.
All content is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-NC license.

"Speedy Calisson" source code

The source code of this program is available at the following GitHub address :
https://github.com/MartialTarizzo/Calisson-Game
(Unfortunally, most of the comments are in French ;-)

Origin of the grids

The grids proposed in this game are created automatically using a Python program whose code is available in a GitHub repository (https://github.com/MartialTarizzo/calisson)
All the puzzles have a single solution (if not, it's an error: don't hesitate to send me an e-mail to let me know).

Speedy Calisson is a "Progressive Web Application"

Speedy Calisson HTML pages can be installed as an application on a computer, tablet or phone.

All you need is a browser that supports this type of installation (Chrome, Edge, Safari, ...), whatever your operating system (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS).

By navigating to the Speedy Calisson home page (the one you're reading right now!), the browser allows/proposes you to install the application. The Speedy Calisson pages will then open in a stand-alone window managed by the browser (or full-screen on a tablet/phone), behaving like a native application.

If the browser you're using doesn't allow you to install an application (for example, Firefox doesn't allow you to do so without adding an extension), you can always create a shortcut to include it in your favorites or place it on your desktop.

Regardless of the method used, when browsing the home page, all the data required for the game to function is cached by the browser to enable the application to be used, even in the event of loss of internet connection

Once installed, the application is automatically updated from the network when an Internet connection is active.