Makers 5x5 tile game

As part of the ongoing serialization of my forthcoming novel MAKERS, Tor.com has commissioned Idiots' Books to produce 81 CC-licensed, interlocking illustrations, one for each installment. Periodically, Tor is adding these to a little Flash-toy that lets you rotate and realign the images like tiles (each has edge-elements that matches up with the others). They've just put up the 5X5 grid, which I'm finding addictively fun.

Makers Tile Game 5x5

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Art and Design • Book • Games • Happy Mutants • science fiction

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ronitb

Interesting discussion here about the mathematics of this tile array:

http://www.ephblog.com/2009/08/06/play-with-tiles/

Best quote: “It seems quite reasonable to say, then, that the number of free-form tile arrangements when using all 81 exceeds by many orders of magnitude the number of atoms in the universe.”
jfrancis

I was thinking pretty much the same thing back when I was exploring these interlocking tiles.

http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2009/05/make_a_maze_in.html
jfrancis

If you design it right, you can even have unrelated tile array ‘overlays’ co-existing in the same space to add interest and complexity.