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Family Puzzle Giveaway
$6.99
EXPIRED

Game Giveaway of the day — Family Puzzle

Family Puzzle - An exciting jigsaw puzzle game! Family puzzles are one of the most accessible types of entertainment that help to improve logic, attention and memory. The game includes a great number of puzzle types and modifications, different shapes of puzzle pieces and a large collection of images.
$6.99 EXPIRED
User rating: 160 36 comments

Family Puzzle was available as a giveaway on January 23, 2010!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$9.99
free today
Decorate and upgrade different Christmas cafes.

Family Puzzle - An exciting jigsaw puzzle game!

Family puzzles are one of the most accessible types of entertainment that help to improve logic, attention and memory. The game includes a great number of puzzle types and modifications, different shapes of puzzle pieces and a large collection of images.

The goal of the game is always the same - putting together an image from multiple pieces. The difficulty of a specific puzzle is defined by the image underlying it, but the most important criterion is the number of elements. The higher it is, the more difficult it is to put the puzzle together. Try using real paintings, images and complex landscapes.

System Requirements:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista; 500 Mhz processor; 64 Mb RAM; 25 Mb HD space; 3D video with 8 Mb VRAM

Publisher:

Xing Interactive

Homepage:

http://fly-games.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=30

File Size:

21.8 MB

Price:

$6.99

GIVEAWAY download basket

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Comments on Family Puzzle

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#36

A jigsaw game I like is Bigjig on Lenagames.com You can download the game and they give away one free puzzle image for download each week. If you pay you get many more puzzles at one time, but I've found that for myself, one puzzle a week is plenty. I've been playing this one for about 10 years now and it's really well designed. I've never had a problem. I'm not really a jigsaw puzzle player off the computer but since I found Bigjig, I do enjoy them on the computer from time to time.

Reply   |   Comment by Sandy  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#35

It looks like the .box pictures are jpg's, but they added information to the beginning and ending of the file. So you have the title of the picture, the jpg, then some closing info.

Reply   |   Comment by Darthyoda  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#34

Twas an interesting day with these puzzles. I had deleted (I thought) the Christmas puzzles but after reading some of the comments above, I went back and found the install button and reinstalled it. Got some really strange things. Only a few of the pieces would connect and they didn't really looked like they belonged to the same puzzle. The shapes and design were right but the colours were mixed up and they do not connect unless they are the right colours. Then I discovered each piece has 3 different colours - if you double click on each piece, it changes colours. Not only did I have to match the pieces but I had to change the colours for at least half of them to get the puzzle done. I do not think that was what was intended but it makes for a much bigger challenge that, in the end, I actually really liked.

Reply   |   Comment by Karen  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#33

@19 - Doug - I did notice that I was able to connect multiple pieces, but ONLY after the outside border was completely finished, another odd behavior - though not a complete turnoff - seen in this series of puzzles.

Reply   |   Comment by watcher13  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#32

Finally, got around to testing. A couple of quick notes. I noticed something in this giveaway that I think I only partially noticed in the last Fly Games puzzle. For some reason I can't figure out, if you don't select piece rotation, the bottom row of the puzzle is not reproduced. That makes it slightly more difficult - though not particularly so, to place the bottom row. Overall, of course, not selecting piece rotation makes any of the levels easier. For that reason, I'd say it's more technically correct to say there are six levels of difficulty to play through vice three. Of course, everyone would probably find Easy mode without rotation to be like "falling off a log". Still, people can play them through one at a time, which would especially prolong the playability if one went through each of the levels (doing at least the puzzles that interested them) one level at a time, since it's unlikely people would remember each puzzle that well after doing dozens of others. It's been mentioned that these Fly Game puzzles would be enhanced if you could go up to around a thousand pieces, but the around a hundred pieces in the hard mode look awfully small and challenging to me, but then I'm not very good at this sort of thing. :)

This seems to vacillate between nondescript titles like "House" or "Japan" to slightly more, but usefully, descriptive titles, specifically the names of landmarks. I strongly prefer the latter, as it adds color, educational value, and even vacation ideas to the game. Certainly, the educational value makes it all the better for children.

As usual, 2 pieces of music here. Personally, the "oriental" synthesized piece I find reasonably attractive. The other...not so much.

Reply   |   Comment by watcher13  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#31

I like the jigsaw puzzle games. As someone said earlier, they're a nice break. I haven't noticed in the ones before this one however, were some possible misspellings. I noticed "ruins" was "rhuins" and "stormy" was "stromy". I was amused by that but still like the puzzles. And hey, they're free. Besides, I know a few really good programmers that can't spell worth a darn, go figure.

Thanks, GGAOTD!

Reply   |   Comment by Chris  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#30

so how do i create custom images ? all i see is built in playable ones.

Reply   |   Comment by nogard0  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#29

Thanks GGAOTD, I am really enjoying this game. I realize that some are *disappointed* by the selection of games. I am just grateful to have some free entertainment :). I appreciate your dedication to the site and all of your hard work scouting for these gems!!

Reply   |   Comment by Beekeeper  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#28

Glamour Puzzle has a problem with the "Euro Tales" picture one piece was stuck on top of another piece. It still finished ok. I hope the developers read this. It was on the Easy setting but still had at least sixty pieces. Also I remember doing this picture before in another giveaway.

Reply   |   Comment by Dobromilka  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#27

LOVE IT! And so does my 4-year-old daughter.
Thanks again for another game - I totally appreciate these. Happy gaming!

Reply   |   Comment by tw0nst3r  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#26

While I see the lack of variety, I am not really displeased with the jigsaw games. On the contrary, I'm finding them a pleasant change from my favorite HOGs. Thanks.

Reply   |   Comment by Montana Grandmom  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#25

WR,

I see where I got the idea of Alawar. The page where it was offered (in February of 2008), it says Fly Games but the Home page listed is Alawar. The game itself does not mention either Alawar nor Fly.

However, you're correct. This is one of only 3 or 4 games that I had tagged as Alawar that survived the username fiasco last October.

Because it has survived that issue, I have been able to literally move the installed folder (and create a new shortcut) and it still shows as a licensed game.

Diane

......................Moderator Comment.................

Same for me. I don't usually go for jigsaw puzzles, but i had a lot of fun creating family orientated puzzles as well as adding my own music to the game; I'm so glad it still works. I was considering buying it after someone mentioned that it was available at Alawar becauseI thought I'd lost it, but found the old copy on one of the discs I was spring cleaning this last week. I wouldn't have minded buying it from Alawar though. I've been adding images from wallpaper sites such as Digital Blasphemy. Beautiful fantasy images, plus loads more from several other sites including NASA. I may purchase that Real Jigsaw as well as i like the idea of being able to walk around a gallery.

Reply   |   Comment by Diane  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#24

@21: All products from Fly Games are from Media Research Group. I still remember the earlier Game Giveaways from Fly Games, and digging through stuff shows that all of them use the Media Research Group brand in some way, most of the time through the credits.

@23: Lol, Joji. You should read the forums more.

Reply   |   Comment by GMMan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#23

Oh, and Whiterabbit, one question. Do you have exams? Don't you have to study for them for like next week or something?

Just curious... you know. :)

~Joji~

Hi Joji,

No, I finished sitting exams quite a few yers ago, though I'm always studying. I've considered doing a doctrate, but not sure whether i'd be able to now due to the strong opiates i have to take. :)

Reply   |   Comment by Joji  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#22

Fly Games sucks... low graphics, cheep quality, horrible game installers, sucky 3D games, and the list goes on and on.

Well... atleast their software aren't as bad as "Odin Soft" or something. That site SUCKS(Odin Soft)!!! I mean, that includes excessively horrible grammar and spelling, crappy and useless software (such as their "ctr +PrtSC" software that costs $20... scam!), and unproffesional designs.

~Joji~

Reply   |   Comment by Joji  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#21

Along with the previous Fly jigsaw games, I did download and install (more of a extraction than an install) this game and up-front disabled the sound and created the shortcut.

Also, like the previous Fly jigsaw games, I "merged" the BOXES folder with the corresponding folder for Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle. You can add to Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle where you cannot for these others. By merging, you take care of any possible duplicates as long as you assume duplicates will have the same name. I now show 740 puzzles for Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle (all 5 games in one). I see no need to add any for the time being. LOL

Although Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle is obviously from the same maker as the other three, it does NOT say Fly Games Development. In the upper left corner of the window, it says "Media Research Group" and was offered here from Alawar.

One other piece of information - Family Puzzle, Glamour Puzzle, and Lovely Puzzle (all but Christmas Puzzle) are also available free all the time from FreeGamePick.com. Note, you have to avoid the toolbar and ask.com installs and cannot use their shortcuts if you do avoid the installs (make your own and it works fine) and it does open your browser to their site upon exit but there are no other problems and no single day availability situation.

Diane

......................Moderator Comment.......................


Hi Diane,

The game wasn't offered by Alawar games but by Fly Games. Though the Alawar version does have an Alawar tag on the top right hand corner. Whether Fly Games have copied the format for their later games is a possibility or Media Research Group and Fly games are on and the same, or Fly games was the distributor of Media Research Group when the game was given away by Fly :) It's certainly wasn't given away by alawr because all of the games they gave away wrote registration codes to the registry. I've reinstalled windows several times since we were given Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle and it still works because it doesn't require a registration code within the registry.

Reply   |   Comment by Diane  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#20

I noticed the Christmas game has a button to click that has "gallery" view and the next one 'Lovely puzzles' didn't and one must scroll through the pics one at a time. I like the gallery view so I decided to try the file transfer and played with it a bit. I used the COPY function as opposed to just grab and dragging the folders into the other game.

Here are a couple things I found.

Could not make a new folder and use it at all. Although this did not mess up the game it's a waste of time. One must use the folders on hand.

Sub folders do not work. The pics must be in the top folders. I tried copying entire folders into the existing folders and the Christmas game did not see them.

Also as Whiterabbit (I gather it is Whiterabbit moderating or has he gone to bed? Does he ever sleep?) said, it does not matter how many .box files are in a single folder. All of them can be transferred into any existing folder or each according to their names. Takes a bit more work to transfer folder by folder but with two windows open side by side it went quickly.

Don't forget the music is simply MP3 and can be changed to your liking.

~~~~~

I'd suggest to the developer to put buttons for volume and turn music on and off. Also a sound for pieces linking together would be nice.

~~~~~

The puzzles are nice and my wife is hooked on them. I find it a nice alternative to Spider and Freecell. Very few problems. One puzzle the pieces did not want to link halfway through it. We could do 'hint' and then link them but no link without using the hint. Closed it out (ended puzzle not game) and next puzzle worked fine.


...................Moderator comment...............

Yes it's me (Whiterabbit) and no, I hardly go to bed at the weekend so that I can moderate as many comments as possible. I usually give up around 4 or 5 am (GMT) when theres only 3 or 4 hours for the giveaway to run and then there's rarely more than a few comments to moderate the following day. Though I do take lots of cat naps throughout the day, lol.

Reply   |   Comment by prying1  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#19

I downloaded, extracted (to its permanent location), and activated this program without any difficulties at all (although you may wish to warn future GGotD users that they are extracting program files, NOT setup files). While it was inconvenient, I didn't have any difficulty creating a shortcut (I did find it interesting that the .ico file included was of a brunette Anglo girl instead of the ginger-haired girl (holding a microphone?) that appears throughout the game).

The game itself is quite nice - the graphic quality is good, being able to move whatever music I like into the easily located "Music" folder is excellent (although a good future feature would be to allow the user to select which folder on their own system will be used as the music source (rather than them having to manually copy files into that location).

The mechanics of moving the pieces around is good, except that I noticed that when I put a piece in place that should have connected with two pieces at the same time, it would only connect with one. I had to "re-place" the same piece to get the second connection to happen.

I do like the effect when a successful connection has happened - it is good to KNOW when a connection has happened - in other puzzle games, the only way I know that I have correctly placed a piece, is that a larger group moves around when I wiggle my mouse.

The "Preview" button is a redundant feature, as one already has the "Ghost Picture" available to them. The function button that selects the border pieces "B" is poorly labelled. It wasn't until I started randomly clicking unknown buttons to see what they did that I discovered what it does.

Having the true in-game functions menu hidden under the image of a ginger-hair girl in the lower left of the screen is counterproductive. Also, while the "select" functions work as expected, the last two functions are surprising (in a bad way).

When you click on what is actually labelled "menu", it takes you back to the game's main menu - you REALLY need to add a "return" button that allows the user to quickly return to their puzzle in progress. Currently, it does a complete regeneration of the puzzle. With a system as powerful as my own, this is just an annoyance - I suspect to most people this would be unacceptable.

Even considering these minor difficulties, I would recommend this puzzle game to my friends (at least the one who play puzzle games), as $6.99 price is appropriate for a casual game of this quality.

Thank you GGotD, and Fly Games for this opportunity.

My System: HP Pavilion d5200t (running under Vista Ultimate SP2 64-bit) w/4Gb RAM, 1000Gb RAID HDD, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT video card w/512Mb memory, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio card.

Downloaded using Mozilla Firefox 3.5.7

Reply   |   Comment by Doug S.  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#18

@16: You can try reinstalling the version from their website, as they use the same activation keys. Or, you can download the other games and copy all of the .box files into today's game.


.....................Moderator Comment....................


As the games didn't come with uninstallers the registration details should still be in the registry, which means as you suggested each of the demos will convert to full versions, though the images from the demos I downloaded seemed to have been edited so that it wasn't possible to get all the images from the full versions. For example I downloaded the demo for the Family puzzle yesterday, but there were only a third of the images that were stated in the full version, plus the images were a selection of images from most of the other games.

As the Infinite puzzle was developed by Fly games maybe you can get the images from that game which is now available as a demo elsewhere. I checked the image type and it is also .box

Reply   |   Comment by GMMan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#17

Puzzle request thread posted. Please see http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6933


....................Moderator Comment..................

Thanks for your efforts GMMan. :)

Reply   |   Comment by GMMan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#16

I got the two previous sets of puzzles and they were a fun way to pass the time for this disabled senior. Then after a few weeks the pieces stopped attaching themselves or else they attached themselves to the wrong pieces. Since there is no technical support I have uninstalled them but they were great while they lasted. I'm downloading this one and hope it does not do the same thing but perhaps the programmers at the company should look into this problem - it could be my computer but everything else is working properly so...........
I am disappointed to have lost them even though they were free. I'd be really ticked off had I paid for them.

Reply   |   Comment by Karen  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#15

@WhiteRabbit: You're missing an opening quote on your link to the developer's download.

Since no one has taken up on my offer to make custom puzzles, I'll put a request thread on the forums so that people know it's there.


.................Moderator Comment..................

Thanks GMMan. I fell asleep while writing the review, so there's probably loads of errors a sI didn't proof read it. lol
Will correct the problm now.

Reply   |   Comment by GMMan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#14

I'd be curious, having downloaded three puzzle games of this sort from this company already, if one could take all the folders in the BOXES directory of the other two games and dump them into the BOXES folder of this one, and be able to access the puzzles from all three games just the one puzzle game. And then delete the redundant other two games. Anyone tried something like that to see if it would work? :) I DO like most of the photos in all the games, but would just like have ONE game in which to play them, not three.



......................Moderator Comment.................

I think someone tried it when the second game was given away with success (actually it was for the sky aces game I think?), but I've not botheredn to check it out as I found my copy of Infinite Jigsaw puzzle, which these games seem to have been spawned from. I've already imported a couple of hundred images into the game from my stock of wallpapers and family images, and am really pleased with it; (It was given away back in 2008 when the game giveaway was still every day). Still, if you have all four games (or even just 2, I'd go for it and copy all the box files over to one folder. However as a precaution I'd only copy the images over and keep the three redundant games until you've confirmed that the idea works.



Edit.... Yes it does work. I'd try to copy over each folder to the correct folder in the game you choose to keep. For example place thebox files from the art folder into the art folder; though this isn't necessary. I copied all the box files into one folder, lol. I think this answers my suspicion as to why all the demos have the same images. As someone could easily have downloaded each demo and copied the images over.

Reply   |   Comment by GoHybrid  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#13

I'm sorry, but what does it mean by "3 difficulty levels" When I buy a jigsaw (physical), it tells me the number of pieces, and the size. This way, I knof if it appropriate for myself (500 pieces), my grandson (now 50-60 pieces) or my mother (1500-2500 pieces). I will download and test, but the phrase used tells me nothing that is useful for if I would want to even try it (if it doesn't have little kid numbers I am not interested.)


.......................Moderator Comment......................


Check out my images via comment 1. I've given an example of each difficulty level. in my review at #1

Reply   |   Comment by Jacques  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#12

ooops Adrian is not the moderator... my bad


.................Moderator comment...................

:) np.... do you want me to change the name?

Reply   |   Comment by MtnVision  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#11

I get so excited when i see GiveAwayOfTheDay offer a game!!

It used to be every day but now is a rarity so no complaints or criticism from me. I love the boring old jigsaw!! Games that use more than the mouse I will never use but that is no fault but my own. Each to their own & be patient for others is best attitude. There is always something different upon the horizon. With GGAOTD I do not worry about advertiser intrusion, home page hijacking, yucky toolbars, or any malware in general so I am always pleased to see a game even if it does not appeal to me personally.

Hopefully there is a sensitivity & forbearance towards your good work instilled in readers of this comment such as #8. Possibly those five words of impatience & displeasure relieved a meager quantity of boredom in his/her life yet it is very kind of our moderator to explain the situation so clearly. In other words... "Thanks for putting up with us!"

Thank you VERY much Adrian for all your hard work. My best to you & yours.



...................Noderator Comment.....................

Well said.

Reply   |   Comment by MtnVision  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#10

Mixed feelings here. I'm not a virtual jigsaw fan and am a bit disappointed to see another one but, at the same time, I'm glad to see *something* here keeping the site alive.
I've had some belters from here in the past (all time fave... Brickshooter Egypt) and look forward to seeing more good quality games in the future. :~)

Reply   |   Comment by gb  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#9

These jigsaws are nice for a little 30 min. break just right for the glass of wine or cup of tisane before bed. However, I can't imagine anyone buying all of the versions. Getting them free is one thing but paying for the same thing over and over wouldn't be bright. I didn't notice the price that this company is planning on charging but these seem destined for the dollar bin in a discount store. There are a couple puzzles in the Christmas version where you have to double click on the pieces to match the color which was an interesting challenge. Other than lack of challenge, the biggest irritant is when allowing rotation of the individual pieces the entire board can be accidentally rotated and then you have to follow ritual of closing out the game and reopening then attempting to rotate it back sometimes followed by closing and reopening again.

Reply   |   Comment by Luri  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#8

Jigsaw? Again? I'm getting bored...


……………………..Moderator Comment……………..

The game giveaway team are trying to find new games, but as I've said several times previously, the economic climate hasn't helped; plus the fact that several distributors and developers now give away games freely (though some do have in game advertising),


Here's some examples where you can get free games. you'll find links in the forums for most of them. Sandalot is a good one, with full version games given with a registration code for multiple installations:

Sandalot games (1 free arcade game per week), Alawar Games (1 free game a month), Gametop (around a hundred free games, though you have to watch out for toolbars and home page hijacks), Gamehouse (1 free game a day with advertising), Freegamepick (around 30 free games, similar to Gametop), Big Fish Games (Occassional freebies) plus others. I do hope you've found some of the games that have been given away over the past 3 years okay. :)

Reply   |   Comment by Adrian  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#7

Disregard that last request. Old brain has just kicked into gear. Forgot the send to.

Sorry. :)


……………………..Moderator Comment……………..



lol

Reply   |   Comment by Suzanne  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#6

Loaded and activated fine. Plays fine. I go to make an icon to put into another file and it wont play from there. How do I change it. It seems it wont let me do it. Does anyone know how?


……………………..Moderator Comment……………..

I had no problem creating a desktop icon. Try creating a new one and see if that works.

Reply   |   Comment by Suzanne  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#5

I have noticed that Fly Games makes many different puzzle games. It might be a good idea to make one stand alone program with add on puzzle modules. Then they would only have to manage one program.

That would make it easier to fix the bugs in the program since they would only have to fix the bug one time instead of across all their programs.


……………………..Moderator Comment……………..


They used to

Reply   |   Comment by BrendaG4  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#4

This company needs to develop better games to entertain people other then boring puzzles or other games. Each game that they release is very low in quality and repetitive in features. I have been a casual gamer for almost 10 years now and can say that Gamehouse has a quality selection of puzzle games at the $6.99 rate when you sign up for their Fun Ticket.

The only bad thing about Gamehouse puzzle games is that you do not have the ability to import your own images, but they have licensed properties like spongebob squarepants and dora the explorer etc, something the family can relate to and can play with their kids for hours.

But if you are in a penny pinch and cannot afford paid for games then this company that makes games might be just for you on Giveaway of the Day but I cannot reccomend their games other then their free price tag given away on this site.

Final note to Whiterabbit: Thank you for providing alternatives for us to download in comparasent to what is being offered here but theres too many quality alternatives to put this offer to shame.



..........................Moderator Comment.................


Hi Jason, I agree with you on your last point (well all of them actually), What annoys me about this developer is they used to have one puzzle game called Infinite Jigsaw that had several extra functions some of which I mention in my review above. That game can now be purchased from Alawar games. They seem to have taken away the ability to add your own images and then released several games that are basically the same game but with different titles and the GUI's are different colors. Sounds like a bit od a scam to me.

Reply   |   Comment by Jason Carver  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#3

for a really cool FREE puzzle program go to www.kraisoft.com I'm sure that this one does not really compare well to the kraisoft one. another one that is not free but quite good is the "@jisaw" one. it very nice with losts of features such as puzzle gifts, galley viewing for completed puzzles, resizing and rotate options, ect...



........................Moderator comment.......................


Thanks for the heads up on the Kraisoft freebie.

Reply   |   Comment by jet  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#2

sory but it is only a demo you can only play for 30 min. an the buy


.................................Moderator Comment...........................


You need to activate the game by clicking on the activation module. (The orange coloured icon with a key symbol)

Reply   |   Comment by alice  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#1

Family Puzzle:

Today's game is a 21.8Mb download that installs to C:\Games by default, though this may differ on some systems. you may find it tries to install to the previous gveaway location, so during installation its a good idea to keep an eye open for where its being installed to. You'll also need to create a shortcut because none are created when the game is installed. The game is basically the same as previous jigsaws apart from new images (though there are some repeats). The following is the developers introduction




An exciting jigsaw puzzle game based on a mosaic that the player has to put together from numerous image fragments of different shapes.

Family puzzles are one of the most accessible types of entertainment that help develop logic, attention and memory. The game features a great number of puzzle types and modifications, different shapes of puzzle pieces and a large collection of images. The goal of the game is always the same - putting together an image from multiple pieces. The difficulty of a specific puzzle is defined by the image underlying it, but the most important criterion is the number of elements. The higher it is, the more difficult it is to put the puzzle together. Try using real paintings, images and complex landscapes. Large puzzles are a serious challenge and take considerable time to complete. Apart from that, the game enables the most experienced players to add an element of extra complexity - piece rotation. At the beginning of each level, puzzles are mixed and rotated at different angles. Anyone willing to forget about boring daily routines for a short while will find this game a real gem. Assemble puzzles with nice music playing in the background and enjoy the process. All family members will like Glamour Puzzles - in fact, you can play it together. The more friends and family members are involved, the faster you will achieve success. You can start right now by downloading the game for free!


Reference accessed HERE on the 22nd Jan 2010



PicDepict.com
PicDepict.com
The Game:


Once the game has been started you have to scroll through the images to select what you want. There is no facility to add new images via the games GUI, (see conclusion below as this appears to contradict what the features say) and it seems like you can’t add images manually as all the images found in the games installed folder are of a format called .box which I’d never heard of before until getting the first jigsaw puzzle last month. Once you’ve chosen the image you wish to create a puzzle with you select the difficulty level. There are three of those; Easy, Medium and Hard. The easy puzzles can probably be completed in 10 to 20 minutes, or even faster if you utilize the ghost image which is an exact fit to the puzzle image (see the second image of Tower Bridge below). You can further increase the difficulty by allowing all pieces to rotate; once this is done you can start solving the puzzle. There are several buttons that allow you to perform certain functions such as creating a ghost image within the puzzle area that gives you a framework to build your jigsaw; this can be made to look more solid or virtually disappear altogether, depending upon how easy you want to make the puzzle. There’s also a preview button that brings up an image to the top left of the playing area. This has three settings, the first being a small thumbnail and the final setting (number 3) fills about a third of the screen. You can show hints which will drag a piece of jigsaw to the correct location on the board, but then will spring back, so you have to watch where it is going otherwise you may lose the position, especially on the more difficult settings. There is a counter to tell you how many hints you’ve taken. There’s also a B key that makes the central pieces disappear so that all you can see are the border pieces.

PicDepict.com

Small Puzzle


If you want to leave a puzzle part done and start a new one you can do so and then return to the partially finished puzzle at a later date. Apart from the in game buttons there are several keyboard shortcuts which I’ve detailed below.




Useful keyboard keys:

F10…………………………Boss Key
Ctrl + A………………….Select All pieces
Ctrl + S………………….Select All Border
Ctrl + D………………….Select All unsolved
Esc………………………….Back to game menu


PicDepict.com

Medium Puzzle
PicDepict.com

Large Puzzle
Features:



• 220 built-in levels

• 3 difficulty levels

• Easy Creation of custom levels

• Various puzzle shapes

• Classic rotation of puzzle pieces

• Interactive hints


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Problems with the game?:

If you have trouble getting the game to work try downloading the demo from the developers site HERE

The activate file will register that demo as well as the set up file we get. The advantage of using the demo from Fly games is you get a desktop and Start Menu/Programs shortcut installed, plus an uninstaller as well; (the shortcut to the uninstaller will be found in the Start menu/programs list if you decide to use the demo). That should solve the problems some are having being able to find the executable once installed. :)



Images:

You can see around 80 images from today’s jigsaw puzzle as a slideshow HERE or all on one page yy clicking the Grid button to the bottom right of the screen just above the thumbnail filmstrip. There’s a slider to the top right that enlarges the images a little.

Here's a few of the images you'll find in game:

PicDepict.com
PicDepict.com
PicDepict.com
PicDepict.com
PicDepict.com
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:


Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista

Processor 500 Mhz or better

64 Mb RAM

25 Mb of hard drive space

3D video card with8 Mb of video memory


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Music:

If you don't like the intro or in game music you can easily change it for any of your MP3 collection. There is no file conversion needed because the file used by the developer is also MP3.

If you've installed the game to its default location you should find the music files by following the path:

C:\games\puzzle\Family Puzzle\MUSIC (this path may be different depending upon where you installed last weeks game; however the last part of the path is the same (i.e. Family Puzzle\Music)

You should rename the files you are using to replace the original to the same names as the originals otherwise they might not be recognized; that said, someone reported in a previous giveaway that you didn’t need to change the names?


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Conclusion:

I’ve used the demo of Family Puzzle downloaded from fly games to write up today’s game giveaway review; however, there seems to be some discrepancies between the demo and the main features that the developer says this puzzle has. From the list given above which was copied from the developers page for this game there are supposed to be over 200 images, which there wasn’t when I checked through the images. Also there’s supposed to be a selection of jigsaw shapes and the ability to create custom images. The demo looked exactly like the previous puzzles we’ve had over the last month, including at least half of the images being repeated. I will have to check the full version when its available in several hours from now to see if it was just the demo limitation.


(Edit - the demo was totally different to the full version game, however, most of what I concluded earlier this morning stands. There are a large number of images to puzzle over; more than in previous games. I've updated the images I posted to reflect what the full version has as well as changed some of the images I posted in this review)



The main disappointments with this game was the often annoying habit of the pieces to jump slightly out of place when you locked a couple of pieces together and the ability to change the number of pieces from very few, which would be ideal for children to thousands for the die hard jigsaw fan. Despite these omissions I still think the game is worth 7 out of 10.







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Alternative Games:

I posted the following link last week, but just in case you missed last weeks game or you didn’t get the chance to follow the link, here it is again.

There are hundreds of jigsaw puzzles available for free via the internet. This
link to Caimans leads you to just over a hundred different Jigsaw puzzle games all of which are free.

Thanks to Naomi who suggested we visit Jigzone last week. You can find loads of free jigsaw puzzles:

http://www.jigzone.com/

Copmom suggested http://www.brainsbreaker.com/. It’s not free, but you can create puzzles that you can send onto friends as copmom does. The program is actually very good with the ability to create puzzles with many more pieces than today’s game. Also you can upload your own images and use different interlocking pieces plus other features.


You can see my comments for the other jigsaws given away over the last few weeks by following the links below:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/christmas-puzzles/#comments

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/glamour-puzzle/#comments

The only difference between today’s game and both of the above are the images found within the games and the GUI, which has a color change. Otherwise each of the three Jigsaw puzzles given away is basically the same game. I personally think it sad that they no longer sell the infinite jigsaw puzzle. And suspect it may be a tactical move to maximize profits ( then again I may be wrong). The game had everything these puzzles offer plus more besides. (i.e. the ability to add your own images, different puzzle shapes and the ability to change the number of puzzle pieces from several up to around 1400 using a slider so you could choose any number within that range


The game originally given away by Fly games called Infinite Jigsaw appears to no longer be available from Fly Games, but Alawar games still sell it. The format is very similar to todays game except you have more control over the game, with the ability to add images of your own as well as several other differences.

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit-uk  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
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