Skibbitt Documentation

Skibbitt Basics

Objective of the Game

Skibbitt is a puzzle game in which players select groups of three tiles at a time (known as Triplitts) to achieve the maximum possible total score over three rounds of play.

The tiles selected in each round of play become available to play again in the next round. This allows a player to progressively move specific tiles from earlier rounds into the later rounds.

Each puzzle is set up so that there is exactly one (and only one) way to achieve the maximum possible total score for that puzzle.

Game Tiles

Each Skibbitt tile has a unique combination of Color, Shape, and Letter. There are six possibilities for each of these three categories:

Colors -- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple
Shapes -- Circle (1-sided), Digon (2-sided), Dome (3-sided), Square (4-sided), Pentagon (5-sided), and Hexagon (6-sided)
Letters -- A, B, C, D, E, and F

To see what the different Skibbitt tiles look like, please select a Color, Shape, and Letter on the following chart:

Category	Normal	Highlighted	Disabled
Color:
Shape:
Letter:

Valid Group Types

In Skibbitt, there are three ways to create valid groupings:

Sets -- Three of the same value
Runs -- Three consecutive values
Skips -- Three values that skip exactly one value in between

Well-known examples of Skips are the primary colors (Red, Yellow, Blue) and even numbers (2, 4, 6).

To view the various groupings (and their corresponding names), please select a Category from the chart below:

Category:

Sets

Runs

Skips


Set Name 1


Set Name 2


Run Name 1


Set Name 3


Run Name 2


Skip Name 1


Set Name 4


Run Name 3


Skip Name 2


Set Name 5


Run Name 4


Set Name 6

Please note: In Skibbitt, Runs do not wrap around from the last possible value back to the first possible value for a given category.

The following combinations are not valid Runs:

In Skibbitt, it does not matter what order you select tiles. The game will automatically recognize a set, run, or skip regardless of the arrangement of the tiles.

For example, all of the following possible combinations are recognized as a Primary Color Skip:

Triplitts - Selecting Groups

When a player selects three game tiles, it creates a Triplitt. The Skibbitt game engine analyzes the Triplitt to determine the rating and score of the groupings created from these three selected tiles.

An example Triplitt might look like the following:

(This Triplitt is called a Primary Odd Aced Skibbitt)

A Triplitt's name combines the names of the groupings created in Color, Shape, and Letter, along with the name of the Triplitt rating.

The rating of a Triplitt is determined by the total number of valid groupings made by the selected tiles. The lowest-rated Triplitt is worth no points because it does not contain any valid groupings of Color, Shape, or Letter. By contrast, the highest-rated Triplitt contains a valid grouping in all three categories of Color, Shape, and Letter.

The following chart details the four possible ratings for a Triplitt:

Number of Groupings	Triplitt Rating	Rating Name	Examples
0		Ribbitt	No valid groupings in Color, Shape, or Letter
1		Yibbitt	A valid grouping only in Color A valid grouping only in Shape A valid grouping only in Letter
2		Bibbitt	A valid grouping in Color and Shape, but not Letter A valid grouping in Color and Letter, but not Shape A valid grouping in Shape and Letter, but not Color
3		Skibbitt	A valid grouping in Color, Shape, and Letter

Score Calculation

The Skibbitt game engine calculates score based on the following factors:

The total number of valid groupings made (i.e. Triplitt rating)
The group types made in Color, Shape, and Letter (i.e. Set, Run, or Skip in each category)
The total value of the individual tiles in the valid groupings

After the score for each of the player's three selected Triplitts is calculated, they are added together to calculate the total score for the puzzle. The Skibbitt game engine will then compare the scores of the player's selected Triplitts to the scores of the best possible selections. The player achieves a win if the total score of the selected Triplitts matches the maximum possible score.

The following chart details how the score is calculated for a selected Triplitt:

Triplitt Rating	Rating Name	Score Calculation
	Ribbitt	0
	Yibbitt	100 + Group Score
	Bibbitt	200 + Group 1 Score + Group 2 Score
	Skibbitt	400 + Group 1 Score + Group 2 Score + Group 3 Score

The following chart details how the score for a grouping in Color, Shape, or Letter is calculated:

Group Rating	Group Type	Score Calculation
	Set	25 + Total of Tile Values
	Run	50 + Total of Tile Values
	Skip	75 + Total of Tile Values

The following chart details the score of each possible value on a Skibbitt tile:

Category	Possible Value
Category	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth
Color	Red	Orange	Yellow	Green	Blue	Purple
Shape	Circle	Digon	Dome	Square	Pentagon	Hexagon
Letter	A	B	C	D	E	F
Score	7	6	5	4	3	2

Score Examples

Here are some example Triplitts to demonstrate how the Skibbitt game engine calculates score:

Triplitt

Ratings

Score

Calculation Details

Ribbitt

Color:
Shape:
Letter:
Triplitt:

No valid groupings results in a score of 0

Foxy Yibbitt

Color:
Shape:
Letter:
Triplitt:

131

100 pts for making one grouping +
25 pts for making a Set in Letter +
6 pts for F-F-F (2 pts apiece)

Spectral Even Bibbitt

Color:
Shape:
Letter:
Triplitt:

349

200 pts for making two groupings +
50 pts for making a Run in Color +
12 pts for Yellow-Green-Blue (5 + 4 + 3 pts) +
75 pts for making a Skip in Shape +
12 pts for Digon-Square-Hexagon (6 + 4 + 2 pts)

Primary Odd Aced Skibbitt

Color:
Shape:
Letter:
Triplitt:

670

400 pts for making three groupings +
75 pts for making a Skip in Color +
15 pts for Red-Yellow-Blue (7 + 5 + 3 pts) +
75 pts for making a Skip in Shape +
15 pts for Circle-Dome-Pentagon (7 + 5 + 3 pts) +
75 pts for making a Skip in Letter +
15 pts for A-C-E (7 + 5 + 3 pts)

Gameplay

The following section describes the setup of a Skibbitt game, the rules used to generate puzzles, and the various options available to players inside of the game.

Rules of the Game

The Skibbitt game engine uses the following rules to create new puzzles:

There must be at least one valid grouping in each round of play (i.e. the final solution will never contain a Ribbitt)
The score for each round of play must increase compared to the previous round
By the final round of play, it is always possible to create at least one Skibbitt (i.e. valid groupings in all three categories of Color, Shape, and Letter)
There is exactly one (and onlu one) solution which results in the maximum possible total score for each puzzle. So, if a player finds a situation where there are multiple possible groupings which result in exactly the same score, the tiles selected cannot be the correct solution!

Based on these rules, a player should be able to deduce which tiles to select in each of the three rounds of play to achieve the maximum possible total score.

As long as the player's electronic device is connected to the Internet, Skibbitt will randomly select a puzzle from the central puzzle database. If the device is not connected to the Internet, the Skibbitt game engine will generate a new puzzle in real-time. However, be aware that it takes a few moments to generate a new random puzzle this way.

Skibbitt Title Screen

Skibbitt players are greeted with the title screen, which looks like the following example:

Skibbitt Main Menu Screenshot

The Skibbitt title screen provides the following options to players on the Main Menu:

Sign In/Sign Out -- Allows a player to log in using one of several popular third-party sites
Daily Puzzle -- Brings up one of the three Skibbitt puzzles of the day
Single-Player -- Launches Skibbitt single-player mode
Skibbitt Store -- Displays the Skibbitt in-game store
Tutorial -- Opens a web browser session to view the online Skibbitt tutorial
Exit Game -- Closes the Skibbitt app

Additional features of the Skibbitt title screen include:

Company Logo -- Tapping the MhoNiscate Entertainment company logo will display the game credits screen
Mute Button -- Toggles the game sound effects on or off. See Game Options for more details on this feature
Version -- Displays the current version of Skibbitt being played
Ad Status -- Indicates whether or not advertisements will be displayed between Skibbitt puzzles. Ad-free subscriptions are available from the Skibbitt in-game store if the player chooses to purchase this optional feature
Message of the Day -- Sometimes quirky, sometimes serious, check this message for the thought of the day!
Available Hints -- Displays how many hints are available for the player to use in-game

Skibbitt players are automatically rewarded with five free hints when the app is first installed on an electronic device. Hints can be earned by successfully solving 50 quality-points worth of Skibbitt puzzles. One quality point is awarded for solving an Easy puzzle; two for a Standard puzzle; and three for an Expert puzzle. Hints can also be purchased directly from the Skibbitt in-game store.

Game Difficulty

Before a Skibbitt puzzle is shown, the player must select the desired game difficulty. The difficulty is selected from a pop-up window after Daily Puzzle or Single-Player is selected from the Main Menu:

Difficulty Selection Popup Window

A new puzzle deals three tiles in Round 1, plus additional tiles per round based on the selected difficulty:

Easy -- one tile per game round (6 total tiles)
Standard -- two tiles per game round (9 total tiles)
Expert -- three tiles per game round (12 total tiles)

Game Board Layout

Please click on a thumbnail image to display an example game board layout for any of the three Skibbitt difficulty levels:


Easy Mode Puzzle	Standard Mode Puzzle	Expert Mode Puzzle

Key features of the game board are:

Score -- Displays the total score for the player's Selected Triplitts
Time -- Tracks the amount of time the player has been working on the current puzzle
Title Bar -- Shows the player what type of puzzle is being played, the current difficulty level, and the current round of play. The title bar will display in green in Easy mode, yellow in Standard mode, and orange in Expert mode
Mute Button -- Toggles the game sound effects on or off. See Game Options for further details on this feature
Available Tiles -- This section displays the game tiles available to play, as well as any tiles played or rejected in previous rounds
Selected Triplitts -- This section displays the Triplitts selected by the player
Best Chain Triplitts (offscreen) -- This section displays the best possible Triplitts determined by the Skibbitt game engine. The Best Chain Triplitts are typically hidden from view, but can be displayed or hidden by left- or right-swiping the Selected Triplitts section of the game board
Workspace -- This area allows a player to choose game tiles from the Available Tiles section to either plan ahead moves or select a specific Triplitt to play in the current round of play
Bookmarks -- This section allows a player to temporarily store up to 10 Triplitts from the Workspace, for future reference

Please note that the current round of play is highlighted in yellow on the Skibbitt game board.

Triplitt Workspace

In order to plan moves and play tiles, a player can press any of the Available Tiles on the Skibbitt game board.

When a tile is selected, it will enlarge slightly on the screen and blink in the Available Tiles section of the game board
As long as the Workspace is not yet full, a selected tile will be added to the Workspace area in the lower right portion of the game board
By pressing a selected tile a second time (either in the Available Tiles or Workspace sections), that tile will move back out of the Workspace and is deselected
The player may place any Available Tile from the current round forward into the Workspace. This allows the player to easily see the score of the selected Triplitt and plan moves ahead of time

A player may press the following buttons to manage the tiles currently in the Workspace area:

Bookmark -- This places the selected Triplitt into the Bookmarks area, for future reference
Select -- If all three selected tiles in the Workspace are available in the current round of play, pressing the Select button performs the following actions:

Chooses the current tiles in the Workspace as the Selected Triplitt for the current game round
For Rounds 1 and 2, selected tiles are added to the Available Tiles for the next round of play and advances the puzzle to that next round
For Round 3, the Skibbitt game engine confirms whether or not the player has selected the correct tiles to achieve the maximum possible total score for the puzzle

Clear -- Removes all selected tiles from the Workspace
Undo -- Cancels the player's last Selected Triplitt and goes back to the previous round of play

The following screenshot highlights the selected tiles and Workspace area of an example Skibbitt game board:

Skibbitt Workspace Screenshot

Bookmarks

A player may use the Bookmark feature to keep track of possible Triplitt selections once they have been moved to the Workspace.

Pressing a bookmarked Triplitt will place those tiles back into the Workspace, as long as those tiles are still available to play in the current or future rounds of play.

A bookmarked Triplitt will highlight in yellow if it is currently in the Workspace. This allows a player to easily see if the tiles currently selected in the Workspace match one of the bookmarked selections.

A player can manage the Bookmarks using the following buttons:

	Removes the selected bookmark
	Clears all bookmarks
	Sorts bookmarks by score, smallest to largest
	Sorts bookmarks by score, largest to smallest

The following screenshot highlights the Bookmarks section of an example Skibbitt game board, along with the buttons used to manage those bookmarks:

Skibbitt Bookmarks Screenshot

Winning the Game

After a player has selected a Triplitt for all three rounds of play, the Skibbitt game engine will add together the scores for each round to determine whether or not the puzzle has been solved correctly. Because there is only one unique solution for each puzzle, the game board will display the following details for the player once a puzzle has been completed:

Game rounds in which the correct Triplitt was selected are highlighted in green
Game rounds in which the incorrect Triplitt was selected are highlighted in red
The total score (located in the upper left corner of the screen) will display how many points the player scored compared to the maximum possible score for the puzzle

Click on the thumbnails below to see a full-sized screenshot of an example Skibbitt win or loss:


A Skibbitt Win	A Skibbitt Loss

Game Options

The sound effects for the game can be toggled on or off by pressing the mute button in the upper right corner of the screen:

	Sound is currently on
	Sound is currently off

The following options are also available for Skibbitt players on the lower right portion of the screen:

Reset -- This option resets the current puzzle for the player to solve again. The game timer (located in the upper left corner of the screen) continues to run, however, indicating how much total time the player has spent playing the current puzzle
New Puzzle -- Leaves the current puzzle and generates a brand new puzzle of the same difficulty. When solving a Daily Puzzle, pressing this button will return the player to the Title Screen
Boast -- Once a puzzle has been completed, the player may press this button to take a screenshot of the game board. The game will then provide the option to post this screenshot to one of the popular social media websites
Hint -- If available, a player may turn on the hints for the current puzzle. The total number of hints available to the player is indicated in parentheses on the Hint button itself. Players can earn hints by continuing to correctly solve puzzles, or have the option to purchase hints directly from the Skibbitt in-game store

The ratings, names, and scores of the correct Triplitts will display as light blue overlays when Hints are enabled. These overlays will appear in both the Selected Triplitts and Workspace portions of the game board, so the player can easily see whether or not the selections are correct. As players select Triplitts, the names and scores will display in green if correct, and red if incorrect :

Skibbitt Game Board with Hints Enabled

Summary

To sum it up:

Skibbitt is a puzzle game where players choose three tiles at a time (known as Triplitts), trying to find the best possible combinations of Color, Shape, and Letter
Tiles selected in a game round become available to play again in the next round, allowing players to strategically work tiles from earlier to later rounds of play
By the third round of play, the player should always be able to create a Triplitt which contains a valid grouping in all three categories of Color, Shape, and Letter (known as a Skibbitt)
The scores for each of the three individual rounds of play are added together to result in the total score for the puzzle. The player correctly solves the puzzle if the total score of the selected Triplitts equals the maximum possible score calculated by the Skibbitt game engine
Only one possible solution exists to correctly solve each puzzle

It sounds so easy, doesn't it? Enjoy playing Skibbitt to find out for yourself!

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