Chroma

Chroma  1.14 (12th December 2011)
=================================
Chroma is an abstract puzzle game. A variety of colourful shapes are arranged
in a series of increasingly complex patterns, forming fiendish traps that must
be disarmed and mysterious puzzles that must be manipulated in order to give
up their subtle secrets. Initially so straightforward that anyone can pick it
up and begin to play, yet gradually becoming difficult enough to tax even the
brightest of minds. Have you got what it takes to solve Chroma?

Installing
==========
See INSTALL for details of how to compile and install Chroma from the tarball.

Playing
=======
Run `chroma` for the graphical version of Chroma, or `chroma-curses` for a
minimal, text based version that runs in a terminal or a command window.

There are twenty one levels, split into two sets - nine intended for beginners,
providing a step-by-step introduction to the mechanics of Chroma's building
blocks, and a further twelve for those in search of a real challenge. You can
play them in any order, but you'll probably find it useful to build up
experience on the earlier levels before tacking the later ones.

In each level, the goal is to use your two player pieces to collect all of the
stars before leaving through the door. Other pieces such as circles, squares,
triangles and dots serve to help or hinder you in this quest. Part of the
challenge of Chroma is understanding exactly how these pieces interact with
one another - you'll need to experiment until you discover how their differing
properties can best be used to your advantage. To this end, the full range of
pieces is introduced over the first six levels of each set.

There are two octagonal player pieces, of which one is active, and may be
moved using the arrow keys. To swap control to the other player piece, press
[SPACE] or [ENTER] - its colour will change to reflect this. Initially, many of
the puzzles can be solved using only one of the player pieces, but as the
levels get harder, you'll find it necessary to carefully co-ordinate the moves
of both of them in order to achieve your objective.

If you make a mistake, you can press [DELETE] to undo as many moves as you
wish, allowing you to move in a different way or press [INSERT] to redo moves
that have been previously undone. Once a move has been made, however, you must
wait for its full consequences to take effect before you can move again. In the
graphical version, holding [SHIFT] down will speed things up, whereas [CTRL]
will slow things down, allowing you to observe the changes in more detail.
[F] will bring the pieces to their ultimate state of rest immediately.

Pressing [ESCAPE] will present you with a menu, from which you can save your
position, load a previous position, or return to the level selection menu, as
well as allowing you to revert to the last position loaded. At the start of a
level, you can also replay the moves from a previously saved position. When
doing so, [LEFT] reverses the replay, [UP] or [DOWN] pauses it, and [RIGHT]
continues. Should you wish to stop the replay and start making moves again,
return to the menu with [ESCAPE], then press [T].

The Display Options menu allows you to change the graphics used, as well as
the size of the screen and the speed of the game. You can also change the keys
used and how the mouse works, and save these changes for future use if desired.

Level Editor
============
Selecting [E] from the title screen allows you to design your own levels. To
start with a blank level, press [L] and then [C]. You can now press [Q] to
enter the level editor itself. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor, and
[PAGE-UP] and [PAGE-DOWN] to change the currently selected piece. Pressing
[SPACE] or [ENTER] will place a piece under the cursor, and pressing [Q] will
return you to the editing menu, from which you can save your work, test the
level, or verify it to ensure that it contains no errors. The Level Options
menu allows you to give your level a title, change its size and rotate it.

Website
=======
Can you find the shortest solution to Chroma's challenges? Visit the Chroma
website at http://level7.org.uk/chroma/ to compete with other players in the
Hall of Fame.

Comments and suggestions regarding Chroma are always welcome! Email:

    chroma (at) level7 (dot) org (dot) uk

Copyright and Licence
=====================
Chroma is Copyright (C) 2010 Amf

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA