Portal

I’ve been trying to figure out a puzzle game that I found recently called “portal“. The portal board is made up of 256 discs arranged in a 16X16 square. Each disc has an elbow shaped joint on it and if you click a disc, it rotates clockwise. If one of the end of the joint lines up with an end on an adjacent disc, that creates a connection and the adjacent disc will in turn rotate clockwise. This process continues until a disc rotates and no connections are made. The goal of each level is to get a certain number of connections using only three moves. The goal number for connections starts in the hundreds and goes up from there. So, to win, you have to chain your connections and make a move that continues making connections for as long as possible.

My frustration is that, unless you’re very good at planning, finding a good moves seems serendipitous. There are ways to insure better moves, but good moves gain hundreds of connections, and I’ve occaionally gotten over a thousand. It seems like I could never have known this before making the move. I’ve come up with strategies that seem to work a little bit, but in the end whether I advance or not seems to depend on luck. I’m curious to see if anyone can come up with a good strategy for the game.