Welcome to ELUS!
At first glance, ELUS looks like a simple logic game of pattern recognition... but it has a twist: you need to figure out the pattern while you are playing the game!
Use the buttons on the top of the screen to navigate around before starting a game.
- New game: Classic - Starts a new Classic game. To change the game type, open the game type options with the arrow to the right of the button and select the type you want to play. The New game button will then start the game of the selected type.
- Instructions - Shows on-screen instructions for playing the game.
- About - Shows some info about the author of the game.
- GitHub - Takes you to the project's codebase on GitHub.
The goal of ELUS is to complete a sequence of figures by correctly choosing the one that comes next.
A figure has three attributes, and each attribute can take one of two values:
- Size - Big or Small,
- Color - Blue or Yellow,
- Shape - Circle or Lozenge.
For example, this is a 
and this is a 
.
There is a hidden rule that applies to the entire game round, and which determines which figure comes next in the sequence. The rule is based on a single attribute of the last figure and defines the required attribute of the next figure.
In a Classic game there are three levels, each with an increasingly difficult rule:
Level 1: Always choose figure with same ATTRIBUTE X or with different ATTRIBUTE X as the last figure.
Example: Always choose figure with a different size than the last one.
Level 2: If the last figure has this of ATTRIBUTE X, then choose figure with this of ATTRIBUTE Y, otherwise choose figure with that of ATTRIBUTE Y.
Example: If the last figure is a Circle, choose a Small figure, otherwise choose a Big figure.
Level 3: If the last figure has this of ATTRIBUTE X, then choose figure with this of ATTRIBUTE Y, otherwise choose figure with that of ATTRIBUTE Z or with same ATTRIBUTE Z or with different ATTRIBUTE Z as the last figure.
Example: If the last figure is Big, choose a Lozenge figure, otherwise choose a Blue figure.
You can hover over the [ ? ] placeholder next to the choices to get a hint about the current rule.
In a Random game there is only one level, and the rule is randomly generated... it can be anything!
When you start a game, the first three figures are laid out for you according to the rule. You need to select the next figure from three choices, of which only one is correct, the others do not follow the rule.
Click on the figure you think comes next in sequence according to the rule. Your choice gets added to the sequence and the game advances to the next round. Whether or not your choice was correct, it becomes the "new last figure", and the rule will apply - the choices in the next round will be based on that last figure.
Repeat this for the five next figures without making three errors (selecting an incorrect figure). If you manage to do so, you can go to the next level and challenge a more difficult rule.
This quick tutorial shows you how to think when playing ELUS.
Consider the following starting screen (Level 1 rule):
We know the Level 1 rule is like this:
Always choose figure with same ATTRIBUTE X or with different ATTRIBUTE X as the last figure.
Which attribute remains the same or alternates on the first three figures?
- Size - Small -> Big -> Small: always different
- Color - Blue -> Blue -> Yellow: no pattern
- Shape - Circle -> Circle -> Circle: always the same
Seems like there are two possible rules: Always choose figure with different size as the last figure or Always choose figure with same shape as the last figure.
Let's look at the choices. There are two figures with Circle shape: Small Blue Circle and Small Yellow Circle. Given that there's always only one choice that is correct, the rule cannot be Always choose figure with same shape as the last figure, because it would not be straightforward which Circle to choose. Therefore the rule must be Always choose figure with different size as the last figure. So let's select Big Blue Lozenge.
Yay, our assumption was correct! And we know the rule, so it's going to be trivial to select the next four figures and win the level.
Now it's your turn! But don't get too comfortable, Levels 2 and 3 are not going to be this simple...
ELUS is a neat logic puzzle game I first saw in the Space Rangers 2 video game (it was one of the side missions). Being a logic game enthusiast I liked its concept and decided to reengineer it as a standalone game, just for fun and to practice my coding skills. So I am not the original author of the idea or the rules.
The game was written in pure JavaScript utilizing some popular frameworks like Bootstrap and JQuery. I also used QUnit for unit testing. Note that I come from a server side world so some solutions might not be the most "HTML5-y" way of doing things...
If you want to send any comments, ideas or contribute the project, you are welcome to do so.
Adam Demjen ([email protected]), 2015