Mystic Robots

What It Is

Mystic Robots is a browser-based puzzle game inspired by the classic Ricochet Robots board game. Players navigate four colorful robots across a walled grid, trying to move a target robot to its goal in the fewest moves possible.

How It Works

The board is a 16x16 grid with walls placed at various cell edges. Robots slide in a chosen direction until they hit a wall or another robot — there’s no stopping in between. The challenge is figuring out the right sequence of moves across all four robots to reach each target.

• Four robots with unique characters: Rollie, Gumball, Blubber, and Yolo
• Random puzzles generated fresh each session
• Timer to track how fast you can solve each puzzle
• Hint system when you get stuck
• Keyboard controls for fast play (1-4 to select robots, arrow keys to move)
• Dark mode support

Tech Stack

• React 16 with react-scripts
• Docker support for easy deployment
• Node.js 16/18 compatible

Roadmap

• High score storage
• Solver algorithm for finding optimal moves
• Multiple game modes: computer opponent, multiplayer (local and network), websocket support

History

Originally written in April 2020 during the early days of lockdown, Mystic Robots was recently rebooted with a fresh visual design and improved gameplay mechanics.