Wood Jam: Just Slide

This is another game I never planned to make. It started when my son played Rush Hour, a board game that belonged to a friend, and loved it. That sounds like good news, right? It is a brain-training game, after all. The trouble began when we got home and my partner downloaded some game from the App Store that plays in a similar way, though not quite the same: you slide cars out of a car park to pick up passengers, with crowds of little people rushing aboard and lots of jingly sound effects.

I don't understand why there are so many games like this. They barely make you think. You just keep sliding cars while the game plays sparkly effects to make you feel good, so you keep on playing. And there are buttons everywhere to buy gems and jewels.

My son sat glued to it all day, and once again I had to find a way to delete a game. At first I thought about getting Unblock Me instead, but its graphics are plain wooden blocks, and I wasn't sure he would like it. So, since I was at it anyway, I made my own Unblock Me-style game with wooden toy cars.

It isn't quite the same as Unblock Me, though. Every puzzle is randomly generated, so you can play again and again. The levels keep getting harder, each one needing more moves to solve, and to move up a level you collect stars on each board: the more moves you use, the fewer stars you earn.

Wood Jam is for kids and grown-ups alike. The hardest puzzles are at level 33, where every board needs at least 35 moves. Take it from me: that is difficulty on a godlike level.