This is a solver for the Schiebepuzzle game. It uses the A* algorithm to find the shortest amount of steps to the solution.
The only goal of this project is to tinker with the A* algorithm.
In the current implementation the only possible target state is the following (the empty field is in the top left corner):
┌-----------┐
| 🗆 | 1 | 2 |
├---+---+---┤
| 3 | 4 | 5 |
├---+---+---┤
| 6 | 7 | 8 |
└-----------┘
The solver only works for 3x3 puzzles, as this makes for a total of 9! = 362880 possible states. This is still manageable.
For larger puzzles the number of possible states grows fast and the solver would take too long to find a solution (or come to the conclusion that there is none).
I implemented a 4x4 solver, but it runs out of memory before it can conclude if there is a solution (even though it can find a solution in a reasonable amount of time, if can't definitely say if there is none).