After researching how Bejeweled attacks the problems of filling the grid I have come up with a similar concept for filling mine. The difference is that I need to fill the grid with various chain lengths rather than the potential for groups of three or more that Bejewelled does. This has lead me to my implementation that now replaces the completely random distribution of single coloured tiles I had before:

You can see the difference in generation from my first screenshot post : http://ludumdare.com/compo/2014/12/05/4-hours-in-11

I’m going to have to play around with the algorithm and the settings to tweak the gameplay and generation but for now this is a more interesting playing field.

Break time for lunch and then I’ll be working on the algorithm for creating replacement tile colours as the player / enemy move around the board. Then it’ll be time to implement the player and the enemy. After all that the only last mechanic is the scoring system.

Then polish, polish, polish!