License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2018.4
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-87954
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2018/8795/
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Almanza, Matteo ; Leucci, Stefano ; Panconesi, Alessandro

Tracks from hell - when finding a proof may be easier than checking it

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LIPIcs-FUN-2018-4.pdf (0.8 MB)

Abstract

We consider the popular smartphone game Trainyard: a puzzle game that requires the player to lay down tracks in order to route colored trains from departure stations to suitable arrival stations. While it is already known [Almanza et al., FUN 2016] that the problem of finding a solution to a given Trainyard instance (i.e., game level) is NP-hard, determining the computational complexity of checking whether a candidate solution (i.e., a track layout) solves the level was left as an open problem. In this paper we prove that this verification problem is PSPACE-complete, thus implying that Trainyard players might not only have a hard time finding solutions to a given level, but they might even be unable to efficiently recognize them.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{almanza_et_al:LIPIcs:2018:8795,
  author =	{Matteo Almanza and Stefano Leucci and Alessandro Panconesi},
  title =	{{Tracks from hell - when finding a proof may be easier than checking it}},
  booktitle =	{9th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2018)},
  pages =	{4:1--4:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-067-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{100},
  editor =	{Hiro Ito and Stefano Leonardi and Linda Pagli and Giuseppe Prencipe},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/8795},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-87954},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2018.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: puzzle games, solitaire games, Trainyard, verification}
}

Keywords: puzzle games, solitaire games, Trainyard, verification
Collection: 9th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2018)
Issue Date: 2018
Date of publication: 04.06.2018

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