An Algorithmic Study of Minesweeper Using Simple Rule-Based Testing

Minesweeper has been a traditional puzzle game based on numeric patterns to indicate the presence of hidden mines. Despite being a game with simple gameplay patterns, its algorithmic structure has been well defined in terms of a set of predefined rules to deduce safe and harmful cells. This research aims to perform an algorithmic analysis of Minesweeper instead of being a traditional game analysis approach. Several player-based tests have been developed for evaluating the algorithmic performance in different sizes of game boards. Black-box and user-based testing techniques have been employed in this research as used in traditional game analysis frameworks. The experiment outcomes indicate good algorithmic performance for smaller game boards but poor performance for larger boards under conditions of uncertain game data.