sokoban

{{Short description|1982 video game}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox video game series

| title = Sokoban

| platforms = {{Unbulleted list|

Various

}}

| image = Official Sokoban website banner.png

| caption = Sokoban official fan kit banner

| genre = Puzzle

| creator = Hiroyuki Imabayashi

| first release version = {{nihongo|Sokoban|倉庫番}}

| first release date = 1982

| latest release version = The Sokoban

| latest release date = 2021

|developer=Thinking Rabbit
Unbalance|publisher=Thinking Rabbit
Unbalance}}

{{nihongo foot|Sokoban|倉庫番|Sōko-ban|extra={{lit|warehouse keeper}}{{cite book |author1=Yoshio Murase |author2=Hitoshi Matsubara |author3=Yuzuru Hiraga |title=Automatic Making of Sokoban Problems |editor1=Norman Foo |editor2=Randy Goebel |date=1996 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-540-61532-3 |page=592 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2QrFVEd2GUC&dq=sokoban+meaning+warehouse&pg=PA592 |language=en}}|lead=yes|group=lower-alpha}} is a 1982 puzzle video game developed and published by Japanese studio Thinking Rabbit. In the game, the player pushes boxes around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. It was first released in Japan in 1982 for the NEC PC-8801 computer. The game was later ported to various platforms and followed by new titles. It became popular in Japan and internationally, inspiring unofficial versions, a subgenre of box-pushing puzzle games, and artificial intelligence research.

Gameplay

File:Sokoban_ani.gif

The warehouse is a grid composed of floor squares and impassable wall squares. Some floor squares contain a box and some are marked as storage locations. The number of boxes equals the number of storage locations.

The player, often represented as a worker character, can move one square at a time horizontally or vertically onto empty floor squares, but cannot pass through walls or boxes.

To move a box, the player walks up to it and pushes it to an empty square directly beyond the box. Boxes cannot be pushed to squares with walls or other boxes, and they cannot be pulled.

The puzzle is solved when all boxes are on storage locations.

Progressing through the game requires careful planning and precise maneuvering.{{cite magazine |date=December 1983 |script-title=ja:倉庫番 |quote=考えずにスイスイ荷物を動 かすと, 最後は必ず行き詰まる。 倉庫番で最 も重要なのは、最初の一手、この一手を実行 する前に、先の先まで読み切ることが大切。 |language=ja |trans-quote=If you push boxes around carelessly without thinking ahead, you will inevitably end up at a dead end. In Sokoban, the most critical move is the very first one — before making it, you must think several moves ahead and visualize all possible outcomes. |magazine=MICOMGAMES |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=38}} A single mistake, such as pushing a box into a corner or obstructing the path of others, can render the puzzle unsolvable, forcing the player to backtrack or restart. Anticipating the consequences of each push and considering the overall layout of the puzzle are crucial to avoid deadlocks and complete the puzzle successfully.{{cite conference |author1=Jean-Noël Demaret |author2=François Van Lishout |author3=Pascal Gribomont |title=Hierarchical Planning and Learning for Automatic Solving of Sokoban Problems |date=2008 |url=https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/5895/1/bnaic2008.pdf |pages=1,2 |quote=a bad move can lead in Sokoban to a deadlock, a situation in which the solution game state is not reachable anymore.}}

History

Sokoban was designed by Hiroyuki Imabayashi.{{cite magazine |date=December 1983 |script-title=ja:考えるウサギはパソコンの |language=ja |trans-title=The Rabbit Who Thinks About Computers |magazine={{ill|ログイン (雑誌)|ja}} |pages=136-139 |url=https://archive.org/details/login-magazine-dec-1983-thinking-rabbit/page/5/mode/2up}}{{cite web |title=Thinking Rabbit - 1983 Developer Interview |url=https://shmuplations.com/thinkingrabbit/}}{{cite web |title=My conversation with Mr Hiroyuki Imabayashi |url=https://sokoboxes.com/articles/my-conversation-with-mr-hiroyuki}} The first commercial game was published for the NEC PC-8801 computer in December 1982 by his company, Thinking Rabbit, based in Takarazuka, Japan. Ports and new titles for various platforms appeared in subsequent years. In 1988, Spectrum HoloByte published Sokoban in the U.S. for the IBM PC, Commodore 64, and Apple II as Soko-Ban.{{cite conference |author1=Austin Barr |author2=Calvin Chung |author3=Aaron Williams |title=Block Dude Puzzles are NP-Hard (and the Rugs Really Tie the Reductions Together) |page=1 |year=2021 |conference=CCCG (2021) |url=https://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cot6410/Spring2022/SampleTopics/Games/CLAIMED_JesseChehal_BlackDudePuzzles.pdf#page=2 |quote=Spectrum Holobyte published the game under the name Soko-Ban for American personal computers in 1988, which was the same year it brought Tetris to the same platform.}} In 1990, FCI released Boxxle for the Game Boy in both North America and Europe,{{cite magazine |magazine=Electronic Gaming Monthly |title=Put Your Brain Action |issue=10 |date=May 1990 |page=17 |url=https://archive.org/details/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly_Issue_010_May_1990/page/n15/mode/2up |publisher=Sendai Publishing}} followed by Boxxle II in 1992.{{cite magazine |magazine=GB Action |title=Boxxle II |issue=4 |date=September 1992 |page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/gb-action-4-september-1992/page/n19/mode/2up |publisher=Future Publishing}} Between 1996 and 2000, several Sokoban games were released for Windows and PlayStation in Japan.{{cite book |title=Kyuukuoku No Sokoban |type=Instruction manual |publisher=Itochu |year=1996 |url=https://archive.org/details/usoko/mode/2up}} In 2001, the Japanese software company Falcon acquired the trademarks for Sokoban and Thinking Rabbit. Since then, Falcon has continued to develop and license official Sokoban games.

Versions

Since its debut in 1982, Sokoban has been released on various platforms, primarily in Japan but also in other regions. Most titles are independent without a continuous narrative or unified series, though a few are direct sequels to a specific earlier release—for example, Sokoban 2 (1984) follows Sokoban (1982), and Soko-ban Revenge (1991) is a sequel to Soko-ban Perfect (1989). The following table lists a selection of official Sokoban titles.{{cite web |url=https://sokoban.jp/history.html |title=倉庫番の歴史 |website=Thinking Rabbit |access-date=2025-06-02 |language=ja}}

class="wikitable" style="white-space:nowrap;"

!Year

!Title

!Country

!Platform

!Publisher

1982

|{{nihongo|Sokoban|倉庫番}}{{cite magazine |date=December 1983 |script-title=ja:倉庫番 |quote=一度やりだしたらなかなかやめられない。 |language=ja |trans-quote=Once you start playing, it’s hard to stop. |magazine=MICOMGAMES |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=38}}{{cite magazine |date=October 1983 |script-title=ja:倉庫番 |magazine=パソコンゲームランキングブック |page=28 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250531231153/https://retoge-mag.websa.jp/archives/15}}: scored the game 94 points out of 100.

|Japan

|NEC PC-8801

|Thinking Rabbit

1983

|{{nihongo|Sokoban [Extra Edition]|倉庫番[番外編]}}{{cite magazine |date=August 1983 |script-title=ja:倉庫番[番外編] |quote=今回はこのゲームを開発した THINKING RABBIT さんにお願いして, 市販品とは別に10の倉庫をつくってもらいましたので |language=ja |trans-quote=This time, we asked THINKING RABBIT, who developed this game, to build 10 warehouses separately from commercial products |magazine={{ill|PCマガジン|ja}} |pages=52–56}}

|Japan

|NEC PC-8801

|{{ill|PCマガジン|ja|lt=PC Magazine}}

1984

|{{nihongo|Sokoban 2|倉庫番2}}{{cite magazine |date=July 1985 |script-title=ja:倉庫番2 |quote=パズルソフトのベストセラー倉庫番の新たな50面と迷路エディタがついた倉庫番 2 。 |language=ja |trans-quote=Sokoban 2, the sequel to the bestselling puzzle game Sokoban, comes with 50 new levels and a maze editor. |magazine={{ill|ログイン (雑誌)|ja}} |page=76 |url=https://archive.org/details/logi-n-july-1985/LOGiN%20-%20July%201985/page/n77/mode/2up}}

|Japan

|NEC PC-8801

|Thinking Rabbit

1986

|{{nihongo

涙の倉庫番スペシャル|Namida no Sokoban Special
}

|Japan

|Famicom Disk System

|ASCII

|-

|1988

|Soko-Ban{{cite magazine |date=April 1988 |title=The Role of Computers |magazine=Dragon |issue=132 |pages=84 |last1=Lesser |first1=Hartley |last2=Lesser |first2=Patricia |last3=Lesser |first3=Kirk}}: reviewers rated the game {{frac|4|1|2}} out of 5 stars.

|US

|IBM PC, XT, and AT

|Spectrum HoloByte

|-

|1989

|{{nihongo|Soko-ban Perfect|倉庫番Perfect}}

|Japan

|NEC PC-9801

|Thinking Rabbit

|-

|1990

|Boxyboy

|US

|TurboGrafx-16

|NEC

|-

|1991

|{{nihongo|Soko-ban Revenge|倉庫番Revenge}}

|Japan

|NEC PC-9801

|Thinking Rabbit

|-

|2016

|{{nihongo|Sokoban Touch|倉庫番Touch}}

|International

|Android, iOS

|Thinking Rabbit

|-

|2018

|{{nihongo|Sokoban Smart|倉庫番スマート}}

|Japan

|Windows

|Thinking Rabbit

|-

|2021

|The Sokoban

|International

|Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4

|Unbalance

|}

Reception

By June 1984, the original Sokoban had sold 22,000 copies in Japan;{{cite magazine |date=June 1984 |script-title=ja:ソフトハウス訪問 |language=ja |trans-title=Visiting a Software House |magazine=POPCOM |page=131 |url=https://archive.org/details/popcom-198406/page/130/mode/2up}} by March 1985, it had reached 30,000 copies.{{cite magazine |date=March 1985 |script-title=ja:作者が語る自信のニューソフト |language=ja |trans-title=The creator presents their new software |magazine=POPCOM |page=29 |url=https://archive.org/details/popcom-198503/page/28/mode/2up}}

Sokoban was a hit in Japan. According to Spectrum Holobyte, the game had sold over 400,000 copies there before the 1988 release of the title Soko-Ban in the United States.{{cite magazine |author=Lafe Low |magazine=inCider |title=News Line; Made in Japan |date=November 1988 |page=14 |url=https://archive.org/details/inCider_1988-11/page/n15/mode/2up}}Given that Soko-Ban was licensed to Spectrum Holobyte by ASCII Corporation, which published console versions, like Famicom and MSX, but not the original 1982 release, the number may reflect cumulative sales across multiple Japanese titles, though the source does not specify.{{cite AV media notes |title=Soko-Ban |publisher=Spectrum Holobyte |year=1988 |page=box |url=https://archive.org/details/stx_Spectrum_HoloByte_Soko-Ban/page/n1/mode/2up |quote=Licensed from ASCII Corporation.}} That title received a positive review from Computer Gaming World, which described the game as simple yet mentally challenging and praised its addictive nature.{{cite magazine |last=Wagner |first=Roy |date=May 1988 |title=Puzzling Encounters |magazine=Computer Gaming World |issue=47 |pages=42–43 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250603043037/http://pdf.textfiles.com/zines/CGW/1988_05_issue47.pdf#page=42}}

Legacy

=Cultural impact=

An active fan community has produced thousands of custom puzzles,{{cite journal |author1=Petr Jarusek |author2=Radek Pelánek |year=2010 |title=Difficulty Rating of Sokoban Puzzle |journal=Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications |volume=222 |pages=140-150

|doi=10.3233/978-1-60750-675-1-140 |quote=There is a very large number of levels of the puzzle freely available on the Internet. These available levels span wide range of difficulty.

}} unofficial versions,{{cite book |author=Marçal Mora Cantallops |title=Rompecabezas: Cinco décadas de videojuegos y puzles |year=2023 |publisher=Héroes De Papel |isbn=978-84-947149-3-1 |language=es |quote=la web está llena de múltiples clones de Sokoban |trans-quote=the web is full of multiple Sokoban clones}}{{cite conference |author1=Austin Barr |author2=Calvin Chung |author3=Aaron Williams |title=Block Dude Puzzles are NP-Hard (and the Rugs Really Tie the Reductions Together) |page=1 |year=2021 |conference=CCCG (2021) |url=https://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cot6410/Spring2022/SampleTopics/Games/CLAIMED_JesseChehal_BlackDudePuzzles.pdf#page=2 |quote=the term "Sokoban" [...] can be found in the title of games that are not affiliated with Thinking Rabbit.}} and software tools, including puzzle editors, solvers, and solution optimizers.{{cite conference |author1=Austin Barr |author2=Calvin Chung |author3=Aaron Williams |title=Block Dude Puzzles are NP-Hard (and the Rugs Really Tie the Reductions Together) |page=1 |year=2021 |conference=CCCG (2021) |url=https://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cot6410/Spring2022/SampleTopics/Games/CLAIMED_JesseChehal_BlackDudePuzzles.pdf#page=2 |quote=There are over 100 publications with "Sokoban" or "倉庫番" in the title, ranging from artificial intelligence solvers and optimizers, to level generation}}

=Derivatives=

Sokoban is considered the originator of a puzzle game subgenre featuring box-pushing mechanics, commonly referred to as "Sokoban-like" games.{{cite conference |author1=Austin Barr |author2=Calvin Chung |author3=Aaron Williams |title=Block Dude Puzzles are NP-Hard (and the Rugs Really Tie the Reductions Together) |page=1 |year=2021 |conference=CCCG (2021) |url=https://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cot6410/Spring2022/SampleTopics/Games/CLAIMED_JesseChehal_BlackDudePuzzles.pdf#page=2 |quote=the term "Sokoban" [...] is synonymous with the genre of box-pushing puzzle games}}{{cite thesis |author=Robert Aubrey Hearn |title=Games, Puzzles, and Computation |degree=PhD |page=106 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |year=2006 |url=https://erikdemaine.org/theses/bhearn.pdf#page=106}}

  • Alternative tilings: While Sokoban is played on a square grid, its fundamental rules are, in principle, applicable to boards with other tilings. Hexoban{{cite web |author=David W. Skinner |title=Hexoban |url=http://users.bentonrea.com:80/~sasquatch/sokoban/hex.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020403141354/http://users.bentonrea.com:80/~sasquatch/sokoban/hex.html |archive-date=2002-04-03 |url-status=dead |quote=Using hexagons, instead of squares as in standard Sokoban, offers a new realm of possibilities.}} exemplifies this, utilizing regular hexagons.
  • Multiple pushers: In the variant Multiban,{{cite web |author=Alfred Pfeiffer |title=Multiban |url=http://de.geocities.com/apfde/Multiban/multiban.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050309230045/http://de.geocities.com/apfde/Multiban/multiban.html |archive-date=2005-03-09 |url-status=dead |quote=the well known Sokoban game is extended to mazes that contain (often also require) more than one pusher.}} the puzzle contains more than one pusher. In the game Sokoboxes Duo,{{cite web |author=Aymeric du Peloux |title=Multicosmos |url=https://aymericdupeloux.wixsite.com/sokoban/post/multicosmos |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616045935/https://aymericdupeloux.wixsite.com/sokoban/post/multicosmos |archive-date=2025-06-16 |url-status=live |quote=I'm creating some new levels with two wharehousemen. Above, I illustrate a level where, to be solved, a penguin and a bear have to play alternately in cooperation. It's inspired of the Sokoban game of course}} strictly two pushers collaborate to solve the puzzle.
  • Designated storage locations: In Sokomind Plus,{{cite web |author=Gerald Holler |title=SokoMind Plus is here! |url=http://www.sokomind.de/sokomind/skplus.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010410013408/http://www.sokomind.de/sokomind/skplus.htm |archive-date=2001-04-10 |url-status=dead |quote=SokoMind Plus is a new game variant [...] boxes and target squares are marked with a number tag. Each box has to be placed on the target square with the same number.}} some boxes and target squares are uniquely numbered. In Block-o-Mania,{{cite web |author=Crystal Shard |title=Block-O-Mania |url=https://crystalshard.net/old/cshard_old.htm#block |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029144559/https://crystalshard.net/#block |archive-date=2005-10-29 |url-status=live |quote=The object of the game is to push all blocks onto the right storages: red blocks onto red storages, green on green, and blue on blue.}} the boxes have different colours, and the goal is to push them onto squares with matching colours.
  • Alternative game objectives: Several variants feature different objectives from the traditional Sokoban gameplay. For instance, in Interlock{{cite web |author=Mark Mainwood |title=Interlock |url=http://www.javaexperiment.com/amiga.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206033221/http://www.javaexperiment.com/amiga.htm |archive-date=2007-02-06 |url-status=dead |quote=Use the ball to push like-coloured blocks together.}} and Sokolor,{{cite web |author=Games4Brains |title=Sokolor |url=http://www.games4brains.de/product2.htm#sokolor |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000207211018fw_/http://www.games4brains.de/product2.htm#sokolor |archive-date=2000-02-07 |url-status=dead |quote=Tiles of the same colour need to be pushed together}} the boxes have different colours, and the objective is to move them so that similarly coloured boxes are adjacent. In CyberBox,{{cite web |author=Doug Beeferman |title=CyberBox |url=http://palmettobay.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981212031716/http://palmettobay.com/ |archive-date=1998-12-12 |url-status=dead |quote=Avoid trapping yourself or blocking an exit with careful forethought.}} each puzzle has a designated exit square, and the objective is to reach that exit by pushing boxes, potentially more than one simultaneously. In a variant called Beanstalk,{{cite journal |author1=Ziwen Liu |author2=Yang Chao |title=The Non-Deterministic Constraint Logic and Its Applications in Computational Complexity |language=Chinese |journal=Computer Science and Application |volume=7 |pages=407–413 |publisher=Hans Publishers |year=2017 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250604194130/https://pdf.hanspub.org/csa20170500000_69174065.pdf |doi=10.12677/csa.2017.75049 |access-date=2025-06-04

}} the objective is to push the elements of the puzzle onto a target square in a fixed sequence.

  • Additional game elements: Push Crate, Sokonex,{{cite web |author=Games4Brains |title=Sokonex |url=http://www.games4brains.de/product2.htm#sokonex |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000207211018fw_/http://www.games4brains.de/product2.htm#sokonex |archive-date=2000-02-07 |url-status=dead |quote=Push all Connector-tiles together! Don't be disturbed by movable lasers, holes in the ground and broken plates.}} Xsok, CyberBox,{{cite web |author=Doug Beeferman |title=Cyberbox |url=http://palmettobay.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981212031716/http://palmettobay.com/ |archive-date=1998-12-12 |url-status=dead |quote=Push and get pushed by blocks with various functions.}} and Block-o-Mania,{{cite web |author=Crystal Shard |title=Block-O-Mania |url=https://crystalshard.net/old/cshard_old.htm#block |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029144559/https://crystalshard.net/#block |archive-date=2005-10-29 |url-status=live |quote=Your progress will be hindered by one-arrows, one-time passages that turn into solid walls after you pass through them, and many other devious traps.}} all add new elements to the basic puzzle. Examples include holes, teleports, moving blocks and one-way passages.
  • Character actions: In Pukoban,{{cite conference |last1=Zubaran |first1=Tadeu |last2=Ritt |first2=Marcus |title=Agent motion planning with pull and push moves |conference=8th National Meeting on Artificial Intelligence (ENIAC 2011) |year=2011 |pages=358–369 |publisher=Sociedade Brasileira de Computação |url=https://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~mrpritt/Publications/P35-enia-2011.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240416011217/https://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~mrpritt/Publications/P35-enia-2011.pdf |archive-date=2024-04-16 |access-date=2025-06-16 |quote=Pukoban is a game on an integer grid [...] The agent can push or pull a box one cell horizontally or vertically if the destination cell is free and he has enough space to do so.

}} the character can pull boxes in addition to pushing them.

  • Reverse mode: Some Sokoban programs allow players to play a puzzle backward. This approach can help players better understand the puzzle structure and develop effective solving strategies. Starting with all boxes on storage locations, the player pulls the boxes to return to the initial puzzle state. Solutions found this way solve the standard puzzle when both the order and the direction of the moves are reversed.{{cite web |author=Frank Takes |title=Sokoban: Reversed Solving |year=2008 |url=https://liacs.leidenuniv.nl/~takesfw/pdf/sokoban.pdf}}

Computer science research

Sokoban has been studied using the theory of computational complexity. The computational problem of solving Sokoban puzzles was first shown to be NP-hard.{{cite journal |author1=Michael Fryers |author2=Michael Greene |title= Sokoban |journal=Eureka |issue=54 |year=1995 |pages=25–32

|url=https://www.archim.org.uk/eureka/archive/Eureka-54.pdf#page=28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240905040633/https://www.archim.org.uk/eureka/archive/Eureka-54.pdf#page=28 |archive-date=2024-09-05}}{{cite journal |author1=Dorit Dor |author1-link= Dorit Dor |author2=Uri Zwick |author2-link=Uri Zwick |title=SOKOBAN and other motion planning problems |journal=Computational Geometry |volume=13 |issue=4 |year=1999 |pages=215–228 |doi=10.1016/S0925-7721(99)00017-6 |doi-access=free}} Further work proved it is also PSPACE-complete.{{cite journal |author=Joseph C. Culberson |title=Sokoban is PSPACE-complete |journal=Technical Report TR 97-02, Dept. Of Computing Science, University of Alberta |year=1997 |url=http://cl-informatik.uibk.ac.at/teaching/ss07/alth/material/culberson97sokoban.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240528042859/http://cl-informatik.uibk.ac.at/teaching/ss07/alth/material/culberson97sokoban.pdf |archive-date=2024-05-28}}{{cite thesis |author=Robert Aubrey Hearn |title=Games, Puzzles, and Computation |degree=PhD |pages=98–100 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |year=2006 |url=https://erikdemaine.org/theses/bhearn.pdf#page=98}}

Solving non-trivial Sokoban puzzles is difficult for computers because of the high branching factor (many legal pushes at each turn) and the large search depth (many pushes needed to reach a solution).{{cite journal |author1=Andreas Junghanns |author2=Jonathan Schaeffer |title=Sokoban: Improving the Search with Relevance Cuts |journal=Theoretical Computer Science |date=2001 |volume=252 |issue=1–2 |url=https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~jonathan/publications/ai_publications/tcs.pdf#page=5 |page=5 |doi=10.1016/S0304-3975(00)00080-3 |doi-access=free}}{{cite web |author=Yaron Shoham |title=FESS Draft |page=3 |year=2020 |url=https://festival-solver.site/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FESS_draft.pdf#page=3}} Even small puzzles can require lengthy solutions.{{cite web |author1=David Holland |author2=Yaron Shoham |title=Theoretical analysis on Picokosmos 17 |url=http://membres.lycos.fr/nabokos/analysis.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160607071224/http://www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokobanJS/sokoban-jd.blogspot/sokoban_lessons/picokosmos17/analysis.htm |archive-date=2016-06-07}}

The Sokoban game provides a challenging testbed for developing and evaluating planning techniques.{{cite thesis |author=Timo Virkkala |title=Solving Sokoban |degree=MSc |page=1 |publisher=University of Helsinki |year=2011 |url=https://weetu.net/Timo-Virkkala-Solving-Sokoban-Masters-Thesis.pdf#page=5}} The first documented automated solver, Rolling Stone, was developed at the University of Alberta. It employed a conventional search algorithm enhanced with domain-specific techniques such as deadlock detection.{{cite thesis |author=Andreas Junghanns |title=Pushing the Limits: New Developments in Single-Agent Search |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Alberta |year=1999 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2305703 |doi=10.7939/R3W95103S |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |author1=Andreas Junghanns |author2=Jonathan Schaeffer |title=Sokoban: Enhancing general single-agent search methods using domain knowledge |journal=Artificial Intelligence |volume=129 |issue=1–2 |year=2001 |pages=219–251 |doi=10.1016/S0004-3702(01)00109-6 |doi-access=free}} A later solver, Festival, introduced the FESS search algorithm and became the first automatic system to solve all 90 puzzles in the widely used XSokoban test suite.{{cite conference |author1=Yaron Shoham |author2=Jonathan Shaeffer |title=The FESS Algorithm: A Feature Based Approach to Single-Agent Search |date=2020 |url=https://ieee-cog.org/2020/papers/paper_44.pdf |conference=2020 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) |location=Osaka, Japan |doi=10.1109/CoG47356.2020.9231929 |publisher=IEEE}}{{cite web |author=Yaron Shoham |title=FESS presentation at the CoG conference (17.5 minutes) |url=https://archive.org/details/fess-algorithm |website=archive.org |language=en |format=video |date=2020}} Despite these advances, even the most sophisticated solvers cannot solve many highly complex puzzles that humans can solve with time and effort, using their ability to plan ahead, recognize patterns, and reason about long-term consequences.{{cite journal |author1=Petr Jarusek |author2=Radek Pelánek

|year=2010 |title=Difficulty Rating of Sokoban Puzzle |journal=Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications

|volume=222 |pages=140-150 |doi=10.3233/978-1-60750-675-1-140

|quote=There exist small instances that can be quickly solved by computer (using a trivial brute force algorithm) but take humans hours to solve. At the same time, there are also instances of the puzzle, which humans can solve but which are beyond capabilities of [...] artificial intelligence solvers.}}{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/download/lets-logic-bots-statistics/lets-logic-bots-statistics-2024-oct-06.pdf |title=Let's Logic Bots Statistics |access-date=6 October 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://sokoban-solver-statistics.sourceforge.io/statistics/LargeTestSuite/ |title=Sokoban Solver Statistics - Large Test Suite |access-date=14 April 2024}}

See also

Notes

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References

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