Zip 1.0.0

Recently I started playing LinkedIn's Zip minigame and I thought it was pretty fun.
The issue I have with it is having to wait the next day to play another puzzle:
that's why I created this Zip clone, with infinite playable puzzles.

The game generates an unlimited deterministic sequence of boards: the same generation
style, seed, and puzzle number always produce the same puzzle and difficulty.

Two generation styles are available.

• Balanced follows a rising, bounded challenge curve and chooses generated boards close to each puzzle's target.
• Classic retains a random Easy/Medium/Hard mix.

In Classic, those tiers start around 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7 respectively. Both
styles grow board sizes through 10x10 as puzzle numbers rise.

The default seed is ZIP, and the default generation style is Balanced.
Both can be changed from the in-game settings screen.
Seeds are canonicalized to uppercase and support letters, numbers, spaces, and
hyphens, so differently capitalized input always selects the same Puzzle Series.

Play modes

The game opens on a splash-style main menu with four ways to play:

• Normal keeps resumable Attempts, unlocks, statistics, and Records.
• Rush scores the time needed to complete five consecutive puzzles on one
  clock. The clock includes the transition between puzzles.
• Zen offers the deterministic puzzle sequence without a timer, metrics,
  saves, or Records.
• No Backtrack ends the current Attempt as soon as a backtrack is requested.
  Reset starts a fresh Attempt on the same puzzle.

Rush, Zen, and No Backtrack start at puzzle 1 for the selected Puzzle Series and do not
modify Normal progress. The puzzle library is available in every mode; choosing
a puzzle restarts that mode from the selected Normal-unlocked puzzle.

Puzzle library

The puzzle library lists every unlocked puzzle plus the next locked entries.
Select a completed puzzle to improve its record, or resume an unfinished one.
Its statistics page shows completion history, lifetime assistance, record dates,
and ratings against a puzzle-specific par derived from the board's cell and turn
counts.

The daily puzzle uses the UTC date as its generator seed and always uses the
Balanced style, so every player gets the same board without a server regardless
of their settings. Completing consecutive dates advances the global streak.
Move sounds rise by one semitone at every numbered checkpoint, and supported
controllers pulse when a new checkpoint is crossed.

Save states

Progress is stored per Puzzle Series — the pair of generation style and seed — at
sdmc:/switch/zip/progress-<style>-<seed-hash>.dat.

Global preferences are stored at sdmc:/switch/zip/settings.dat. They keep
the last selected generation style and seed, the light/dark theme, whether
move sounds are enabled, and the current and longest daily-puzzle streak.

Saved progress includes each unlocked puzzle, resumable paths and elapsed time,
attempt and completion counts, first/last-play and completion dates, backtrack,
hint and reset counts, best time, best clean time, and the assistance metrics
belonging to the best and most recent completions. It also retains cumulative
completion time and when each best record was achieved for future statistics.

Controls

Input	Action
D-Pad / left stick	Extend or backtrack the path
Touch and drag	Extend or backtrack the path
B	Undo one cell
Y	Reset the board and timer
X	Show the next cell in the generated solution
X (puzzle library)	Open statistics and par ratings for the selected puzzle
Y (puzzle library)	Open the UTC daily puzzle
A	Load the next puzzle after completion
-	Open the puzzle library
R	Open settings
L	Return to the main menu
+	Exit to the homebrew menu

The timer starts on the first valid move. If the player has diverged from the
generated solution, a hint marks the first canonical cell after the shared
prefix and asks the player to undo back to that route.