This is the first of a series of puzzles I've made a long time ago. You'll need these additional pages in order to solve it:

INTRO

INDEX OF CREATURES

INDEX OF SYMBOLS, ITEMS, AND NOTES

Please use the spoiler tag when proposing a solution. A new quest might be posted after someone submits a correct solution.

A fun path-maker game.

Short daily deduction puzzle. Same puzzle for everyone each day. Browser-based, no login.

A friend of mine has come up with a new on-line word game that seems to me to be pretty fun. I'll give the you the description from the announcement he sent out a few days ago:

You start with a set of 7 letters. Make a word, ideally using some letters more than once. That’s how you score big: for example, COFFEE is worth 8 points, TEAMMATE is 12, but DONUT is just 5.

The letters you play will be replaced with new ones from today’s predetermined sequence, until it runs out. Here is a short video.

Your goal is to squeeze the highest score you can out of today’s challenge. You can also play it again, making different choices, to beat your earlier score.

It’s free, fresh every day, and just enough of a mental workout to leave you smiling (or muttering about that one word you should have seen).

I know, from the discussions that we've had as he was developing it, that he has spent a huge amount of time working on the algorithms to ensure that the letter sets that loaded up each day have a maximum amount of playability.

The game runs in two modes: one with a short list of 30 letters, and one with the "regular' list of 60 letters. Personally, I find the shorter game a good fit for my attention span. If you didn't pick up on it from the description, the letter lists are updated each day, so you get two games a day, one short and one long.

I think it's worth a try.

https://letteragegame.com/

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/14593429

Factorial Calculator

Difficulty: Expert

Game Overview

Design a physical track where a marble rolls and executes programming instructions. The marble carries a value and performs calculations as it hits different track pieces.

Puzzle

Calculate the factorial of 4 (4! = 4 × 3 × 2 × 1) and output the result 24.

Starting Conditions:

• Marble begins carrying the value: 4
• Expected output: 24

Available Track Pieces (Use Each Once):

• 2× CURVE - Changes marble direction 90°
• 1× STRAIGHT - Continues marble in same direction
• 1× LOOP-TRACK - Connects track to form a physical loop
• 1× BRANCH-ZERO - Marble goes LEFT if carrying 0, RIGHT otherwise
• 1× SUBTRACT-1 - Subtracts 1 from marble's value
• 1× MULTIPLY - Multiplies marble's value by memory slot A
• 1× STORE-A - Saves marble's current value to memory slot A
• 1× LOAD-A - Loads value from memory slot A into marble
• 1× OUTPUT - Displays marble's current value
• 1× HALT - Stops the marble

Rules:

• Arrange all track pieces to create a complete path
• Marble executes instructions when rolling over pieces
• Design must calculate factorial using the loop mechanism
• Marble must output 24 and then halt

Goal

The marble completes its journey, outputs 24, and stops.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/14591777

Game Description:

PaperBugs is a puzzle where you control bugs on a grid by writing a simple program. Each bug executes the same program step-by-step to reach their targets. The key challenge is that ALL bugs run the SAME program simultaneously!

Puzzle:

Available instructions:

• MOVE - move forward one cell
• LEFT / RIGHT - rotate 90 degrees
• IF FLOWER - execute next line only if flower ahead
• IF EMPTY - execute next line only if path clear
• IF WALL - execute next line only if wall ahead
• IF GEM - execute next line only if gem ahead

Board:

Legend:

• Flower (blocks movement)
• Gem (collectable)
• Wall (blocks movement)

Goal:

Write a single program that guides both bugs to collect gems and reach their targets safely.

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/28697561

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligenztest

… the missing element that completes a pattern …

I just read (most of) "To mock a mockingbird" and I really love the concept of combining puzzles with fiction. I've heard that "Alice in Wonderland" has some puzzles too. I've also just watched "Ludwig", which has an element of puzzles. Can you recommend any works that combine fiction and puzzles ? :)

Preferably more like "To mock a mockingbird" which has a heavy emphasis on the puzzle aspect :)

Also,a quick note. I don't feel like mentioning "To mock a mockingbird" and "Alice in Wonderland" without a disclaimer. The only women who appear in "To mock a mockingbird" only appear to be admired by the men and to cook for them. It could have much better diversity. "Alice in Wonderland" is written by Lewis Carroll who might be too fond of little girls (https://news.artnet.com/art-world/was-lewis-carroll-a-pedophile-his-photographs-suggest-so-237222).

I've been looking through so many clones (and I expect we'll see even more coming now) for a self-hosted alternative that also only has a single daily word that you can play only once. Some come very close, but all allow you to replay the same game multiple times, and that takes away the competitive part I have going with some friends (yes I suppose you could just switch browsers too).

But as Wordle is actually locally executed Javascript, and it's collection of words are also stored there, you can save the whole Javascript package to a folder, and just click to open the page file to continue playing the game as it exists right now. I tested this with Firefox and Edge browsers, and it worked fine. Brave however has some block for local files, so it did not work with that browser.

To do it:

• Go to the Wordle online page.
• Right-click and choose "Save Page" or "Save As".
• Then choose "Web page, Complete" (this ensures not just the page itself is downloaded, and includes supporting Javascript files).
• Save it to a location on your computer.
• To play it, just use your file explorer to find that download location, and double-click on the single html file to open it in your browser.
• You can bookmark that newly opened page to always find it easily.

Always use the same browser, otherwise, you will lose your stats history.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/how-to-continue-playing-wordle-offline-as-it-exists-now/

#technology #wordle #puzzles #gaming

Honestly the main reason I'm posting this is that I find fascinating that there are little audio clips sprinkled throughout the way people use GIFs. I can think of reasons why this isn't more broadly done, but I still... love it?

pieces of meta-rationality