Knot fun

January 27, 2021 7:48 AM

A little puzzle game of untangling knots
posted by Stark (42 comments total)

Warning: autoplaying audio, which you can turn off using the speaker icon in the bottom-left.
posted by Stark at 7:58 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

So pleasant and non-stressful. I just played the first seven (I think) levels, and it was just really relaxing to let my mind play with shapes for a while. Thanks for posting!
posted by rawrberry at 8:39 AM on January 27, 2021

Ah - this is fun! I've played the first 20 levels and am pretty enamoured. It helps that there's no sound (auto or otherwise) for playing in safari on Big Sur.

A few strategic notes given that I haven't found any instructions

• all the solutions contain closed forms only - you're not 'correct' until the shapes are those you could make out of rubber bands without cutting them
• after the first few levels the playing field can get a little ... crowded. This means that tiles that have 'clean edges' (no ribbons exiting from a side) probably need to be put near that edge. Like corner/edge pieces in a jigsaw puzzle
• closing any one of the forms (even if you have to move those pieces elsewhere on the board later) is probably gong to make completing the whole thing much easier

A very nice find! Exactly the sort of thing that I would not be surprised to find claimed on projects at some later date.
posted by mce at 9:05 AM on January 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

Shapes of the same color happen at level 32.
posted by Catblack at 9:12 AM on January 27, 2021

Shapes of the same color happen at level 32.

The first of those is at level 19.
posted by hanov3r at 9:40 AM on January 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

I like the jam loop is has. The puzzle itself is pretty fun, though, a lot easier than I first though since you can swap between tiles anywhere, for a while I was moving them slide-puzzle style.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:41 AM on January 27, 2021

a few more strategic notes

• start with the color with the fewest line segments, and align it in the grid when done, typically on an edge
• at least once, a line segment was entirely obscured by another line
• there's probably some math you can do on the line segments to determine how many (if any) obtuse interior angles exist for a given shape

posted by pwnguin at 10:02 AM on January 27, 2021

That's a cracking little game. So much for this afternoon's work.
posted by vincebowdren at 10:19 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

A funny but old game, made now with trending design.
posted by razbo at 10:47 AM on January 27, 2021

Uh.... did I miss something? When did we get the ability to hide spoilers?
posted by caution live frogs at 11:06 AM on January 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

What's up with the terrifying horror-movie-monster-reveal sound right in the middle of the chill little tune?
posted by CaseyB at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2021

Uh.... did I miss something? When did we get the ability to hide spoilers?

It's not a MetaFilter feature, just a modern HTML one. Using tags like this:

<details>
<summary>Warning here.</summary>
Spoiler details here.
</details>

Produces a result like this:

Warning here.

Spoiler details here.

And this is a great, relaxing game. Thank you for the link, Stark.
posted by bcd at 12:19 PM on January 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

I could do this all day
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:51 PM on January 27, 2021

Is it just me, or was 23 an oddly forced/easy one between 22 and 24 which were considerably harder?
posted by bcd at 1:10 PM on January 27, 2021

(And 25 was trivial again - maybe it's intentionally creating breaks. Delightful in any case.)
posted by bcd at 1:15 PM on January 27, 2021

I would really like it if there was some highlighting of completed levels on the menu screen for when I close the browser window to come back to it later.
posted by hanov3r at 1:18 PM on January 27, 2021

Did I find a non-official solution on level 41? Everything looks ok but it's not letting me continue...
posted by Jobst at 2:00 PM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

43 and 44 were fun.
posted by Catblack at 2:05 PM on January 27, 2021

Jobst, that's the same pattern I got, and it let me continue.
posted by cogat at 2:21 PM on January 27, 2021

Did you try swapping the two identical blue pieces?
posted by eruonna at 2:24 PM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of Tantrix.
posted by dhruva at 3:24 PM on January 27, 2021

Oh no.
posted by notyou at 3:32 PM on January 27, 2021

Euronna's got it - there was another level that didn't let me continue, and swapping identical pieces worked.
posted by cogat at 3:46 PM on January 27, 2021

Well, there goes a day. Notes - it does show what you’ve completed, but the shadow is reaaaally subtle. Also when it requires you to swap two pieces, they may not be identical - when it happened for me it was because they cross differently. It ends at 72.
posted by anshuman at 4:27 PM on January 27, 2021

So fun!! I grew up with a board game called Nile that had a similar feel to this. I loved that game! Do any of you other boomers remember Nile?
posted by Plafield at 6:01 PM on January 27, 2021

If you like this, you may dig Klocki. It takes a while to ramp up but does get more complicated as you go.
posted by juv3nal at 7:03 PM on January 27, 2021

It's not a MetaFilter feature, just a modern HTML one.

Note thought that it isn't supported by all browsers and doesn't play nice with some screen readers. IE: don't use it for a day of movie spoiler or something.
posted by Mitheral at 8:09 PM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

well shit I did that all day
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:34 PM on January 27, 2021

realized at 35 that I should come back and say how good this is.
posted by Uncle at 2:30 PM on January 28, 2021

Thanks for posting--this was fun
posted by librosegretti at 6:05 PM on January 28, 2021

72 puzzles is simultaneously too many and not enough. I may have a problem.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:50 PM on January 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

That was fun, only down side is that my kid watched me play and now it’s nearly 11 PM and he’s tired but doesn’t want to quit trying them himself...
posted by caution live frogs at 8:51 PM on January 28, 2021

Did anybody else have a glitch on 68? It looks like I've solved it but it hasn't validated.
posted by Uncle at 9:24 PM on January 28, 2021

Thanks, that was nice. I’m glad there aren’t more, for now.
posted by nat at 10:02 PM on January 28, 2021

Did anybody else have a glitch on 68? It looks like I've solved it but it hasn't validated.

Yes. There are two solutions that differ only by which side has green over orange and which has orange over green. Swapping two tiles with overlaps so the green over orange is on the right fixes the glitch.
posted by bcd at 1:50 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Green? The only colours I saw were red, yellow, blue, and orange.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:10 PM on January 29, 2021

I'm still enjoying making my way through these, but I can't solve #44. Is there a place with solution images?
posted by Mchelly at 9:17 AM on February 2, 2021

I was stuck on 44 - there are two identical pieces, you have to get them in the right order. Swap them and it clears.
posted by fricto at 12:25 PM on February 2, 2021

I can't even come that close. Is there just one orange shape or more than one?
posted by Mchelly at 1:51 PM on February 2, 2021

Just the one orange shape.

Here's the solution if you give up.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:17 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks for sharing this! Cute little game. Finally made it to 72. It would be so satisfying to have this as a physical toy, maybe painted wooden tiles and a book of starting configurations.
posted by What is E. T. short for? at 7:19 PM on February 14, 2021

maybe painted wooden tiles and a book of starting configurations.

As dhruva allueded to, the Tantrix game comes with a set of puzzles. They also released Tantrix Match which more closely mirrors your ask, and has a daily puzzle generator if you enjoy it.
posted by pwnguin at 2:03 PM on February 15, 2021 [1 favorite]