Honeycomb Hotel

September 12, 2023 8:08 AM

Honeycomb Hotel (gameplay video) is a traditional logic puzzle: given a honeycomb of 7, 19, or 37 cells, determine which icon should appear in each cell, and which nonbranching path connects every cell. There are ~65000 different puzzles, each with only one right answer. Clues are simple ones like "Mouse is in the same diagonal as Tulip" or "there's a wall between Cherry and Cat," but graphical: from these individual clues you solve the entire puzzle. Solving shows a brief animation of bees flying around, like in Solitaire. No time limit, no storyline, no microtransactions, only pick-up-and-play logic puzzles by Everett Kaser, one of the nearly 40 different logic games he has made since 1991:

Other highlights include:

• Honeycomb Hotel is a sequel to Sherlock, possibly his most famous: here you are placing the icons in a square grid, and there is no connecting path.
• Occam's Quilt has two shapes, octagons and the connecting plus symbols they need to tile.
• Descartes Enigma is a traditional Nonogram (e.g. Picross) game; Descartes Rainbow is 12-colored Nonograms instead of only black and white.
• Greek Squares is Sudoku with seven different non-square layouts for new and different deductions.
• MESH:Hero is by far the most elaborate: a series of 2D puzzle games in the tradition of Boulderdash, Heartlight, Supaplex, etc., where you collect hearts, dodge obstacles (rocks, arrows, lava, lasers...) and try to reach the exit. Like other Kaser games, every puzzle is pure logic and purely turn-based with no fast reflexes needed. Unlike others, every puzzle (around 2000 of them counting the fan submissions) is handcrafted. The games feature not only a level editor but also a scripting language to create your own obstacles or even fully new games.
• And many more, which Everett Kaser invented himself and so can't be so easily compared to standard puzzle formats!

Everett Kaser's logic puzzle games are mostly on desktop (Windows and Mac OS X), but a handful are also on Android.

Rinkworks offers an outdated Everett Kaser Software FAQ.

posted by one for the books (7 comments total)

I love Everett Kaser's logic games! I really enjoy this kind of play where no guessing is necessary and you can build on logic inferences to solve the whole puzzle.
Every game has a free trial version with more than enough puzzles for you to try and see if you enjoy the gameplay.
posted by JSilva at 12:20 PM on September 12, 2023

honeycomb hotel is SO FUN, yesss
posted by avocet at 2:37 PM on September 12, 2023

Silent scream of joy - 65000 levels! I did crosswords and sudoku for a while and then my kid suggested nonograms which hit some sweet spot - I do them with additional rules to make them harder and it’s so satisfying. And it’s available on a mac!
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:44 PM on September 12, 2023

Wowww, Rinkworks, that link just instantly catapulted my mind back in time to like 27 years ago.
posted by dusty potato at 7:47 PM on September 12, 2023

I absolutely love these games. I have bought every game he has made since I first played Sherlock in the early 90s. I highly recommend them all!
posted by Valancy Rachel at 8:30 PM on September 12, 2023

I love Everett Kaser's games too!! I first encountered them... half my life ago??
I was delighted to find that they are available as android apps recently and I enjoy pulling them up on the odd long boat or bus ride.
posted by wats at 11:23 PM on September 13, 2023

Blue Ants are next to bees.

We have played so much of honeycomb hotel it is not even funny.

The iOS port is great.
posted by Lord_Pall at 2:50 PM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]