Stackenblochen Solution

How It Works

Stackenblochen is a talking bastard interactive puzzle.

At any time the team can ask the agent what they think of their current design. Based on a set of rules the agent may knock all or part of the structure over and tell one of the following things. The rules are listed below, starting with the highest priority:

This confuses me

This is not a real "rule" but just a stub to say if the team is trying to bend the rules. e.g. not building their structure on the table, using things other than blocks to build their structure etc.

This makes me puke

This is triggered when two pieces of the same color are touching each other.

Too greedy

This is caused by the team using the same block twice in their structure (same color and shape).

Too monotonous

This is triggered whenever there are two pieces of the same color at the same horizontal cross section.

Too lonely

This indicates there is a portion of the structure that is too much taller than the next highest portion (see below).

Not tall enough

This indicates that none of the above rules are being broken and that their structure is simply not tall enough.

Too lonely

To measure height for this rule there is an idea of "units" of length. 1 unit for this explanation is the length of one of the sides of the perfect cube block. If any portion of the structure is taller than 4 units than the next tallest portion, then it is breaking this rule. Separate portions are defined by any touching group of blocks that is completely not touching another portion. As soon as two portions are touching, they are considered the same portion, even if they are just side-by-side. It's important to note that some blocks are 0.5, 1, 2 or 3 units long.

Destruction rules

Whenever a team asks for the agent to review their structure, the proctor looks at it evaluating rules from the above list in order. When the first rule is found that is broken, the proctor "fixes" the structure by knocking out the highest block (and hence every block above it), trying to preserve the lower blocks, and states the rule that was broken. If the same rule is broken multiple times, the proctor makes the fewest number of moves to fix the rule completely while only saying the name of the rule once.

Solution

OBELISK

Design Notes

The puzzle's title (and inspiration for the knock-down on failure mechanism) comes from this clip from the old Conan O'Brien show: Stackenblochen!