IQ-Twins

Another year …. another IQ-Puzzle. This year is not any different.  The result even looks like a standard packing problem with a different (octogonal) shape. But what is surprising about this puzzle game , you only realize when you take a closer look.

SIMILAR BUT NOT IDENTICAL

As always we had long discussions about the product name, but this time I am quite happy with the final result. Because it reflects perfectly what is different about this puzzle game. There are 5 pair of puzzle pieces, like 5 twins. Each pair has a the same color and a similar shape. But one of the twins is a bit longer. This results in the following behavior. The longer pieces fit in 90° orientations on the game board like normal pieces on a orthogonal grid, but the shorter ones only fit in 45° angles!

Contrary to what you would expect, the ones that fit in 90° on the game board are often harder to use, because they can fill up tight spaces more easily. If possible I try to give each level in a SmartGame a different character, so that challenges offer variation and not merely become harder. In challenges of the STARTER level you get the starting position of all 90° pieces. In the JUNIOR level you only get the 45° pieces. All challenges in the MASTER level show you one pair of the same color. And in the WIZARD level you only get a single puzzle piece or even less, you sometimes get segments of one or more pieces of the same color, but you don’t know from which shape they are.

The space inside the big yellow square piece, will always remain empty. You can easily remove pieces by pressing on the side of  a octogonal part. This will cause the puzzle piece to tilt, so that it’s easy to pick them up. Of course it has also 120 challenges and comes in a sturdy packaging with transparent lid, like the 10 other games in this size I designed for SmartGames. There is not much more to tell about this game, because further it’s a straight forward packing problem. Which is exactly what people expect from a puzzle game in this collection. This game will become available in Spring 2023.