Technology1 min read

Show HN: The Last Complication, a Zachtronics-style watchmaking puzzle game

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The puzzle board requires advancing a single counter by the precise value shown on a repeating ten-throw strip. Counters cannot jump over two adjacent pieces, and every space carries a capacity limit of one piece. Progress is further complicated by mandated stops at the twenty-sixth house and water hazards that penalize errant moves. If any valid movement option exists, players must take it, but leaving any throw unused results in a loss.

Key points

  • Players are strictly obligated to move a counter whenever any legal move is available.: Players are strictly obligated to move a counter whenever any legal move is available.
  • Two adjacent counters create an impassable block that other pieces cannot move past.: Two adjacent counters create an impassable block that other pieces cannot move past.
  • The game ends in an immediate loss whenever an indicated throw cannot be utilized.: The game ends in an immediate loss whenever an indicated throw cannot be utilized.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Thirty houses, counted down the first row, back up the second and down the third. The strip beside the board is the week: ten throws, taken in order, and then again from the top.

A throw moves one counter exactly that many houses. One counter to a house, and none may pass two that stand together.

Every counter stops on the 26th house. The 27th is water: a counter that lands there goes back to the 15th. A counter leaves the board by the exact count.

If a counter can move, one must. A throw that none can use is left over, and the game is lost.

The bench is laid out for a tall screen.

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