Colored Skyscrapers

What's this?

Colored Skyscrapers is a single-player puzzle game where you have to put skyscrapers and parks on a grid following a few simple rules.

Where to get

You can 3d-print this yourself from https://makerworld.com/en/models/457795

How to play

Setup

Pick a puzzle from below. Put the clue tokens on the sides of the board according to the puzzle. Set aside everything else.

Rules

The objective of the game is to put the 12 colored skyscrapers (3 of each color) and the 4 parks on the 4x4 grid, according to the following rules.

Every row and column most contain three skyscrapers and a single park.
Skyscrapers with the same height or color cannot be in the same row or column.

Examples

**Invalid:** There are two skyscrapers with the same height.

**Invalid:** There are two skyscrapers with the same color.

**Valid:** All skyscrapers are of different color and height.

For the clues around the grid:

Color of the clue shows the color of the first skyscraper from the direction of the clue. The first skyscraper might be behind a park. Grey clues don't say anything about the color of the first skyscraper.
Number on the clue shows how many skyscrapers are visible from that direction. Smaller skyscrapers are not visible behind larger ones. Parks don't block the view in any way.

Examples

**Invalid:** First skyscraper from left should be yellow.

**Invalid:** All three skyscrapers are visible from the right, while the clue says two.

**Valid:** All three skysrapers are visible from the left and the first is blue.

**Valid:** Two skyscrapers are visible from the right as yellow-3 is blocking the view of blue-2.

Helpers

Grey skyscrapers and colored flags are there to help you in your thought process. Use grey skyscrapers to mark a tile where you know the height, but don't know the color yet. Use the flags when you know the color, but don't know the height yet. Replace these with the colored skyscrapers when you learn the other property.

Example solution

An example puzzle and its solution. Click to open.

Step 1: Initial setup. **Clues** are placed around the board according to the puzzle.

Step 2: Red clue in first **row** means the last skyscraper in that row must be red. The fourth tile in that row can't be red as that would violate the red clue in the last **column**. This means it must be a park.

Step 3: Red-1-clue means the first skyscraper from that direction **must be the red-3**. If it was smaller, we'd see the 3 behind it.

Step 4: Having a park in the **first row** and **fourth column** means other tiles are skyscrapers. Luckily we know all the colors from the clues around the board. Let's put in the **colored helper flags** to mark the color of those tiles.

Step 5: The **blue-2-clue** means there are two skyscrapers visible from that direction. That means the **1 must be hiding behind the 2**.

Step 6: The **blue-clue** below the second column means either the first or second tile from that direction must be blue. The second can't be blue as that **row** alread has a blue skyscraper, so it must be the first one.

Step 7: The blue skyscraper in the third row can't be a 2 as we have placed **blue-2** already. It also can't be a 3 because of the **1-clue** in that row. It means it must be a 1. The remaining blue flag we habe must be the **blue-3** then.

Step 8: The **1-clue** means the first or second tile from that direction must be a 3. It can't be the second as we have the blue-3 in that column. Having three 3s we can figure out the position of the fourth: it's the yellow tile in the last column. The other 3 must be orange then.

Step 9: Given the position of the **two orange skyscrapers** already on the board and the **red-2**, there's only a single tile left for **orange-2**.

Step 10: The tile in the second column of the second row can't be a 1, 2, or 3 because those are taken in its row/column. It must be a **park** then. That leaves a 2 in the last empty tile of that column. The third column only has 1 empty tile, that must also be a **park**.

Step 11: The **yellow-clue** under the third culumn means the empty tile in that column must be yellow. It can't be a 2 or 3 as those are already taken in that column (and also in that row).

Step 12: We can easily place the remaining **red-1** and **yellow-2** and we're done!

Puzzles

Starter

Junior

Expert

Master

Tips and Tricks

Spoilers ahead, you might want to figure these out for yourself! Click to open.

Once you have 3 parks or 3 skyscrapers of the same height on the board, you should be able to place the fourth.
Look at what skyscrapers you have left and if some of them can only go to a single place.
You can take off clues that you don't need anymore.

Acknowledgements

First puzzle by Gyula Slenker for World Puzzle Championship (WPC) 2011, inspired by similar puzzles from WPC 2007. Resurrected in 2019 by Gyula Slenker and Daniel Voros, original set of puzzles (above) by Zoltan Horvath.