How to play CluGrid
CluGrid is a puzzle game that tests your skills in logic and deduction. It is possible to complete every puzzle using only the clues provided – without any guesswork at all. However, I can guarantee some head-scratching!
Introduction
This is the game screen. You will see that it is split into three general areas: the toolbar across the top, the grid area on the left and the clue area on the right.
Use the toolbar to select puzzles, start new games, pause etc.
Use the grid in the grid area to keep track of your deductions as you work through the clues. The grid is a cross-reference on which you place checkmarks or crosses to show which items belong together as you figure them out.
At the top of the grid area is a short description of the puzzle, in this case “Three accident prone people had a household disaster, each have a different number of children, and went overseas on holiday.”
Looking at the grid, you can see that the people are named Daphne, Gertie and Lorraine. The disasters are a broken dryer, a red sock in the washer and a burnt dinner. Holiday destinations were France, Holland or Russia, and there are either 4, 5 or 9 kids.
But! Who burned the dinner, who has 9 kids, and who went to Holland? That is the puzzle you will have to solve from the clues shown in the clue area.
Using the Clues
From the information in each clue, you can start to fill in the grid in order to learn more about each person and the things they did. Use the grid to cross-reference the information – you can often learn more and fill in more squares based on the information already shown.
Clue 1 is a positive clue: it tells us that the person who has 5 kids went to France. From this clue we can immediately place a check mark in the grid showing what we know. Left click in the grid on the square which relates “France” with “5 kids” as shown here.
The program will automatically complete any obvious squares in the grid (unless you have disabled that feature in the Options screen)
Clue 2 is a negative clue: it tells us that the person who has 5 kids did not burn the dinner. This lets us place two more crosses in the grid, to begin to eliminate more references. Right click in the grid to place a cross at the point where “Burnt dinner” and “5 kids” intersect.
But wait, there’s another cross we can place, at the point where “Burnt dinner” and “France” intersect. Why? Because we know from the previous clue that the “5 kids” and “France” belong together, so we now know that the person who went to France did not burn the dinner. Place a cross in the appropriate square by right-clicking.
Clue 3 gives us only a little more information, yet fills in much more of the grid. Simply by placing another cross in the grid (where “red sock” and “France” intersect) we find that we now know that the person who went to France has the broken dryer, and 5 kids:
Clue 4 completes one section of the grid:
Clue 5 completes another two sections of the grid. Firstly we are able to place a checkmark at the point where “burnt dinner” and “Holland” intersect. Now comes the clever part: we are now able to infer that there should be a checkmark on the intersection between “9 kids” and “Holland” since we already know that “burnt dinner” and “9 kids” intersect.
Clue 6 actually tells us a lot more than you might think at first glance. Gertie did not have the broken dryer. But cross-checking on our grid, we can also infer that she therefore did not go to France, nor does she have 5 kids.
Clue 7 tells us the last piece of information that we need: Daphne went to Russia. Looking at the grid we can instantly see that if she went to Russia, she therefore must have 4 kids, and also put the red sock in the washer. Click! Puzzle complete!
So as you can see, by following the clues carefully, and applying a little logic, you are able to solve the puzzle completely! You genius you!
Please note that with some of the more difficult puzzles and harder settings, you will probably need to work your way through the clues several times, as more information is revealed by cross-referencing on the grid.
If you think you have made a mistake, you can remove a checkmark or cross simply by right clicking on the square.