Toddler Tilt (MIT Mystery Hunt 2020)

Toddler Tilt
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020
Storybook Forest
Author(s)Yar Woo, Todd Etter, Asher Walkover
AnswerClick to revealALEUROMANCY
Statistics
No. solves78
No. total guesses229
Links
PuzzleLink
SolutionLink

Toddler Tilt is an interactive logic puzzle from the Storybook Forest round of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt.

Solve Path[edit | edit source]


Puzzle Elements[edit | edit source]

Explicit Instructions - Due to "liability reasons", the rules to the puzzle are given explicitly:

  1. The puzzle operates on an 8x8 "platform" and four 2x8 "trenches", one on each side.
  2. Each move consists of "tilting" a single row of the platform left/right or a single column of the platform up/down.
  3. A tilt in a direction X moves the X-most letter in that row/column of the platform into the X-most open position in that row/column of the corresponding trench, then moves the other letters in that row/column of the platform X-wards as far as they can go without exiting the platform.
  4. The sequence of letters moved into the trench after each tilt is given.
  5. The platform state after tilts 10 and 19 are given.

Interactive - The puzzle itself is presented in interactive form, where the solver can click a button along the edge to simulate a tilt along that row/column. The applet also allows the solver to undo tilts and keeps track of which letter is the next to fall into the trench.

 

Typography - Part of the puzzle relies on the font containing letterforms with ambiguous orientations:

  • O can fall into any trough, as can SPACE.
  • S is two-fold rotationally symmetric.
  • The same letterform can represent E, M, or W depending on rotation.
  • The same letterform can represent C, N, or U depending on rotation.
  • While H doesn't appear in this puzzle, I and H would share a letterform and also have two-fold rotational symmetry.
  • The remaining letters (A, B, D, F, G, K, P, R, T, Y) have a unique orientation.

Deduction - Using these rules, you must deduce the final state of the Toddler Tilt Puzzle. This reveals...

Final Clue Phrase - ...four final clue phrases, which must all be answered...

Rebus - ...and then concatenated for the final answer.