Rules for Utopia by Popular Playthings

A reader recently asked me for some instructions for the single player puzzle game Utopia by Popular Playthings. She said her mum had purchased a shop sample that did not have the instructions provided. 

So I typed them up and am providing them here. You can find my original post about the game here.

                          *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *

Utopia Rules

Welcome to Utopia, the city of the future and the ultimate way to test your city planning skills.

The Object: Each Utopia challenge card presents a cityscape you must build by placing 16 skyscrapers on 16 building lot that match hints provided on, and around the perimeter, of each city plan.

The City Plan: Utopia has 16 buildings of 4 different heights and there are 4 buildings of each height. The city plan is based on a 4x4 grid making up the 16 building lots. Four vertical lots in a row are referred to as a “COLUM”. Four horizontal lots in a row are referred to as a “ROW”.

Challenges: There are 50 Utopia challenge cards divided into 2 building phases: Phase One (1-25) and Phase Two (26-50). Each building phase has specific rules and hints designed to help you discover its unique solution. There are 5 levels of difficulty in each phase: Level 1 (easy) through Lebel 5(tough). All the challenges can be solved by logic, combining the information you are given and the information you discover as you start building.

Information/Hints: Each challenge card shows an illustration of Utopia’s 4x4 grid with information both on and around the grid. Marked building locations on the grid indicate where to place a building of a specific color/height before you start to play. Around the perimeter of the grid are viewpoint arrows. They provide information to help you locate building positions when looking at a specific row or column from that viewpoint.

Each building phase (One and Two) has different types of viewpoint arrow hints. See the rules for each phase to understand their meaning before you start to play.

The solution is provided on the back of each card. Before you check your answer, be sure all 16 building locations satisfy each viewpoint hint.

Phase One

Rules: Phase One rules resemble SUDOKU. Each row and each column of the city plan must have 4 different height buildings. You are not allowed to place buildings of the same height in any row or column.

Set Up: If a challenge card includes color-coded building location hints, place the matching colored buildings on the city plan grid as indicated. These buildings cannot move once play begins. To help you remember which buildings are not movable, place the side of the building with the largest door facing you. During play, position the remaining buildings, which may move during play, with a small door facing you.

Information/Hints: Blue Arabic numbers within a white viewpoint arrow tell you how many different height buildings you can see in a row or column from this viewpoint. When reading a viewpoint arrow hint, imagine standing in front of a row or column of 4 buildings or different heights. A tall building in front will block your view of the buildings behind it, while a shorter building in front allows you to see the buildings behind it. Place the buildings to match the hints from all viewpoints.

Play Tip: Some viewpoint arrow hints provide you with more building location information than others. Seek and place those buildings first, then place the rest.

Phase Two:

Rules: Buildings may be placed anywhere. You are allowed to place same height buildings in the same row or column.

Set Up: Place all color-coded building location hints as indicated on the city plan grid.

Information/Hints: As in Phase One, blue Arabic number within a white viewpoint arrow tell you how many different height buildings you can see in a row or column from this viewpoint. Multiple buildings of the same height only count as one. Because same height buildings can now be placed in the same row or column, extra hints are provided int eh city plan to assist with your construction. White Roman numbers within a red viewpoint arrow, tell you how many same height buildings you can see in a row or column from this viewpoint.

Note: In Phase Two you can also see buildings of the same height that are behind other building of the same height.

                          *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *

Phase Two can be quite challenging! It gives me trouble because I keep slipping back into Sudoku rules without realizing it. So I thought I'd do a quick walk-through of one challenge level to give you all a better idea of how Phase Two works. Hope this helps!

I picked Challenge #30 with 8 starting towers given. Got them all set up. Step one was easy!

The first clue that I thought seemed to give me easy information was from the bottom arrow on right side of the grid (on the challenge card). It is a red arrow with a Roman numeral 3 inside it, which means that three buildings of the same height can be seen when viewed across the bottom row from the right side. (Make any sense? It is a lot of rights!) Since there are already two green towers in the bottom row, we need a third green tower placed in the only open spot to make three towers visible from that direction.

Since I like looking at rows or columns that have only one missing tower left, I checked out the clues for the first column on the left. The red arrow at the top of that column shows a 1, so it isn't very helpful since the giant green tower at the top of the column is the only building that can be seen from that direction. At the bottom of the column, however, is a red arrow with a 2 in it. That means that there must be two buildings of the same height visible from that direction. Since the blue tower is too small to be seen and all the green towers have been used up, that leaves the orange tower to be placed in the empty spot!

Next, I searched around for something else that might give me an obvious clue. I found the rightmost arrow on the top of the grid very interesting! It shows a red arrow with a 3 in it. Again as all the green towers are used up, the only other tower in that right column is a blue one, this means that the other two empty spaces must contain blue towers also! Nice!

So now we have two empty spots left and an orange tower and a yellow tower to fill them in with. The red arrow with a 2 in it at the top of the column tells us that there are two towers of the same height visible in that column. It has to be the orange towers for this clue, and since the yellow tower is taller, we must put the orange towers next to each other and the yellow tower behind them. You can also check the clues from the right and left hand sides of the third row down. Both of them show a red arrow with a 2 in it also. With the yellow tower placed there, we will be able to see both yellow towers from each direction and so it fulfills the clues!

And the answer on the back of the card matches my solution! Shwew! 

Utopia is no longer available for purchase new, but you may be able to find it at a second-hand shop or on a site like ebay. 

I hope the instructions and the walk-through have been helpful!