Hotel Dimensia

Hotel Dimensia is the second puzzle in the Deep, Dark Forest region of Logical Journey of the Zoombinis.

Premise

The Zoombinis are welcomed by the hotel's catlike manager, Ulla Instantaneous, and each Zoombini needs to find a room in the hotel before Ulla leaves for the night. Zoombinis who share features may bunk together. Other Zoombinis must find different rooms. The puzzle starts with a row of five rooms. As the difficulty increases, columns, closed rooms, and rooms within rows and columns are added to each column, row, and section. There is only a certain amount of "time" until the hotel closes indicated by the clock, but time actually passes when a (mismatched) Zoombini is dropped out of a room.

In-game Help Text

Not so easy

After a long journey, the Zoombinis need rooms to stay in overnight. However, only Zoombinis with one feature in common can room together. For example, Zoombinis with sunglasses may stay in the same room, but all others must find a different room. Try to figure out whether hair, eyes, noses, or feet are the features that matter tonight!

Oh, so hard

After a long journey, the Zoombinis need rooms to stay in overnight. However, only Zoombinis with two features in common, such as red noses and ponytail hair, can room together. One feature tells you a Zoombini's placement by floor (row) and one feature tells you the placement by tree trunk (column).

Zoombinis in the same row or same column will have variations of the same attribute. For example, Zoombinis with red noses may all stay on the first floor, green noses on the second, orange on the third, and so on. At the same time, Zoombinis with ponytails stay in the first column, flat tops in the second, shaggy in the third, and so on.

Very hard

After a long journey, the Zoombinis need rooms to stay in overnight. However, only Zoombinis with two features in common, such as red noses and ponytail hair, can room together. One feature tells you a Zoombini's placement by floor (row) and one feature tells you the placement by tree trunk (column).

Zoombinis in the same row or same column will have variations of the same attribute. For example, Zoombinis with red noses may all stay on the first floor, green noses on the second, orange on the third, and so on. At the same time, Zoombinis with ponytails stay in the first column, flat tops in the second, shaggy in the third, and so on.

For a greater challenge, some rooms are boarded up, which limits your choices.

Very, very hard

After a long journey, the Zoombinis need rooms to stay in overnight. However, only Zoombinis with three features in common, such as red noses, ponytail hair, and sunglasses can room together. One feature tells you a Zoombini's placement by floor (row), one feature tells you the placement by tree trunk (column), and one by door location on the same floor of the same tree trunk.

Zoombinis in the same row, tree trunk, or doorway will have variations of the same attribute. For example, Zoombinis with red noses may stay on the first floor, green noses on the second, orange on the third, and so on. At the same time, Zoombinis with ponytails may stay in the first tree trunk, flat tops in the second, shaggy in the third, and so on.

Finally, Zoombinis with sunglasses may stay in the first doorway, sleepy eyes in the second, glasses in the third doorway of the same floor on the same tree trunk and so on.

Detailed Mechanics and Rules

Not So Easy

Ulla cares about only one characteristic (hair | eyes | nose | feet) on this level. You have 5 failures available until she warns you and 7 until she closes shop.

Oh So Hard

Ulla cares about two characteristics at this level. Now you have rows and columns. There are 25 rooms but you have only 16 Zoombinis so several rooms will be empty. Zoombinis may end up doubling up.

Very Hard

Ulla still only cares about two characteristics on this level but several of the rooms have been busted up by Fleens and are not available. It is easy to end up with Zoombinis who should go in a closed room but can't and end up going back to Shelter Rock. Ulla will allow 8 failures at this difficulty.

Very, Very Hard

On this level, Ulla cares about three characteristics. The third characteristic is represented by doors around a given tree trunk.

Strategy for Solving the Puzzle

At each level, solving the puzzle means figuring out how many characteristics Ulla cares about and which ones she's sorting Zoombinis by. At each level, the number of failures allowed is marked by the lighter-colored section on the clock. Each misplacement advances the clock by 5 minutes.

General solving advice: The first Zoombini you place may go in any room and then the others must fit around him or her. You cannot remove a Zoombini from a room once it has been placed (although you can pull it out to the doorstep to see all its characteristics). Work through your Zoombinis from those that have lots of characteristics in common to those who are most unusual. Each time a Zoombini is dropped from a room that's already occupied you know that it's different from the Zoombini in the room in a way that Ulla cares about.

Strategy for Very Hard

You can plan ahead by graphing the characteristics Zoombinis have and then working out which graphs fit the rooms that are available.

Strategy for Very, Very Hard

You need two Zoombinis (one for backup) with three features in common with a third Zoombini. You have to place the third zoombini in one of the rooms (most preferably the corner rooms) and place the two Zoombinis you had in one of the rooms. You have to place them in these four rooms according to the first zoombini you placed:

• Same column, Same row, Different section
• Same column, Different row, Same section
• Different column, Same row, Same section
• The room where you placed the first Zoombini

This will show you which two features correspond to the column, row, or section. Your fourth Zoombini should have at least one feature that is the same as the first three (i.e. if the first three Zoombinis have shoes and sunglasses, your fourth Zoombini MUST have either shoes OR sunglasses). This should tell you what each column, row, or section corresponds to. You can sort all the other Zoombinis into the other empty rooms.