Penkwe

The Rules

Penkwe is a proto-Indo-European word meaning "five". There are a total of 18 different Penkwe pieces.  Each piece is made up of 5 blocks. The pieces can be rotated to any orientation, but they cannot be flipped. Each piece can be used only once. The object of the game is to fit all 18 game pieces into the 10 x 9 game grid.

Game Play

Use the mouse to select a piece from the tray by left-clicking. The piece sticks to your mouse cursor as you move it over the board. You can middle-click (or press spacebar) to discard the piece if you change your mind. If you middle-click (or press spacebar) a second time, the last piece you selected returns to your cursor. The piece’s picture remains in the piece tray until it is placed onto the game board.

You can also roll the mouse wheel (or press W or S) to cycle through available, unplaced pieces instead of clicking them in the tray.

You can right-click (or press A or D) to rotate the available pieces to switch their orientation.

You can then left-click to place the piece down on the board. You can only place a piece on empty grid squares, if it fits in that location. If the grid spaces are already occupied by another piece, or if part of the piece you’re placing down is off the game board, the click is ignored.

If the placement of a piece is valid, the piece is removed from the tray, and the percentage of progress through the game is updated. You then select another piece and place it down as well.

If you change your mind about a piece’s placement, you can left-click on it with an empty mouse cursor to pick it up again. Middle-clicking then returns it to the tray.

If the placement is valid, but the move leaves an area of empty grid squares that is not a multiple of 5, a buzzer sounds. This tells you that the current move has made it impossible to win, and pieces must be rearranged in order to complete the board.

If you wish to give up and start over at any point, pressing the C key will clear the entire game board and return all game pieces back into the tray. If you wish to start over without clearing the current board, pressing the N and B keys will cycle through a collection of 100 boards whose progress has been saved and reloaded automatically when exiting and restarting the game.

Winning the Game

Continue adding, removing, rotating, and rearranging pieces until you find a configuration that fits all 18 pieces into the game board. When you reach 100%, the puzzle is complete. The pieces turn gold and a chime sounds. You can then press the N or B keys to cycle through other game boards and attempt new solutions without losing your current victories. If you wish, you can discard completed boards by pressing C, but you will be asked if you’re sure you want to do this. I don’t recommend it.

In theory, there are an endless number of ways to beat the game. It is incredibly difficult, however, and completing a board is quite an achievement, as you will learn. It may begin to feel impossible after a while, but it’s not. Keep at it. Tear down. Rebuild. Don’t give up. You’ll go gold eventually. I’ve found 4 distinct solutions myself, and I jumped up and cheered each time.

Game Profiles

Pressing R allows you to change the name of your player profile. The default profile is named “Player”. Profiles are saved on your computer’s disc. You may start as many profiles as you wish, but each profile can only save 100 game boards.

Pressing the M key will mute the game sounds.