Odd or impossible graBLOX game positions

Here are a few graBLOX positions, most of which which I’ve never seen in practice, and I don’t really know what would happen if they did show up.

1) [two raindrops falling on a1]

Rick: a3, c3, c1 Downward-falling teardrop: a4 Leftward-falling teardrop: d1

After 1.c3, in theory both teardrops will end up simultaneously racing towards a1. Are they both supposed to occupy a1 simultaneously, or is one supposed to land on the other? This is a situation where one wants a square to be occupied by two blocks but (in contrast to most situations where this happens with Ike) where the occupants of the square are not going to be instantly nuked at the end of the move, because there is no third block to trigger the destruction.

2) [Block lands in Ike]

This one can actually happen. The basic set-up looks like this:

Ike: a5 Quatro: c5

The Ike needs to be “the right way up”, i.e. with the L-R route through him clear. Here’s a situation where we can land a block right in his middle: after 1.c5 the Quatro turns into four Rockys and one lands on Ike.

This situation can actually happen in one of the standard levels. Go to level 4-10 (in v2.2) and try 1.a6 2.d6 3.f6 ! The Rocky lands on top of the Ike and they’re not destroyed. The Ike can no longer turn. I’d love to know what happens if you now try to pull the blocks at a6…



Both those issues involved two blocks wanting to be on one square. Here are some other issues.

3) [block wants to be pulled two ways at once]

Set-up:

Rick on a4, c4, e4, c3, c1. Fall-down teardrops on a5, e5. Dizzy on a1, e1.

Hit c4. The block on c1 is shielded by the block on c3 so is not pulled up. The teardrops trigger the Dizzys on a1 and e1, which both try and grab the c1 block and pull it in different directions. My guess is that this will again result in a race condition and the block will randomly end up at b1 or d1?

4) [two Dizzys pulling each other?]

Set-up: same as (3) above, but remove the Rick on c1. When hitting c4, the teardrops fall and the Dizzys now want to grab each other! Will one pull the other towards them or will they both end up at c1 (unlikely) or what??

Situations like this make me wonder whether the graBLOX gameplay rules are sometimes a little ill-defined in certain situations. Perhaps the game designers will go out of their way to avoid situations like this? On the other hand, I also wonder whether these issues would be a real stumbling block in the way of letting the end graBLOX user create their own levels!

One level where something slightly weird can be made to happen is level 3-21: Here is a post about a race condition that can occur in this level.