{"schemaVersion":1,"record":{"key":"mechanic/education--family-12","type":"mechanic","id":"education--family-12","lang":"en","title":"Constraints, grids and placement","summary":"The learner fills a grid or places objects while satisfying all constraints at once.","updatedAt":"2026-10-22","status":"active","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/education--family-12/","jsonUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/education--family-12.json","markdownUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/education--family-12.md","aliases":["Constraints and grids"],"tags":["Educational games","Structures, logic and space"],"sourceIds":["source-ee038a4e63ad2ca4"],"sources":[{"id":"source-ee038a4e63ad2ca4","title":"Hexcells","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/265890/","verifiedAt":null}],"sections":[{"id":"principle","title":"How it works","body":"Fill a grid without repetition"},{"id":"variants","title":"Variants","body":"### Variants\n\n<a id=\"family-12-branch-1\"></a>\n\n- Fill a grid without repetition <a id=\"family-12-variant-1\"></a>\n- Place objects next to each other <a id=\"family-12-variant-2\"></a>\n- Respect adjacency prohibitions <a id=\"family-12-variant-3\"></a>\n- Satisfy row sums <a id=\"family-12-variant-4\"></a>\n- Connect pairs without crossings <a id=\"family-12-variant-5\"></a>\n- Cover a board with specified shapes <a id=\"family-12-variant-6\"></a>\n- Place under several conditions <a id=\"family-12-variant-7\"></a>\n- Find a unique solution <a id=\"family-12-variant-8\"></a>\n- Find all valid solutions <a id=\"family-12-variant-9\"></a>\n- Determine that no solution exists <a id=\"family-12-variant-10\"></a>"},{"id":"example","title":"Design example","body":"Seat animals so predators are not beside their prey."},{"id":"context","title":"Context and limits","body":"A mechanic map for games with explicit learning goals, from first encounters with a topic to professional practice. It covers children, teenagers and adults; choose subject, difficulty, context and controls for the learner. Player actions, subject content, instructional support and assessment are distinct layers. Scores and game completion alone do not establish mastery or skill transfer."}],"relations":[],"placements":[{"catalogId":"education","id":"family-12","title":"Educational games","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/education/#family-12","categoryIds":["logic"]}],"supersededBy":[],"attributes":{"preview":{"updatedAt":"2026-10-22","title":"Constraints and grids","description":"The learner fills a grid or places objects while satisfying all constraints at once.","image":{"src":"images/mechanics/adventure-hexcells-02.webp","width":1440,"height":810,"game":"Hexcells","sourceUrl":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/265890/","originalUrl":"https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/265890/ss_b011707202d23cf553d6f1aa6c68cc1c93115151.1920x1080.jpg?t=1667308643","credit":"Matthew Brown","rights":"Game imagery © its respective rights holders. Publisher-distributed Steam screenshot; all rights reserved. Excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.","caption":"Numbers constrain valid cell markings","alt":"Numbers constrain valid cell markings","markers":[{"x":50,"y":41,"label":"A number constrains neighboring cells"}]},"tips":["Identify the violated constraint while preserving the rest of the solution."],"examples":[{"title":"Hexcells","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/265890/"}]}},"endsAt":null,"provenance":"Educational reference expanded from all 64 families and 749 variants of the original children-education taxonomy, with original editorial additions dated 2026-10-20. Sources support specific methods and examples, not the entire classification or its effectiveness.","license":"CC-BY-4.0","codeLicense":"MIT","attribution":"gamemechanics.pro contributors","catalogKey":"catalog/education"}}