Stenciletto: Welcome aboard!
Welcome aboard!
Hi there! Welcome to the Stenciletto players page. Thank you for downloading and playing the game. We hope you’re enjoying it.
Why is this game so hard?Â
Stenciletto is a deceptively simple little game that was invented in the 1920s as an IQ test. So – if it’s making your brain hurt – well, it was designed to do just that!
The test was created to test thinking skills that other verbal or numerical tests didn’t measure. The inventor, Dr. Grace Arthur, developed a range of tests to measure visual perception and spatial awareness – core thinking skills that other IQ tests were not taking into consideration. She showed that non-verbal tests, like the Stencil Design Test, were also a very good indicator of intelligence.
Her work fundamentally changed IQ testing, and all IQ tests now include non-verbal reasoning problems.Â
If a thinking skill can be tested, it can be learned.Â
Psychologists now realize that playing games and puzzles such as Stenciletto can help develop the logical reasoning skills that IQ tests are measuring. But more importantly, they are actually good for you as they can improve your brain functions and help slow cognitive decline.
Stenciletto requires you to use many parts of your brain simultaneously.Â
- Visual perception – Â you have to analyze two dimensional geometric shapes, comparing them to find similarities and differences.
- Spatial perception – Â you have to analyze shapes in three-dimensions, working out their relative order.
- Problem solving – Grace Arthur cleverly presents the geometric shapes as a cut-out from a square background –  a format that the brain isn’t used to seeing –  which makes the activity interesting. Also, as only part of an underlying shape is visible, it makes your brain resort to inferential and deductive reasoning to work out how the design is made.Â
- Also memory is very important; the game gets much easier when you memorize the properties of the shapes, and the composite shapes they create. You’ll notice that as the designs get more complex, your ability to decode them gets better.
Seven Steps – brain-training in action!
These first seven games are designed to train your brain. At first, the game seems incredibly hard and you’ll really need to concentrate. You can feel your brain working, trying to make sense of the task. “Just a minute – let me think!” your brain is telling you. Â But after a couple of games, it starts getting easier, even though the designs are getting harder.
Your brain trains itself to remember the shapes and their properties. It starts to recognize patterns that recur frequently. You begin to self correct your mistakes, and might even get confident enough to win a life or two.
Seven Steps will build your confidence by familiarising your brain with the shapes, composites, and recurring patterns necessary to go to the next level.
Ready for Four & More?
If you’ve managed to complete Seven Steps, you’re ready to try more advanced designs that use composite shapes and many layers. Four & More is the logical progression after completing Seven Steps.
As it’s name suggests, these designs all have at least four layers, and some have multiple composite shapes as well. There are eight games and, like Seven Steps, they gradually increase in difficulty to maintain a good level of brain challenge.
The final Challenge
The hardest level, Challenge, is a logical progression from Four & More. You get more time to solve the puzzles, and they have much higher scores. And, as with the previous levels, they gradually increase in complexity to keep your brain challenged.
Mortal mode
Playing as Mortal is the default mode, and the most challenging. You have twenty lives to start off, ten of these are in play and ten in the bank. Â You’ll lose a life if you exceed the timer. Using the help features also costs a life. You can win lives by getting the solution correct on your first attempt.
Immortal mode
If you need a bit more time, or more help, then Immortal mode is better for you. In this mode, you’ll have 25% more time to enter your solution, and as much use of the help features as you like. If you’re playing as Immortal, and are using Game Center, your score will be recorded on the Immortal Leaderboards.