Colour Discs Pattern Sorting Game

Using the knowledge of maths, 3 different objects can be arranged in 3! (3 factorial) ways in a line, which is equal to 6 ways. Guess how many ways 4 different objects can be arranged? 24 ways. And 9 different objects? 362,880 ways! Isn't it fascinating? This exactly is the logic behind this little game.

The number of possible arrangements of the game pieces here won't be up to 362,880 due to repeating colours in 3's, but it is sure up in the hundreds.

There are just two parts to this colour patterns sorting game: the box and the cards. The cards have different colour patterns on them, which will be used to sort the discs on the game box. It can get challenging quickly.

Card printing

Popsicle sticks

Small: 1.8 cm width

Big: 2.5cm width

Bamboo skewers

Acrylic paints

White spray paint

PVA Glue

Resin glue

Hand saw

Pen

Paintbrush

Ruler

Utility knife

Paper tape

Sandpaper

These refer to the two teeth that form the passage for the disc pieces to slide around in the game box.

I took two popsicle sticks and glued them together side by side with PVA glue and allowed it to dry well, did this for two other pairs of popsicle sticks.

As shown in the pictures I measured a length of 10.5cm through the three pieces and cut it out with my small hand saw. Took one of the three pieces and cut away a length of 1.8cm, which is the width of the popsicle sticks, to make it shorter than the two other planks.

I then glued the three planks on top of each other with the shorter plank in the middle, thus making space in the bottom of the sandwiched planks.

Made one more of this through the same process and allowed both to have their glue dry properly and then sandpapered the top edges to give nice little curves.

For the right sidebar/plank, I took three popsicle sticks and cut to a length of 13cm each, pushed the middle plank up by 1.8cm from the bottom of the other two and glued the three pieces in that manner on top of each other.

For the left sidebar/plank, I again took three popsicle sticks, but for this one, I did cut two of the three to a length of 12cm and the third to a length of 13.5cm, making it longer than the other two.

I put the longer plank in the middle of the other two and pushed it up by 1.8cm and glued the three pieces into a sandwich with the middle plank extending out through the top by about 3cm and making a space 1.8cm deep at the bottom.

These sidebars/planks, the two prongs and the top bars (that I'll write about in the next step) together create the maze-like passage for the colour discs to move through.

There are two pieces to this top bar/plank to create enough extra space for a single colour disc to pass into while solving/sorting the colour patterns on the cards; otherwise, the game would be almost impossible to solve.

Starting, I took three popsicle sticks, two long planks of 10.5cm in length and a shorter 8.7cm one placed in the middle and glued on top of each other. This is the first part.

For the second part, I took three popsicles, two of length 13cm and the third of length 9.5cm, put the shorter one in the middle of the other two, making sure it's 1.8cm away from both ends and glued the three pieces together.

I used my utility knife and saw to chip out and create a space 1cm deep and about 1cm wide, 1.8cm away from the right edge of the plank.

Here, I assembled all the pieces made from the earlier steps into a single board with a passage for the colour discs.

I cut a 13cm length of popsicle stick and spread glue across the surface on both sides then passed it to the spaces (created by making the middle pieces shorter or pushing the middle pieces higher than the top and bottom piece) in the bottom of the right side plank bar, then the two prongs and finally the left side plank bar each being spaced from the other by about 1cm.

The top plank bars weren't glued together, though, and can be removed and put back to allow the colour discs to be passed into the passages.

I'd like to refer to the assembled piece in Step 4 as the game board because most of the colour sorting occur on it while the remaining part of the game box I'll refer to as just *box* because it's there just to complete the enclosure.

I used bigger popsicles (2.5cm in width) for this (and the colour discs in the next step).

Seven big popsicle sticks were needed, so I cut each to a length of 15.5cm. Four pieces were arranged in the first layer with a space of 1cm between each plank and the next, and three pieces were arranged on top of the first layer (essential to cover the spaces between the four pieces of the first layer). Each of the three planks for the second layer is glued onto two underlying planks each and this holds the entire thing together.

The width of the finished board is 13cm same as the width of the top game board.

Using popsicle sticks (the small ones) cut to length, I made and glued the side planks around the board to complete making the box.

The colour discs, just like everything we've made in the previous steps, were also made from the popsicle sticks, the bigger popsicle sticks. I used the circular plate at the end of a 20ml syringe (because I couldn't get a compass) to draw circles of 2.5cm diameter on the bigger popsicle sticks (you can use a compass too) and then cut out with my hand saw and the sandpapered it down to small circular plates, nine of them (for three each in three columns).

I proceeded to get the bamboo skewers and cut them into nine pieces 1cm long each, sanded the cut ends and glued each to the centre of each circular disc. This would give more room to easily hold and move the coloured discs in between the fingers.

For each disc, I made a square plate each of dimensions 1.8cm by 1.8cm (equal to the width of the popsicle sticks) from the smaller popsicle sticks. This would serve to restrain the discs from falling off if the game box should be turned upside down.

To connect the discs to the square plates, I glued four bamboo skewers together using the resin glue and gave them time to properly harden; I then cut it with my hand saw into 1cm long pieces, nine of which I needed. Taking one disc and one square plate, I used each of the nine pieces to glue the two (disc and plate) together.

I've made the structure and parts; all that's left to complete the game box is to paint and assemble the various parts, holding them together with glue where needed.

Starting with the box, I covered its outsides in paper tape so I don't get paint on its outside; I then spray painted the inside with white and left it to dry well before removing the paper tape mask.

For the game board, I cut a length of paper tape into 0.5cm wide stripes and used them to mask the edges of the four sides of the game board. Spray painted it white too. Removed the paper tape after the paint had dried.

Unto the colour discs. There are, in total, nine discs and three columns on the game board, so three colour discs go into each column, and each column of disc has the same colours. I chose the three colours: Blue, Yellow and Green. Painted the discs with acrylic paint and the brush.

I then arranged the colour discs into the columns, three each and glued the top plank bars in place finally.

Masking the white painted parts with paper tape I painted the edges of the game board with red acrylic paint.

Fastening it together with PVA glue, I placed the game box into the box.

I have made 50 different cards each with a unique pattern of colour in the rows and columns. I used Ibis Paint X app for the illustration with ten unique cards on each page.

I printed three pages (30 cards) on three A4 size cards and used a pair of scissors to cut out the individual cards.

The print file is below.

With the game box made and the cards ready, playing the game is obviously the next thing to do.

A couple of things/rules of sort to note is that the colour discs should never overlap another and the colour discs shouldn't be forced through any gap not big enough for the disc to pass through comfortably.

Each card has a 3×3 layout of colour circles unique to it. This pattern on each card would be used to sort the colour discs on the game box. Take the next card and sort, the next card and sort and on and on. Pretty fun to do.