Smiley World Games

“Loved it! Challenging and utterly brilliant in its concept. A highly innovative game that has a solid basis grounded in psychology for a change. Thank you!”

What is Stenciletto?

This clever shapes game has been used for testing and teaching intelligence since the 1920s. It was invented by Grace Arthur Ph.D as an IQ test and further developed by Reuven Feuerstein Ph.D as a tool for improving cognitive skills.

A hundred years ago, Grace Arthur created this game using die-cut card stencils, so in order to complete the game you had to actually stack the stencils. 

Reuven Feuerstein used exactly the same stencils, but all of his activities were pen-and-paper based, which is harder – but just as satisfying. If you’ve tried Stenciletto in Alex Bellos’s Monday Puzzle in the Guardian, then you’ve tried Feuerstein’s version. 

The mobile game has elements of both versions. On screen shapes are representations of stencils (not the real thing), as used by Reuven Feuerstein. However, you can also move the stencils by tapping them, like Grace Arthur’s version. 

The game is available for mobile devices (Android and iOS).

Download links are at the bottom of the page. 

To play the game, you need to be able to recognize basic geometric shapes and understand what a stencil is. All you have to do is stack the stencils in the correct order to match the design shown. 

It’s actually a lot harder than it first appears.

“…this is a great little puzzle game. It’s a good brain workout for the daily commute, and is deceptively challenging under the cute graphics – simple shapes quickly become more complex. Should keep me occupied for a while…”

Who is the game for?

Stenciletto is for people who enjoy using their brains.

Specifically, the visual perception, spatial perception and logical reasoning parts of their brain working closely together to solve a problem. 

It has some of the elements of brain training in that it helps develop specific cognitive skills by getting progressively harder as you improve.

But mostly Stenciletto is a satisfying and mindful game that you get better at the more you play.

Does brain training work?

There’s a multi-billion dollar brain training industry promising to sharpen your intellect and stave off cognitive decline, but does it really work?  Brain training apps like Lumosity, Peak, Elevate, Fit Brains Trainer and Cognito all claim to help smartphone users keep their minds supple with daily challenges, and with millions of faithful users globally, they clearly have something positive to offer.

One fun way to keep your mind sharp is by frequently stimulating it with puzzles and games. This includes anything from Sudoku to crosswords to brainteasers. Not only are these activities fun, but they can also help develop problem-solving skills. We all know if you practice something, you get better at it. And that in itself is a very welcome and enjoyable experience. 

Another thing you can do to stimulate your brain is to learn something new. If you always play the same games, you’ll get very good at those games, so set yourself a new challenge and try a game  you haven’t played before. Learning Stenciletto is challenging, but the challenge is rewarding, stimulating and highly enjoyable.

“I don’t usually play a lot of games on my phone, but this one I really enjoy. It is challenging without being frustratingly difficult. I thought I would breeze past all the puzzles and be bored, but nope! I love the colors and the challenge! Thank you for a great game!”

Is the psychology behind Stenciletto sound?

As a micro-business, we can’t afford to carry out scientific research to prove whether or not Stenciletto increases your IQ. But we can study the historical research conducted over many years and consider the credentials of the clinical and educational psychologists leading the way. 

For us to invest time and resources into developing a game, we need to be convinced that it’s worthwhile. Not just in terms of whether it will make money, but will it be something that people enjoy and benefit from playing? 

Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment Programme

Despite having a degree in Education & Psychology, and being an experienced teacher, I was absolutely floundering when it came to helping my son who has learning and physical disabilities. Fortunately I came across an article about Feuerstein’s theory of cognitive modifiability, and within a few weeks I’d got myself a place on his Instrumental Enrichment course.  

The course was a game changer for me and made me reconsider everything I’d learned about being a teacher. I learned to become a mediator instead. 

The Instrumental Enrichment programme consists of fourteen tools with each one covering different cognitive skills. They were covered over ten days spread over a number of weeks. Students on the course were mostly teachers and psychologists, also a few parents of disabled children. Those of us who completed the course were awarded Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment Diploma. 

At first, I struggled to see how the tasks were going to take so long to complete: as a teacher I was used to short, fast professional development courses squeezed in at the end of term. However, I slowly realised this course was about learning a new set of thinking processes more than about the teaching tools themselves.

Each task was unique and presented information in interesting ways that I hadn’t seen before. The tasks reminded me of IQ tests I’d had at school when I was a child, and my early tendency was race through each one and give myself a pat on the head when I got to the end. 

And so I learned about my number one cognitive dysfunction: impulsivity. 

Worse was to follow. As I carefully analyzed my answers, I saw how much I had got wrong and why. 

Over the weeks, I learned to slow down and become more methodical in my analysis of each task. I felt I was getting good at it and beginning to understand the process called metacognition (thinking about your own thinking process). 

It was all going so well until the final task. Called Representational Stencil Design, this one uses Grace Arthur’s stencil set to pose problems to discuss and solve. 

Along with the workbook, we were given four A3 sheets containing 80 beautiful colored geometric patterns. The task was to analyze some of the patterns and answer questions, discussing the cognitive functions required to complete the task. 

However, most of us found the task so engaging and attractive that we forgot all about what we were being asked to do and became totally absorbed in mastery of the stencils. 

Our impulsivity was back! (Apparently this is very common). 

“The tasks themselves are so engaging and attractive that there is a tendency to be satisfied with their mastery.”

Reuven Feuerstein

Did Instrumental Enrichment tasks work for my son?

Unfortunately, the 14 tools of Instrumental Enrichment have always been too difficult for my son to engage with as he has a visual impairment and needs everything enlarging and adapting, plus his cerebral palsy makes writing impossible. So to a large extent the course materials got put to the back of the cupboard, all apart from the colorful posters that have been carefully mounted on card and laminated. 

As he’s grown up, he’s become very adept at using devices to navigate his way around life’s problems. He loves bright colors and bold shapes and always loved looking the Stencil Design patterns, but never understood their construction.  I wondered if presenting the task to him in a digital format would help him to understand the task better, and give him the satisfaction of mastering the stencils.  

So a prototype of the game was developed which was extensively tested by my son and his friends at Mencap, a UK charity for people with learning disabilities. 

The prototype proved to be a big hit! Luckily we had several tablets and smartphones with us so everyone could join in – even the staff. The session was supposed to last an hour, but by lunchtime they were still going strong. 

Once we knew the concept was sound and people enjoyed playing it, we started developing the full game.  We wanted everyone to enjoy the game, including very bright adults and children. 

Why do most games look the same?

Most games are developed using the same commercial game engines. 

Stenciletto looks unique and different because we built our own precision vector graphics game engine. It is absolutely pixel perfect on all devices. 

Why make your own games engine? 

Stenciletto is a game of visual perception and you have to study geometric shapes in great detail, so if they’re fuzzy, distorted or pixellated the game won’t work properly. Bitmap images, as used in most games, simply can’t achieve the high quality images necessary for a game like Stenciletto. 

Vector graphics are created from mathematical formula and therefore scale perfectly. This enables the engine to draw its shapes on demand to the highest quality on every device, large or small. So Stenciletto graphics are absolutely pixel perfect on all devices. 

Pixel perfect means the very best representation of a design by perfectly rendering every single pixel on a screen.

Pixel perfect means you get…

• A one-of-a-kind game that looks and plays differently to anything you’ve played before.
• A totally accurate representation of what the designers designed.
• The very best graphical quality that can be drawn on your device, without compromise.
• Silky-smooth animations which draw and scale precisely.
• None of the usual on-screen distortions like pixelation and blurring.

Who created Stenciletto?

Q4 Technologies is a software studio developing games under the brand Smiley World Games. We have supplied software to schools since 2004, as well as creating apps for other industries. Our software and apps are built to a very high standard and have been nominated for, and won, international educational awards (BETT Awards). 

Stenciletto Reviews

Apple

Loved it! Challenging and utterly brilliant in its concept. A highly innovative game that has a solid basis grounded in psychology for a change. Thank you!

Love the game, think Level 4 Puzzle 12 is broke, I’m pretty sure I’ve got it right but no… Is an easy one too.

I don’t usually play a lot of games on my phone, but this one I really enjoy. It is challenging without being frustratingly difficult. I thought I would breeze past all the puzzles and be bored, but nope! I love the colors and the challenge! Thank you for a great game!

This is a beautiful game, and I love puzzles. … but I have never been able to enjoy a game that has a timer. I was very excited about Immortality mode! But the timer is still there! Many games allow you to play in Zen mode; I wish that were available. I’m going to have to stop playing (after only mastering a few beginner levels.) I don’t need more stress in my life! I’m giving you five stars anyway, because it is a lovely, well-implemented puzzle game.

I think it’s an amazing concept but I hate the timers (and lives but mostly the timers). It feels like the game is punishing you for playing. I get that some people must like that and I understand the appeal I do, but it’s just too quick. I wish there was a mode without timers which I don’t think would be too difficult to implement. Again, I really like the puzzles themselves but the timer is just unnecessary.

I downloaded this after reading about it in the paper. It’s been great fun so far, pleasantly taxing and really great practice for thinking through rather than impatiently responding, but at present it’s hard to get back and forth between levels and menus. Also I purchased ‘immortality’, but it didn’t do anything, and am stuck waiting for lives like before.

Google

Works great for me and my kids on android phones.

Super unique game and a challenging one~. An IQ test is exactly what this is. Show it to your friends and confuse the heck out of ’em !!

They fixed the problem with the navigation buttons. Fun little game. Saw the article in the guardian.

Works now after the update. Great fun and a good challenge.

Edit: Recent update has resolved this issue. Game is very good with calming music to accompany your playing. Original review below. Looks like a fun game and is easy enough to play, but I can’t progress past the first stage as my phone’s navbar gets in the way of what I assume is the “next” button at the bottom.

Now the layout bug is fixed, this is a great little puzzle game. It’s a good brain workout for the daily commute, and is deceptively challenging under the cute graphics- simple shapes quickly become more complex. Should keep me occupied for a while…

Lots of fun! I’ll keep my little gray cells quite engaged. And kudos to the developer for responding quickly and fixing some bugs I had reported earlier

Stenciletto is quite the brain twister! With the recent UI fix (Thank you!) I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the unique challenge Stencilleto has to offer. If you’re a fan of a good fast-paced puzzler, you should certainly give this game a shot!

Fun and well implemented. Recommended. Would be nice to have a “casual” mode without time/lives pressure, but that’s minor. Reminds of Bart Bonte’s games

Nice game, harder than it first appears. The recent update has fixed the previous issue with not being able to move onto later levels. I just wish there was an option to turn off the timer so it could be a more relaxed playing experience! Might be the only thing that stops me continuing playing as the timer makes it a bit stressful. No ads (that I have come across yet) which is great.

This game is lots of fun. The story of the psychologist who invented it, Grace Arthur, is wonderful too.