Hybrid vs Advanced Linear

[claudia26]

Hello, hope you are doing well.

I am currently doing untimed exercises by type and find myself confusing hybrid games with advanced linear. Would you be able to give me some tips as to how to differentiate both? It also doesn't help that depending on which website I go to, some games are classified as hybrid, and some other times I see the same game being classified as advanced.

Thank you .

[claudia26]

Hybrid as in combination games (linear/grouping)

Thank you!

[Beth Hayden]

Hi Claudia,

Remember that these are just labels, so it's ok if you see the same game described differently in different places, and the boundary is not always concrete. Generally if a game has a grouping element it's called a hybrid game and advanced linear games are purely linear. For example, you might need to put runners in order of placement but also know what color shirt they were wearing. But there are linear games with a limited third variable that kind of feel like a grouping game (maybe there are only two possible colors for the shirts). Whether I approach a game like that as mixed or advanced linear depends a lot on how the rules/questions are written, so it is 100% normal to be confused by this!

Whatever you call it, just make sure you can identify the different elements in a game and recognize the common patterns that you see in game setups. When you see a game where you aren't sure which way to go, try out whatever seems right to you and then afterward look at the solution and see if they did something different with the setup. Then once you see a game with a similar configuration, you'll know exactly how to approach it.

Hope that helps, but please let us know if you have follow-up questions or a specific game to look at!

Best,
Beth