Stack & Strap

The show is over. The crowd has gone home. It's just you, the truck, and forty cases on the dock. Stack & Strap is a truck-loading puzzle seen from the side, made by a live-event technician. Drag the flight cases into the truck, tip them so they fit, build straight walls up to the roof and strap them. Then the driver pulls away. And brakes. Hard. EVERY CASE HAS ITS RULES The sub stays on the floor, its castors insist. Nothing hard on a soft bag. The screen travels upright, arrows up. The drum bag rolls unless something wedges it. The stage manager's bike and the CEO's lectern carry nothing, the dressing-room fridge next to nothing. And just like in real life, you load through the doors: whatever is behind a finished wall is out of reach. THE BRAKE TEST The doors close, the truck pulls out, the driver slams the brakes at the first roundabout. A strapped wall holds. A wobbly one goes BAM. The standing case nothing was holding tips over toward the cab. Broken gear costs stars and your fee. 100 DATES, 10 CHAPTERS From the village fair to the stadium, through bar karaoke, the corporate seminar, the 500-seat club, the festival, the arena and the world tour. From the small van to the semi-trailer. Then come the rules of the day: video goes into the venue first tomorrow, so it loads last; the crew bus leaves on time; two trucks for one festival. A CREW THAT TALKS A driver who brakes hard, a stage manager who almost smiled once, a tech who coils his cables, the venue manager counting scratches, an intern who asks why we strap. Nearly 600 lines. MADE FOR EVERYONE • Dates of 1 to 4 minutes, playable in a queue • Three stars per date: nothing broken, tidy (no holes at the back), on time • Every date has a three-star solution, checked by a solver • Stuck? One free hint a day: the old-timer shows the next case, the god of loading comes down, tidies the truck without a gap and loads the next cases, the driver walks round the truck before you leave • The merch stand: flight case skins and stickers to buy with your fees, one look per department • Never an ad in the middle of a date, never before the fifth one, never after a failure • "Roadie pro mode": no more ads and five hints a day, one purchase • Home-made music and sounds, and your own music keeps playing if you prefer it • Larger text, reduced motion, in English and French Stack & Strap is a fond, self-mocking tribute to the people in black who load trucks at 3 a.m. And if a case falls, we'll blame the wind.