2012 Puzzle Design Competition (Part 2)

This is the second part of my series of posts about the puzzles in the 2012 Puzzle Design Competition that did not win an award. All of the photos are by Nick Baxter from the 2012 Puzzle Design Competition website.

Bottle & Glass - Victor Lam & Kazakh Wong

The goal of this puzzle is to separate the bottle and the glass. It is a rather tricky disentanglement puzzle, but unfortunately I didn't actually get a chance to solve it! When I sat down, I noticed that it wasn't quite in the starting position, so I set myself to the task of putting it back at the start.

This proved extremely challenging, even when I looked at the instructions (mainly because the instruction photos weren't great). Despite the fact that I didn't actually try it from the start, taking it apart didn't seem like it would be super-challenging, though definitely not easy either.

Bubbloid122 - Carl N. Hoff

This unusual looking twisty puzzle features eight corners that can be turned, each at two different depths. This makes for quite an unusual pattern, since it is like spheres have sliced the rectangular cuboid from each of the corners.

I fiddled with this one for a bit, but didn't have much luck. Not much of a surprise, since I'm not ace with twisty puzzles! Still, it turned quite nicely and I could see how it could be enjoyable to solve, if you like twisty puzzles.

BurrBlock - Jerry McFarland

This is quite a daunting looking burr that utilizes an interesting "lockpick" mechanic that is featured in some of Jerry's other work. If you haven't tried a puzzle with that feature before, you might spend quite a while trying to get the first key piece to move!

I played with this one for quite a while and managed to get the four key pieces removed. At this point, you can start to disassemble the frame, but it quickly gets very complicated. It was about 1:00 AM at that point, so I decided I should probably start putting it back together before I get in over my head! If you kept careful track of where the pieces came from, you could probably put it back together, but it would be pretty nerve wracking! A nicely designed burr, but not for the faint of heart!

Butterfly & Flowers - Shusong Lin

This little puzzle box was one that I was pretty interested in trying. It seemed like it might have a fun solution, and indeed it did! It isn't particularly challenging, but it is cute.

It seems like a puzzle that could easily be mass-produced by Bits and Pieces, due to the simplicity of its construction. Seems like a perfect puzzle box for the mass market.

The "By George" Burr - George Syriaque

This burr might look daunting, but it actually wasn't too bad due to the coloring. It is pretty easy to take apart, so the better challenge is to try putting it together. It is a Level 2.4.3.2.3 serially interlocking burr, meaning that it requires 2 moves to remove the first piece, 4 moves to remove the second piece, and so forth.

I think it took me about 20-30 minutes to get it together. That last piece is always the toughest! Since it is serially interlocking, you need to figure out the order the pieces need to be added in. That's kind of fun, since you can use logic to figure it out. It is also quite nicely crafted!

Caged Polycubes - John Rausch

The goal of this puzzle is to assemble seven of the pieces inside the frame, and there are two options for the set of seven pieces. There is also a square base you can use to test out your assemblies before you worry about trying to get them in the frame!

I didn't spend much time with this one, it looked quite difficult due to the number of pieces so I didn't get much beyond trying to make an assembly in the base.

Catch 22 - Kim Klobucher

I typically really enjoy Kim Kloboucher's puzzle boxes, so I was looking forward to trying this one! However, I didn't much care for the way this one worked. It has a somewhat finicky locking system that is added to his usual sliding-move mechanic, which I didn't think added much to the puzzle other than to make it slightly more annoying. I wish he had submitted The Void, which I had enjoyed quite a bit more!

Chamfered Cube - Jane and John Kostick

This is another one of three puzzles submitted by Jane and John Kostick. I liked the shape of this one, it had a nice symmetry and looks quite solid. I found it a bit easier to assemble than the others, but it is still a good challenge! As with their other submissions, this one consists of a bunch of pieces with magnets in them. The angles of the pieces and the positioning of the magnets guides you toward the final assembly.

The neat thing about this one is that the shape that you make, a chamfered cube, also sits in the center of the arrangement of pieces. Pretty cool!

Chaplin - Kohfuh Satoh

The goal of this puzzle is to make the shape of a bowler hat. I didn't find it to be particularly challenging, I think it took me around a minute. Still, a cute design that kids or less experienced puzzlers may enjoy fiddling with.

Clustered Anew - Scott Peterson

Unfortunately I'm not particularly familiar with Stewart Coffin's Cluster Buster, but I believe this is a variation on that design. It is expertly crafted by Scott Peterson, with perfect fit and crisp edges.

Getting it apart wasn't too tough, and getting it back together was only slightly more difficult. It comes apart in two halves, each of which requires coordinate motion to assemble.


Well, that's probably enough for now! Stay tuned for Part 3!

2012 Puzzle Design Competition (Part 1)

I wrote about the 2012 Puzzle Design Competition winners in my last two posts about the IPP32 Awards Banquet (Part 1 and Part 2), but there are plenty more good puzzles that were in the competition! Over the next few posts, I'll give you my brief review of each. All of the photos are by Nick Baxter from the 2012 Puzzle Design Competition website.

1€ Labyrinth Puzzle - Robrecht Louage

This is another one of those puzzles where the goal is to extract the coin. As you can probably guess from the name, the solution involves navigating a rather complicated maze.

I wasn't a big fan of this one, since the maze is hidden, so it is very difficult to figure out where you are. You could probably do it with enough persistence, but it will take a while! The maze is quite sneakily designed to reduce the likelihood that you will solve it by accident.

13 Triangles - Ed Pegg Jr

This little tray packing puzzle consists of a number of right triangles, each of which has a checker pattern on the back. The idea is that you need to create either an all-orthogonal or all-diagonal grid with the triangles. While it might sound like an added challenge, the idea was to actually reduce the number of combinations you needed to try to find a solution.

Despite the hint of the grid, I found it quite daunting considering the number of pieces involved. I'm sure it could be done if you spent enough time with it, but I wasn't able to figure it out in the time that I had.

3 Color Cube - Lucie Pauwels

The goal of this puzzle is to create a cube that is either all Blue, Yellow, or Red on the outside. Each of the blocks has a number of colors on it, so you need to choose which face will be on the outside, and where it will be placed.

I thought that it should be pretty easy to figure out the placement of the pieces based on the colorings of each, since a piece colored red on three adjacent sides would probably be in the corner, however it was pretty challenging! I spent a good 20 minutes on this one without much luck, though I came fairly close.

3H=6T - Hideki Tsuiki

This oddly named packing puzzle makes use of two shapes, the Hexagonal Bipyramid (H) and the Triangular Antiprismoid (T), both of which are are imaginary cubes. Imaginary cubes are objects which have square projections in three orthogonal directions (like a cube does). The main goal is to pack all the pieces into the larger of the two boxes. The smaller box helps you visualize how the pieces have square projections, I think.

The shapes are fairly unusual, so it was a bit of a challenge figuring out how to pack them into a cube. However, I played around with a few ideas based on the number of pieces and the idea that the solution would be fairly symmetrical, and had it figured out in about 20 minutes. A nice little packing puzzle with some interesting pieces.

3-Layer Tetraxis Array - Jane and John Kostick

This is another beautiful puzzle by the Kosticks, which consists of a bunch of pieces with magnets inside them. There are a number of goals, you can build three separate shapes, but the grand-daddy you see in the picture is all three shapes nested together.

It might look really daunting, but the angles of the pieces and the placements of the magnets guide you quite a bit. Once you start to get the feel for how a shape is coming together, it goes together pretty easily. I think this is my favorite out of Jane's entries this year, just because it is so epic: it is quite a large puzzle and takes a good amount of time to put together. Quite cool! You can contact them through their website to purchase any of their puzzles, they'll even let you choose the woods!

3x3x3 Cube with Chess Board Faces - Albert Gübeli

The goal of this puzzle is to build a red and black checkered cube, but the interesting part is the pieces! The pieces are created from cubes that are attached on the edges, rather than the faces, using what appears to be colored duck tape. Because of this, they can be flexed. As such, they can fit together in a number of ways that rigid pieces couldn't achieve.

I encountered this one during one of my last passes through the design competition room, not expecting too much, but it actually captivated me for a good 45 minutes! It seemed like it should be so simple: only 6 pieces. However, it was quite challenging! I kept getting stick with one piece remaining that theoretically should fit, however there was no way to actually get the piece into place without breaking the tape. Eventually I had it figured out, but I was nearly at my wit's end! This was a surprisingly good puzzle!

Arrow Blocks - Goh Pit Khiam

A six piece sliding block puzzle? Piece of cake! The goal is to restore both arrows such that the piece with the tip of the white arrow can fit in as well. However, there is an extra layer under the pieces which restricts your movement quite a bit. Fortunately, the lid can be removed if you give up and need to reset the puzzle.

This puzzle had one surprising element that I didn't really expect: I don't want to go into too much detail since it would spoil things, but I didn't much care for it. In some puzzles, this feature is quite brilliant, but in this one I found that it made it too difficult. If you're a real whiz with sliding block puzzles, you may be able to figure out what's going on, but I just ended up going in circles before giving up.

Bare Bones - Steve Winter

This one is just a simple dexterity maze, with the added difficulty that the maze is pretty hard to see! Steve has replaced the conventional walls that you'd usually find in a maze with rods: they work the same way to block the ball's movement, but it is harder to see what is going on.

I had a good time playing around with this one. I found that if you looked really closely, you could start to figure out what constituted a valid path, and start mapping out the maze that way. There weren't a ton of dead ends, but it just becomes difficult being able to see the way forward. Nicely done!

Befuddling Butterfly - William Waite

This tray packing puzzle has pretty unusual pieces: each piece can either have a protrusion or an indentation in one of five positions. In this way, it is a bit similar to Lonpos Cosmic Creatures, though that puzzle has six potential spots for the protrusions/indentations.

I though that this one would be quite well suited toward having a challenge booklet, similar to Lonpos. The full challenge of placing all 10 pieces in the tray was pretty tough, even though there are 231 solutions. The easier challenges would have only 2-3 pieces that need to be placed, building up to all 10. One minor thing that bugged me: it would have been nice if the butterfly's dots were glued down, they fell out whenever I tipped the pieces out.

Bloom - Volker Latussek

The goal of this puzzle is to build a solid circle (no, the negative-space circle on the left isn't the solution, as I hoped!) I fiddled with this one for a bit, and didn't have much trouble making a circle, though I wasn't quite sure whether my circle was circular enough.

It seemed like it was slightly oval, but I thought that the pieces might just be out of alignment. It would have been nice if it is a bit more clear when you've got it. I probably didn't quite get it, but I decided to move on anyways.


Well that's probably enough for today! Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

IPP32: Awards Banquet (Part 2)

In my previous post, I went through the Top 10 Vote Getters and Honorable Mentions in the 2012 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition. Next, I'll go through the First Prize winners, the Jury Grand Prize winners, and the winner of the Puzzlers Award.

Jury First Prize

Ferris' Box a beautiful puzzle box by Peter Wiltshire. It features triple-miter joints on the corners and his signature groove pattern on the faces of the panels. All this makes it look a bit like a burr in a cage, which can be a bit daunting, however this puzzle box is just the right level of difficulty.

Peter Wiltshire with his trophy designed by
Yavuz Demirhan and made by Tom Lensch!

You'll probably quickly discover the first move, though you'll likely end up going in circles for a bit before you find the second one! This is a nice feature, since folks often get frustrated when the first move is too difficult. The final move isn't too tricky, but is quite well disguised. One small issue is that it is easy to not reset it completely, though this doesn't really end up mattering.

Only 20 were made, most of which were destined for use in another project, but a few of which went to collectors. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a copy from Peter, thanks Peter! Overall, this is an awesome puzzle box, definitely worthy of the First Prize. [Update: I just found out that Peter has decided to make more! They will be listed on Puzzle Paradise, so keep an eye over there!]

Houdini's Torture Chamber by Brian Young is an excellent puzzle, and quite unique! The goal is to extract Houdini (the upside-down peg) from the tank (the plastic enclosure). This was Brian's exchange puzzle last year, which I purchased.

It is a sequential discovery puzzle, meaning that you discover tools to help you along the way as you work on the puzzle. However, what you do with the tools you are given is the challenge! Most people that I have showed this to are able to figure it out in a reasonable amount of time, 10-20 minutes, and are quite pleased by the way it works. It utilizes an interesting mechanic to enable the solution: no dexterity or whacking required!

As far as drawbacks, there isn't much to speak of, other than that you need to put it back the way it started properly: if you don't do it correctly it can be either trivial or tricky to get it back apart, depending on the error. Still, the odds of doing this accidentally are pretty low for an experienced puzzler (or a non-puzzler with some common sense). This is a great puzzle and I'm glad to see that it got some recognition in the competition.

Jury Grand Prize

Double G by Jinhoo Ahn is a puzzle that I was really looking forward to checking out. It looks a lot like a Hanayama Cast Puzzle-style design, and I'm a huge fan of Hanayama Cast Puzzles. It is a nice, hefty puzzle machined out of aluminum, where the goal is to separate the two pieces.

It would be pretty straightforward, but there are some annoying protrusions from the corners of the pieces that stop the obvious path toward separating them. The actual move sequence takes a number of moves, various rotations and such, that is fairly tricky. Once I started to get the hang of how to avoid the obstructions, I was able to get it apart without too much trouble.

I did like it, though I'm not sure I agree that it deserves a Grand Prize. The design does have a nice simplicity and elegance, as well as a fairly broad appeal due to these factors, which is probably why it did so well.

Smartegg by Andras Zagyvai is a very interesting sequential movement puzzle. The goal is to start with the stick on one end of the egg, and work your way to the other end. This seems easy enough when you look at the picture, but I assure you it is quite challenging!

The rod has nobs on either end, which restrict its movement, and the egg also has an inner core which rotates and moves up and down. The stick interacts with both the core and the external maze, resulting in quite a complex maze! I spent a good hour to solve this one the first time, and it took me another half hour to solve it a second time since I wasn't quite sure of exactly what I had done. To add insult to injury, multiple people told me that this is one of Andras' easier versions of this puzzle! I hate to think what a hard one would be like: it could keep you busy for quite a while!

The mechanics of this puzzle are quite interesting, he really takes it to the next level from a design perspective. There are lots of interesting moves to discover, it isn't all the same which is part of what makes it challenging. Also, the craftsmanship is superb, it feels great to play with.

The only drawback to this one that I can think of is the hidden-maze aspect: you can peer through the slots to try and figure out what the core looks like, but at times it feels like things are behaving a bit randomly. With persistence, puzzlers should be able to overcome this, but it could be a bit frustrating at first. Overall, a top notch puzzle and an excellent choice by the judges!

Puzzlers Award

Finally we come to the Puzzlers Award, which is awarded based on votes by all the attendees. This year, the Puzzlers Award went to Square in the Bag by Iwahiro (Hirokazu Iwasawa). It seems simple enough: put the square in the bag! Unfortunately, the bag is half the height of the square, so it really doesn't want to fit.

When I first saw a picture of this one, I had a guess about how it would be solved. It turns out I was correct about how it could fit in the bag, but actually getting it to fit in that way is the tricky part. Note that the square doesn't flex at all, and the bag isn't stretchy at all either. The fit is a bit tight at one point, but you wouldn't want it to be too much looser.

This is a great puzzle because it appealed to all skill levels, everybody wanted to give it a try and generally people had a good time with it. It has a "that's impossible" reaction when you first see it, which is fun. It would be a good one to carry around with you and show to non-puzzlers. With a bit of patience, most should be able to figure it out. For all these reasons, I can definitely see why it did so well!


Well, that brings us to the end of the awards banquet, and the end of my trip to the 2012 International Puzzle Party in Washington, DC. I hope you've enjoyed reading it! Up next, I'll be reviewing the rest of the eighty (!)  puzzles in the design competition!

IPP32: Awards Banquet (Part 1)

Sunday was a fairly leisurely day, I had a chance to sleep in for the first day in quite a while and went to the Spy Museum with Kellian. We checked out the Spy in the City experience, where they give you a little electronic device that guides you on a spy mission. It was fairly fun, but not quite challenging enough for our taste. Still, a nice way to spend an afternoon!

Before the awards banquet, we hung out for a bit in the lobby. I got a chance to try some new designs by Ken Irvine, which were quite enjoyable! Eric Fuller and Tom Lensch were taking orders to make some of Ken's designs, which is a real credit to their quality! Keep an eye out for them in the future. Here's a photo of William Waite playing with one of Ken's designs with Norman Sandfield and Kagen Schaefer.

At around 6:30 we headed in for another tasty buffet. This time rather than having everybody make a mad dash for the buffet (which resulted in long lines at the previous banquet), they sent us table by table, which was much more orderly. After dinner, we took our annual photo of all the puzzlers from the Renegade forum (photo by Jen Dantzer-Jackson, Neil's girlfriend):

Starting in the back left, we have Brian Young, Scott Elliott, Matt Dawson, Richard Gain, Nick Baxter, Brett Kuehner, Ken Irvine, George Syriaque, Brian Pletcher, Jim Strayer, Peter Wiltshire, Neil Hutchison, and Rob Stegmann. In the bottom row: George Bell, Eric Fuller, Allard Walker, Stephen Chin, Roxanne Wong, Jeff Aurand (lying down), Robert "Stickman" Yarger (brown cap), Gregory Benedetti, and Derek Bosch. Quite a good turnout among the Renegades!

Now for the competition results! A jury awards the Jury Grand Prizes, Jury First Prizes, and Jury Honorable Mentions. Puzzle party attendees also vote on their top five choices, and the puzzle that gets the most votes receives the Puzzlers' Award. Starting two years ago, they have also announced the Top 10 Vote Getters who weren't recognized with a Jury prize, which is a nice way of recognizing puzzles that a lot of puzzle party attendees liked.

Top Ten Vote Getters

Blind Burr by Gregory Benedetti was an interesting burr variation that had an unusual movement. I don't want to give too much detail on it since it would sort of spoil things if you knew too much. It is a challenge to solve without this information, you could spend a while spinning your wheels! It is very nicely crafted by Maurice Vigouroux, and fits together nicely.

From a design perspective this is an interesting puzzle, but it is definitely a puzzler's puzzle. If you gave it to an inexperienced puzzler, it could be pretty frustrating, I think. If you're looking for a challenge though, this is a fun one!

The Locked Room Mystery by Simon Nightingale is a puzzle box where the goal is to open the box with the key. Unfortunately, the key is inside the box! It has an interesting series of moves similar to a Karakuri box that I tried recently. However, the move sequence is more challenging, and the seemingly impossible nature of the puzzle makes it even more appealing. This is one I would have loved to get a copy of!

This is a nice one because it is pretty accessible, I think most people will be able to solve it if they stick with it for a while. There's nothing particularly sneaky about it (no whacking/shaking required), and you'll soon discover how it works, though actually freeing the key will take some persistence and systematic trial and error. One downside to this one is that the windows tend to scratch a bit with use due to the nature of the puzzle. One thing I really liked is the way the lock is actually used: it is a bit hard to tell how turning the lock will unlock the door, since there doesn't appear to be a latch! I heard that Simon was particularly proud of this little detail.

The Vault by Mike Toulouzas was one that I had seen on the design competition website and really looked forward to trying. It looked like a real beast, with its safe-like appearance. Fortunately, there are large keyholes on each side and the back, so you can peek inside to see what is going on! Without these, it would basically be a combination lock.

Because you can see the mechanism, I think most people will be able to get it open rather quickly. However, there is still a sense of accomplishment when it clicks open and you feel like you've cracked the safe!

Getting it open is only half the challenge! Once you get it open, a little spring-loaded piece pops out to keep the door from shutting, and you need to figure out how to close it. I was able to get it closed fairly easily...too easily in fact! It turns out that the spring-loaded mechanism was binding a bit, so I was able to cheat. A look at the solution revealed that a much more elegant solution was intended. It would have been much cooler if the binding issue was resolved so you really needed to figure out the ending. One other issue was that the weight of the door tended to tip the puzzle over on you when the door was open. Still an impressive puzzle: it had a neat mechanism and also looked fantastic! The craftsmanship was superb, and it was quite a fun one to solve!

Ze House of Mouse Ze Dong by Stephen Chin is a variation on Stephen's exchange puzzle to make it more challenging. The goal is to find the mouse hiding in the house. In this version, he added several additional sequential-discovery elements that make it a bit more challenging to get the mouse out of the house. Also, there are some electronics involved, as Stephen loves to do! When you stick your finger in the hole, the mouse starts laughing at you, which is pretty amusing.

This puzzle (and the exchange) has a nice little surprise built in, which will make it a fun one to show to friends. The solution is fairly challenging to find, particularly if you haven't solved the exchange version. One drawback is that the mechanism is a bit fragile: it is easy to jam up the mechanism inside the house, though it can be fixed if you poke around a bit. You also need to be careful not to poke through the little black bag that is inside the hole. This happened a few times to the competition version of the puzzle. Still, a fun little puzzle, despite the fact that it mocks you as you try to solve it!

Jury Honorable Mention

Heptagon 48 by Koshi Arai is a tray packing puzzle made out of marble, which is an unusual material for a puzzle. It worked nicely though, with the pieces fitting so well together to the point that they blended in with the edges of the tray.

The puzzle is based on the fact that heptagons (7-sided polygons) can tile the plane, though they leave pentagonal spaces as seen in the photo. I found the spaces to be pretty distracting, since I wasn't quite sure what the tiling would end up looking like. It would have been nice if they gave an example of what a heptagonal tiling with pentagonal spaces looked like, though I guess you could say that's part of the puzzle!

I found this one to be quite challenging, just because the geometry was quite unfamiliar to me. I wasn't sure what the pattern of pentagonal spaces would be like, so I soon got frustrated and peeked at the solution to see what kind of pattern I was trying to make. That helped a bit, but it was still quite challenging given the number of pieces.

I decided to make the challenge a bit easier by filling in a few pieces using the solution, and then trying to do the rest myself. Still, it was quite challenging! I needed to add a few more pieces from the solution before I was able to finish it on my own. If you enjoy this type of tray-packing puzzle with a fairly large number of pieces, then you might like this one, but I found it too challenging for my taste. The marble was quite nice though and it was an interesting tiling that you ended up constructing!

RotoPrism 2 by David Pitcher was one that I didn't really understand: I found three axes that would turn, but was only able to turn each 180 degrees. The directions noted that a 90 degree turn was possible, but I couldn't find it. After the awards banquet, I was speaking with Bram Cohen and he explained how to get to the 90 degree turn. He also explained that in order to enable this apparently simple twisty puzzle, there was some fairly complicated mechanics going on inside.

Unfortunately, I don't really know enough about twisty puzzles to really appreciate this one, though I'm sure it is quite impressive if the judges liked it! I played around with it a bit, but wasn't able to make much progress since I couldn't find the 90 degree turn.

Well that's all for now! In Part 2, I will go through the First Prizes, Grand Prizes, and Puzzlers Award!

IPP32: Washington DC Puzzle Party

Saturday was the day of the actual "puzzle party" where puzzles are bought and sold in a big room with tables. Again, I had to get up pretty early to make sure I didn't miss out on any of the good stuff! The room opened up at 9:00, and I was ready to go!

As you can see, the room was packed with folks rushing around and buying puzzles. First I did a quick sweep of the room to see if there were any Roger puzzles available, since they are pretty rare, but unfortunately there weren't any. After that, I had a list of puzzles that I was looking to buy, and went straight for those tables just in case they sold out. I was most interest in Perry McDaniel's latest petite four puzzle box, Hobbit Cake, so I grabbed a copy of that first. Then I headed over to get Sandfield's ReBanded Dovetails. Next, I went over to Brian Young's table to get his Washington Monument puzzle. Finally, I got a copy of Matt Dawson's exchange puzzle, A Plugged Well.

After I got those puzzles, I wandered around a bit more slowly to see what everybody was selling. I was pretty psyched to see that Rocky Chiaro was at the party: he machines some really cool puzzles out of brass. I have tried a number of his puzzles, but don't actually own any yet. Still, it was a pleasure to meet him and get a chance to see some of his puzzles that I hadn't been able to try yet.

In particular, I had a chance to try three of his secret-opening puzzles: Beer Stein, Ice-Bucket, and T-Pot. I started with Beer Stein and had a bit of trouble with that one. Eventually, I figured it out: it has a cute and fairly simple solution, but there are a number of red herrings that can distract you for a while.

T-Pot was the second one I tried, which I was able to open with a bit of strategic shaking the hell out of it. The actual solution is a bit more clever, though I think most will stumble their way to opening it rather than figuring out the proper solution the first time. Finally, I tried Ice-Bucket which was a bit similar to one of his other puzzles. I think Beer Stein was probably my favorite of this group. I didn't end up getting one, since it was $200, though that seems like a decent price considering the amount of work that must go into these puzzles. He machines each one of them personally, no CNC here!

Alan Boardman was also in attendance, who I also hadn't met previously. He is known for crafting particularly tiny and precise puzzles. While quite impressive, these don't quite appeal to me since they're pretty difficult to actually play with! What did catch my eye was a few normal-sized puzzle boxes that he had on his table. I spoke with him about them, and he said that they were based on Chinese puzzle-safe designs, and were prototypes to gauge interest.

I first tried playing with the one on the right, which has a similar mechanism to a commercially available box, though this  version is much better crafted and the mechanism is simplified somewhat. The middle one was also pretty simple, the moves were extremely well hidden but fairly standard. The one on the left was probably the most interesting of the set. It had similarities to a few puzzles that I had seen before, so it didn't take me long to solve.

They were a cute set of boxes, but unfortunately the expected price was around $700 each, which was a bit rich for my blood! I thought they were very nicely crafted, but I didn't find them to be particularly complex or interesting to the level that I would expect at that price.


I wandered around the tables a bit more, before heading out to grab lunch with Peter Wiltshire. We got some Chinese food to-go and sat outside the puzzle party room while we ate.

We started chatting with a woman who was sitting nearby, and she told us that she was really interested in puzzle rings. D=D= (pronounced Dee Dee) showed us an impressive selection of puzzle rings from her collection, a bunch of  Jose Grant rings, and a number of others. It was really neat seeing D=D='s enthusiasm: she was really quite thrilled by puzzle rings!

Unfortunately, she wasn't actually invited to the puzzle party so she wasn't able to go inside, but I suggested that she might want to chat with Bram Cohen, who has been doing some interesting work in the field of puzzle rings recently. I ran inside to get him, and he came out to speak with her.

They chatted for a bit about her collection and the work that Bram had been doing, and I suggested that Bram grab some of his new designs from Oskar's table, in case D=D= was interested in purchasing something. He came back out with a bunch of puzzle rings and started explaining some of the nuances of his different designs. Being an avid collector and quite interested in new designs, she bought two of each design! One for herself, and one for her even-more-serious-ring-collector friend, Dan Danzi! It was a lot of fun meeting her and talking to somebody so passionate and knowledgeable about a particular group of puzzles.

I headed back into the puzzle party to take another pass and make sure I wasn't missing anything. There were a bunch of other great puzzles, but nothing I really couldn't live without. Here's the full haul from the day, along with some other puzzles I acquired throughout the trip:

In the top row is Mini-Perplexus IPP32 DC (Tanya's Thompson's exchange), Washington Monument (Brian Young's exchange), A Plugged Well (Matt Dawson's exchange), and Mouse House (Stephen Chin's exchange). In the next row, New*T (Nick Baxter's exchange), Two Key Lock (Nancy Alliegro's exchange), Caged Coin (Norton Starr's exchange), Sway Cube (gift from Peter Wiltshire), Hobbit Cake by Perry McDaniel, ReBanded Dovetails (Robert Sandfield's exchange). And at the bottom is a cute magnetic puzzle by Jane Kostick that was given to members of the IPP32 planning committee. Not a bad haul!

After the puzzle party, I headed down to the design competition room for a while. When dinner-time came around, Kellian and I went out to eat with a bunch of puzzlers. We went to Mexican place that was pretty tasty. In the photo you can see Peter holding a Rubik's cube that shocks you when you try to turn it. I knew this, and it still scared the bejesus out of me when I tried it! I jumped out of my seat and dropped it, much to everybody's amusement!

After dinner, I dashed back over to the design competition room where I again camped out until around 2:00 AM. The puzzle party had been a lot of fun, but I'm going to need a vacation when I get back to catch up on my sleep!

IPP32: Puzzle Exchange and IPP Banquet

After a late night of puzzling, I woke up bright and early Friday morning for the Edward Hordern IPP Puzzle Exchange. In case you're not familiar with the Puzzle Exchange, it works like this: you bring a number of copies of a new puzzle (not commercially available before the exchange) and exchange it with everybody else for the puzzle they brought! So it is a great way to get a bunch of new puzzles for your collection. Usually people either make their own puzzles, or hire somebody else to make them specifically for this event.

This year, there were around 80 participants. I didn't participate this year, but I did assist Chris Morgan with his exchange. Each exchanger is permitted to have one assistant who helps him schlep his puzzles around and keep track of who he has exchanged with. While this might sound like a pain (it took about 5 hours), the upside is quite nice: it gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of people and check out all the puzzles in the exchange and see which ones you might be interested in purchasing later at the Puzzle Party!

They placed all of the puzzles on a table so you could get a sense for what was in the exchange. I took a number of pictures so you can see what was there. Some pretty interesting puzzles! In this photo you can see Bram Cohen's Holistic Ring, a puzzle ring that requires all the bands to move simultaneously when assembling or disassembling. To the left of the ring, is Tim Udall's exchange Open Window, where the goal is to take the four pieces out of the frame and put them back in. It was made by Tim, and designed by Tom Jolly.

Going around the table, you can see Cubes in Space, an anti-slide puzzle exchanged and designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro). The goal is to place the cubes in the hexagonal box such that the cubes won't rattle around inside the box. It is possible with both 12 cubes or 8 cubes, though 8 is much trickier. This puzzle was in the design competition last year. The red, white, and blue pieces near the bottom of the table are from Nick Baxter's New*T puzzle. The goal is to use the pieces to make three different sizes of the T pentomino. He was kind enough to give me a copy, so I look forward to trying it out. Thanks Nick! On the right hand side of the photo you can also see Tanya Thompson's exchange, Mini Perplexus IPP32, which was designed by Michael McGinnis, the inventor of the Perplexus. Michael incorporated various elements from the IPP32 logo, including the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building into the puzzle, which was very cool!

In this next photo, you can see a very large Washington Monument puzzle named Monumental Challenge exchanged by Andy Manvell. Below is Full Bloom, by George Miller where the goal is to arrange the white discs such that there are no gaps in the tabs as you go around the ring. To the right is George Bell's Lomino Cube 4, which had a number of goals to build things with the L-shaped pieces. Above the Washington Monument near the center of the table is Stephen Chin's Mouse House, a cute little puzzle where you're trying to find the mouse. It is a simplified version of his design competition puzzle. He was kind enough to give me a copy of this one, which I will definitely enjoy tormenting my friends with. Thanks Stephen!

In the bottom left of this next photo is Sandfield's ReBanded Dovetails exchanged by Robert Sandfield, designed by Robert Sandfield & Kathleen Malcolmson, and crafted by Kathleen Malcolmnson. I love puzzles by Sandfield and Malcolmnson, so I definitely wanted to try to purchase one of these at the Puzzle Party on Saturday! To the right is a sequential movement puzzle named Acrobat designed by Diniar Namdarian and exchanged by Goetz Schwandtner. The goal is to exchange the position of the two acrobats by rolling them around and twisting them, while avoiding the white holes. Above this puzzle is Pioneer Pyramid by Roxanne Wong, which is a variation that Roxanne designed on an old sequential movement puzzle. The goal is to roll the balls around to get them to match on each edge of the pyramid.

In the center of this photo you can see another collection of disentanglement puzzles by Markus Götz named More Serpentine Strings. This is a sequel to his previous exchange, Six Serpentine Strings. Above that is Matt Dawson's exchange, A Plugged Well, designed and made by Brian Young. The goal is to unplug the well and find the barrel of oil! That sounded like another interesting one that I wanted to purchase the next day. To the left and toward the center of the table somewhat is Try-Cycle Puzzle exchanged by Laurie Brokenshire and made by Vinco: it is a variation on his Flat Trick puzzle with some coloring constraints in the assembly.

In the center of the next photo you can see a grid-like puzzle in a plastic bag. This is String Rectangle by Saul Bobroff, where the goal is to wrap a string through the grooves in the grid, such that all the grooves are filled. I got a chance to test this one out for Saul a few months ago, and it was pretty fun seeing the different patterns that you could make! Below this is Perplexing Palace Puzzle by James Dalgety. The goal is to free the Queen by sliding the pieces around, but there are some interesting tricks in store (this was also in the design competition).

On the left of this next photo is a puzzle that looks like the Capitol Building named Capital Politics. The goal is to get the two red and two blue pegs to set evenly down into the building. When it starts out, the politicians are fighting and when you press one down, it pops the other one up. That fits quite nicely with the Washington, DC theme! To the right is a puzzle lock designed by Vesa Timonen and exchanged by Nancy Alliegro. It looked pretty neat so I planned to purchase one of these as well. Nancy said that it will be available from Bits and Pieces in November.

In this final photo we have a large puzzle presented by Allan Stein of Puzzle Master that looks like a hockey stick named Slap Shot Puzzle. The goal is to remove the puck from the stick. It will likely be available from Puzzle Master at some point in the future. Above and to the left is another puzzle that looks like the Washington Monument named Washington Monument by Brian Young. This was another one I wanted to try buying, since Brian creates some very unique and interesting puzzles.

Phew! If you didn't get tired reading that, I sure got tired typing it! But we're almost done for this entry. (Sorry to the folks whose puzzles I skipped, I don't remember the names of all of them.)

After the exchange, I headed to the design competition room where I bumped into somebody who happened to have brought in a copy of Lee Krasnow's Barcode Burr. Not only that, but they were afraid that it had jammed up and were looking for somebody to try solving it! I was pretty much beside myself, since this is one of the puzzles that I have always wanted to try: I love puzzles based on the Gray code (many puzzles are), and this one has particularly interesting geometry and just looks amazing.

The owner said that he was only able to get three moves, and wasn't sure if the fourth was possible. I tried for a little while and found it pretty easy to get the first three moves, but the fourth was very elusive, even though I knew what needed to be done. The really tricky thing about this puzzle is the way it moves: six of the corners pull away from center, but you can't really grip them to make this move. there is a small piece that runs through the center of the cube that you need to push on from the opposite side for it to pop out. However, the fit of this puzzle was darn near perfect, so it was quite difficult to find which piece needed to be pushed.

After a good while, I finally found it! Not only was the move well disguised, but it was also very stiff. Once I had that, it was fairly straightforward to finish the sequence of 64 moves (!) and remove the first piece. The puzzle disassembles completely, but given that dinner was coming up soon, I thought it would be best to quit while I was ahead. I carefully put it back together before heading off to the banquet, quite giddy that I finally had the chance to try a Barcode Burr! Check out this video review by Neil to see it in action.

The IPP Banquet was a lot of fun: the food was excellent and I had a great time chatting with the folks at my table. Kellian and I sat with Allard and his wife, Jeff Aurand, Jim Strayer and his wife, and Peter Wiltstire and his wife. There were two performances, both of which were magicians. I really enjoy magic, so I was looking forward to it. The first magician was clearly extremely talented, though it was a bit difficult to see and hear the performance even though it was projected on the screens to the right and left. The second magician also had some pretty impressive tricks, but the pacing was a bit slow for my taste.

After the banquet was over, you can probably guess where I went: back to the design competition room to continue working on those puzzles! I stayed up until around 1:30 again before finally heading to bed.

Up next, the actual Puzzle Party to buy some puzzles!