IPP38 Puzzle Design Competition Entries

Here are the entries for the IPP38 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition. 

A total of 67 entries from around the world. A lot of interesting and unique designs from this lot.

Profile Of Nob

http://puzzleworld.org/DesignCompetition/2018/

IPP37 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition

Update 24 October 2017 - Dear Reader, please check out my new puzzle blog and e-store at http://mechanical-puzzles.com

IPP37 this year in Paris, France drew 66 entries from all over the world to the Puzzle Design Competition. The entries are found here. Congratulations to all the award winners and top-10 vote getters.

Below are some photos of IPP participants hard at work on the 66 entries that were laid out on tables for all to have a go at during the 3 days of the IPP.

Tetro-Billes

Two years ago, I received a copy of Tetro-Billes, courtesy of its designer and my good friend Frederic Boucher. Billes in French means "small balls"....

Tetro-Billes was entered in the IPP35 Puzzle Design Competition by Frederic and is classified as a 1.1 2-Dimensional assembly puzzle. In common puzzle terms, I would consider it as one from the pattern matching category of puzzles. 

Frederic, who lives in Japan, is a pretty prolific designer and does not just design a particular genre of puzzles but his scope is quite varied (and interesting), ranging from exotic wooden 3D packing puzzles like the Marble Cake and Artefacts to Impossible Objects like Smiley In A Bottle and stuff in between such as his dexterity puzzles like Pyramida and Manholes 55 and a couple of burrs here and there.

Now back to the puzzle. I had kept it away for about two years since 2015, forgot about it and only recently re-discovered it and decided to give it a go. The puzzle consists of five wooden pieces (made of Japanese Beech) each containing blue and yellow marbles held in holes drilled into the wood. Quality of construction is very good and the marbles all fit tightly without fear of falling loose (although Frederic indicates that they can be removed and changed about for other sorts of challenges...which I didn't try for fear of damage)

The object of the puzzle is assemble the pieces so that the marbles form five different tetromino shapes - three in blue and two in yellow, with two solutions. Sounds rather simple doesn't it? considering its just 5 pieces to move around on a flat surface. Well I couldn't be more wrong. I spent several sessions over a few days before I discovered what I thought was the solution and happily shot an email to Frederic (which I usually do when I solve his puzzles or when I need help). Or at least I thought I did. Frederic reverted to say that while I have 5 tetraminos, two of them are identical (the yellow marbles). The photo below shows a solution, but its not THE intended solution.

I then spent another good several sessions over two days trying to figure this one out...but thus far have been unsuccessful. The time I allotted myself for this puzzle had exceeded so I decided to throw in the towel and look at the accompanied solution. Sigh...I was close but not quite there.

For anyone wanting something different to challenge your wits or if you are interested in any of Frederic's puzzles mentioned above (and mind you he may even have new ones that I am unaware of), PM me and I will link you up him. Perhaps he might just have a copy or two lying around available for sale.

3 Pentagons

This past weekend, I played with Japanese puzzler/designer Koshi Arai's 3 Pentagons. The object of the puzzle is to lay the pentagon shaped (5 sided) pieces on a flat surface and form a symmetric shape. 

For this puzzle, there were not one but three solutions and Koshi had in fact (generously) shown one of the symmetric shape solutions on the instructions that came with the puzzle. The task is figuring out the remaining two. 

This is the 1st symmetrical shape solution provided by Koahi Arai

3 Pentagons was not only Koshi's IPP34 Exchange Puzzle but he also entered it for the Puzzle Design competition. His exchange version is finely made of an exotic (dark) wood (cocobolo?) and all the pieces precisely cut. 

Unless you know the meaning of "symmetrical shape", you won't even know where to begin. There are typically two types of symmetrical shapes possible, one is mirror or line symmetry and the other is rotational symmetry. In most (if not all) of these symmetrical shape type puzzles, usually the object is to find a mirror/line symmetrical shape, which is the case here.

It took me several sessions over two days to find the two solutions. What makes the puzzle so difficult is that the three pieces are pretty similar in shape (and size) to each other and this sets up a huge number of possible combinations for joining the pieces side to side; yet only three symmetrical shapes exist. What an incredible design! I am very sure there is some complicated mathematics to all this but sorry folks, I am not capable of explaining any of it here...all I know is that I tried all sorts of ways to put the pieces together and eventually got the results I wanted.

Overall a very challenging puzzle indeed and a good thing that Koshi revealed one solution at least! If anyone wants to know the other two solution shapes, please contact me via my blog email.

9 Blocks Box & 9 Blocks Cube

Update 23 October 2017 - Dear Reader, please check out my new puzzle blog and e-store at http://mechanical-puzzles.com

I thought I would start my 401st post here with a brief mention of the above two puzzles, which lucky me, has been made into four different versions with four different sizes. First off, the 9 Blocks Box; this is a design I did in late 2015 which was produced several months later by Eric Fuller in a limited edition run of 50 copies for sale. 

From Left: 9 Blocks Box (made by Eric Fuller), 9 Blocks Box (made by Frederic Boucher),
9 Blocks Cube (made by Eric Fuller) and 9 Blocks Cube (made by Tom Lensch)

 The 9 Blocks Box comprised of a rectangular box and the object was to fit 9 irregular shaped pieces into it. It has a unique solution. I spent a fair amount of time trying to design all the blocks to be different from each other but in the end, I could only managed to do so with 7 of them while two of the pieces had to remain identical.

Eric's version of the 9 Blocks Box was small and constructed to fit a pocket. I think small is a bit of an understatement; it was Lilliputian. Each puzzle measured a diminutive 3.4 cm all round! Made of Holly, Zebrawood and Macassar Eboy, it was rather cute and certainly didn't go unnoticed, which saw all 50 copies sold out within a day after it was listed on his site. He also fashioned the box to have a cover that "locked" magnetically to keep the pieces in place (even in an unsolved state; quite clever I must say) and dimensionally the shape also became more of a cube as opposed to the original rectangular design.

A couple of months later, my puzzler friend Frederic Boucher made a limited run of just 5 copies (of which I received #1). He also upped the ante by machining the 9 pieces in gorgeous aluminium. Frederic's version was a real beauty and came with a wooden box with slanted corners and packaged in a plastic container to boot. He too, as I understand sold out all his copies after pictures of it were posted on Facebook. 

9 Blocks Cube made by Eric Fuller 

Sometime later, Primitivo Familar Ramos from Spain took my design and scaled up the original rectangular box to result in a cube. As a consequence, he was also able to resize the 9 blocks such that now, no two pieces were identical. We jointly entered this version, the 9 Blocks Cube for the IPP36 Nob Yoshigaha Design Competition in Japan last year. 

The first working copies of the 9 blocks Cube produced for the competition were crafted by Tom Lensch. Our competition puzzle was huge! Each cube measured 12.6cm x 12.6cm x 11.4cm. Heavy and rather difficult to lug around. The box was made of Maple while the pieces Mahogany. We didn't win any prizes at IPP36 but this modified design again attracted Mr Fuller, who subsequently went on to produce 150 copies which formed the first release of his "Limited Edition" series via his upgraded website. Eric's interpretation of the 9 Blocks Cube was made of Maple, Walnut and Purple Heart with a much more manageable size of 7.3cm cube. As of the date of this post, there are still copies available at a very affordable US$37.

Magiq #8 & Tango 72

For this year's IPP36 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition, I submitted two entries. One was my own design (the subject of this post) while the second was a joint entry with fellow puzzler Primitivo Familiar Ramos, which I shall write about at a later date.

START

My first entry was called Magiq#8 and the goal (as can be seen from the photos) is to re-arrange the 5 pieces and change the #8 to a #0. Saying "abracadabra" would certainly help! I didn't manage to win any prizes...but hey, its the participation that counts right? 

Although this year's design bears some resemblance to my entry at last year's IPP competition, the "69", the Magiq#8 is totally different in terms of the solve. My design was expertly crafted by Tom Lensch and consists of exotic woods comprising walnut, holly, shedua and yellowheart. Construction, fit and finish is excellent and I particularly liked the perimeter trim added by Tom to the top edge of the box.

SOLVED STATE

Its not as straight forward a packing puzzle as one might expect and there is a trick to it. No spoilers so I shall not say anymore. What's the difficulty level? I can't say as I have not received any feedback so far, although puzzler Marc Pawliger did casually mention to me in the competition room that he found it quite devilish... If anyone is keen to purchase a copy, please contact Tom Lensch via his website to check on availability. 

My Exchange Puzzle is "Tango 72". This year, I designed a sliding block puzzle consisting of 5 pieces, 4 of which are identical. Like most sliding puzzles, the goal is to rearrange the pieces from a starting position to an end position, while only moving the pieces (left, right, up and down) within the tray. 

START

END

Here the end result is to form the words IPP36 from a scrambled state. It takes a minimum 72 moves to arrive at the final solution. I tried to make my design accommodate an additional but easier challenge with fewer moves, but somehow didn't quite manage to succeed. Tango 72 is made from 3mm laser cut acrylic and I have a couple of copies left for sale if anyone is interested.

Cast Lock

The Cast Lock is one of Hanayama's recent offerings and based on the 2014 IPP34 award winning competition entry design "Cassette" of Jin-Hoo Ann from Korea. 

Shaped like a small padlock, the puzzle measures about 4.3cm x 3.1cm x 2.1cm. It consists of 4 aluminium pieces of which two "elongated" rings with notches form the shackle while the other two form the body of the lock. The objective here is to dismantle the lock into four pieces and put it back together again. Quality of construction, fit and finish is very good and there is certain "looseness" of the puzzle which I believe is intended for easy movement of the pieces. While the rings can swivel around the body of the lock pretty easily, the disassembly is anything but that.

I don't have many Hanayama cast puzzles in my collection and for those that I own, I have managed to solve most of them without any help (well, I don't have many of the really difficult ones anyway!). But sadly, this lock eluded me despite several days of on-off playing. I managed to get past what I would consider the second stage and thereafter remained stuck. And stuck for a long time. Finally I threw in the towel and checked out the video solution which some kind soul had placed on YouTube. Looking at the movements which are serial and sequential in nature, I would not have been able to solve the Cast Lock on my own. The number of twist and turns and precise moves required to un-shackle the lock is pretty confusing and mind-boggling to say the least.

This is a very difficult puzzle to take apart and Hanayama rates it 5 out of 6 stars (I think it should be a 6 out of 6). It has stumped quite a number of puzzlers since it came to the market but I know of one puzzler, blogger Kevin Sadler who has managed to solve it. Check out his review here. 

Jin-Hoo Ahn has really designed a gem. As I looked the individual pieces, they don't look that complicated but yet the sum of the four parts result in a very challenging puzzle requiring a lot of effort to solve. This is one of those prime examples of "less is more"? If you want a really difficult take-apart puzzle, the Cast Lock is one that will provide a lot of value for money. Outside of Japan, its presently available from PuzzleMaster of Canada.

Stumbling Blocks

Goh Pit Khiam has done it again, winning another Jury's Honourable Mention in this year's IPP36 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition for Chain Store. Last year at IPP35, Goh had 2 Honourable Mentions; for his Road Blocks and Number Blocks. Aside from Chain Store, Goh also attained a Top 10 Vote Getter for his Stumbling Blocks, the subject of this post.

At first look, Stumbling Blocks looks very much like Road Blocks; physically they are about the same dimensions at 4" square and consist of a box tray with wide edges and four pieces to be inserted into the centre square hole of the tray as the objective. As you can see from the photo, there are channels constructed inside the box so its not a simple matter of trying to fit the pieces in like the typical packing puzzle. The box is Maple and the pieces Jatoba. Made by Tom Lensch, my copy has excellent build quality, fit and finish. All the pieces fit snugly and nicely. And there is no need to use any force for this puzzle.

For those who have solved the Road Blocks, you may think you have some clue as to how to solve Stumbling Blocks; well possibly. However, the solutions for both puzzles are totally different and Stumbling Blocks has IMHO a tad more elegant solution. A solution I might add that is quite characteristic of Goh's design style. Those of you acquainted with Goh many puzzle designs, especially the packing ones will know what I mean. Perhaps because I have played with a number of Goh's puzzles and familiar with his style (and tricks) that I didn't find Stumbling Blocks too difficult. But this is not to say that Stumbling Blocks is easy as I saw quite a few IPP attendees pouring themselves over the puzzle at the judging table without much success.

If you are interested in a nice well made packing style puzzle with just 4 pieces, topped off with a more than moderately difficult challenge and a unique (unusual) solution, Stumbling Blocks may just be the puzzle for you. For serious collectors, a definite must-have!

Both Stumbling Blocks and Chain Store are available from Tom Lensch.

Of Symmetry And Shapes

This weekend's puzzle play consisted of Symmetrick from Vesa Timonen of Finland and Four Triangles Five Shapes from Emrehan Halici of Turkey. 

Symmetrick

Symmetrick was a Top 10 Vote Getter during the IPP33 Puzzle Design Competition in Japan. It was also Vesa's exchange puzzle during IPP32 the previous year. In case you didn't know, vesa is a very prolific designer with a number of Hanayama Cast puzzle designs to his name.

Comprising of just two irregular shaped pieces made of Finnish Curly Birch wood in a raw finish, the goal here is to form a symmetrical shape. The instructions are clear....to place the two pieces on a flat surface to form a symmetrical shape...no tricks, no silhouette, hole in centre and the like.

One would wonder how difficult can that be with just two pieces right? Wrong...it is in fact a rather difficult puzzle, more so if you don't even understand what a symmetrical shape refers to. 

During IPP33 itself, I had already seen quite a number of puzzlers in the competition room trying to figure this one out.... and many couldn't solve it even by the end of the event. All round it received a lot of positive comments. I took about a couple of hours before hitting the jackpot. Please PM me if you would like to see the solution...it's really quite unexpected.

Symmetrick IMHO is really an example of a great puzzle design, so simple and innocuous looking with just two pieces, yet very challenging. For those who love this sort of shape forming puzzles, its a must have. Available from Mr Puzzle Of Australia and Sloyd of Finland.

Four Triangles Five Shapes

This puzzle came courtesy of Emrehan Halici. I had a privilege of meeting Emrehan the second time during IPP35 in Ottawa last year and his Four Triangles Five Shapes (FTFS) was his exchange puzzle to me.

The FTFS is made of 3mm red laser cut acrylic. The four pieces comprise of four triangles of different shapes. Nicely cut and pretty large pieces so easy to handle.

There are five different tasks here (hence the name "five shapes"). Using all the triangles to make the following shapes:-

1. 3 different Pararellograms

2. An Isoceles triangle

3. A Square

I was able to make just one of the parallelograms, the isoceles triangle and the square...or so I thought. I shot an email to Emrehan for the solutions to the other two parallelograms and when he replied I was in for a shock; I had only gotten the square correct!

How difficult is the FTFS? Well, I only managed to solve one of the five shapes, despite just four pieces. I would rate it as very challenging indeed. As this one is an exchange puzzle, it's only available from the designer (assuming he has any left), so please PM me if you would like to get a copy and I will link you up with Emrehan.

Ladybird

Name
Ladybird

Designer
Robrecht Louage. Designed in 2014. For his other puzzles including his IPP31 award winning 4 Steps Visible Lock, click here.

Manufacturer & Availability
Produced in collaboration with collector Michel Van Ipenburg. There may still be some copies available from either gentlemen. PM me if you are keen to get a copy.

Type & Classification
Sequential movement; route finding.

Dimensions
16cm (incl the antennae) x 11.5cm x 1.5cm

Materials & Construction
Acrylic, tespa, steel screws and a 1 Euro coin. Construction fit and finish is excellent and all the parts move smoothly with no jamming. 

Overview

Robrecht is very well know for his "remove-the-coin" maze puzzles. And the best part is when you buy one of his puzzles, you get a 1 Euro discount! 

Unlike his other trapped coin puzzles, the Ladybird ups the ante in terms of sophistication of design and aesthetics. This time Robrecht encapsulates his puzzle within a ladybird design. 

Another main difference is that the Ladybird allows for some visibility of the maze route, hence you can see and feel your own progress. However, the Ladybird is no easier because the puzzle involves a double layer maze.

The goal is to navigate two pins (connected to the two antennae) along both maze channels, by manipulating the two maze plates either clockwise or the opposite. Upon successful completion, you are rewarded with the 1 Euro coin that leaves through the circular cut-out on the top cover.

Difficulty

Moderate difficulty but tricky at times. The starting steps gives you a feel of what you need to do. I found that somewhere about a fifth along the way, If you do not get both pins in their right respective positions within the maze channels, you will find yourself stuck much later on and this would require an almost full backtrack. If you are lucky and get it right near the beginning, navigation becomes quite a breeze for a majority of the way. It took me a couple of attempts and one or two backtracks to finally extract the coin. 

Overall a fun puzzle and one of those that once you pick it up, you won't want to put it down until the coin comes out. Done correctly, it doesn't take too long to solve and reset. A really beautiful and interesting looking puzzle.