2011 Puzzle Design Competition Entries

The following is a summary of the 72 entries in the 2011 competition (click on images for larger photos).

All designs are copyrighted and are the intellectual property of the designer. All rights are reserved.

16-Axis Knockout Sticks Designer: John M. Kostick Goal: Use the 30 smaller multi-colored sticks to surround the metal star in a rhombic triacontahedron space. Use the 30 longer sticks to build a dodecahedral frame. Use 90 smaller sticks to build a shell around the shown figure. Materials: Silicon bronze, wood, magnets Classification: Put-together Purchase: See www.kosticks.com or contact the designer by .
1more Puzzle - Triangle Designer: Lucie Pauwels Goal: Make a large triangle and other figures with the eight pieces. Materials: Wood Classification: Put-together Notes: Pieces sizes are sequential, from 1 to 8 units.
4 Piece Burr Cube Designer: Osanori Yamamoto Goal: Assemble the four identical pieces into the frame so that none of them sticks out. Materials: Wood Classification: Interlocking Purchase: Contact the designer by .
4 Steps Visible Lock Designer: Robrecht Louage Goal: Remove the coin. Materials: Trespa, Acrylic, steel balls Classification: Secret opening box Purchase: Contact the designer by .
7 Pieces, 4 Squares Designer: Emrehan Halici Goal: There are four challenges: Use four pieces to make a square Use five pieces to make a square Use six pieces to make a square Use all of the pieces to make a square. Materials: Plastics Classification: Put together
Abyss Designer: Pantazis Houlis Goal: There are two solved configurations, (1) the external cube is black, and the internal cube is yellow, and (2) the external cube is yellow and the internal is black. The goal of the puzzle is to go from one solved configuration to the other. Materials: Steel telescopic rods, plastic tubes, plastic colored connectors Classification: Sequential movement Notes: This puzzle is based on the well known 4D structure hypercube, and moves between the 3D projections of the hypercube. Purchase: Limited copies may be made, ONLY by request (at least five copies are needed to be ordered by the same buyer or different buyers to ensure all correct materials are purchased and for time efficiency). The price will be US$450 per unit excluding postage. Contact the designer by .
Albis Box Designer: Albert Gübeli Goal: Put the 5 pieces into the box. Materials: Wood Classification: ASS-POLY Purchase: 12 made in wood signed and numbered, $120. (Number 9 and 10 are avaible and the 2 from IPP 2011, without signature and number). Contact the designer by
Ambigram Burr Designer: Gregory Benedetti Goal: Disassemble and reassemble. Materials: Wood: wenge, padauk, robinia Classification: INT Purchase: Puzzle can be ordered via www.puzzlewood.de, or contact B. Schweitzer by . There was only a small batch produced.
Ampelmann Designer: Roman Götter Goal: Place the six Ampelmen in the upper part of the traffic light so you can see a red figure (red light). Place the six Ampelmen in the lower part of the traffic light so you can see a green figure (green light). Materials: Acrylic Classification: 2D put-together
Berlin Wall Designer: Thomas Atkinson, Kate Jones Goal: Assemble the 24 blocks to form a wall, 4 bricks high and 21 bricks long. Materials: Lasercut maple blocks, solid hardwood Classification: Put-together Purchase: Limited edition of 10 wood sets, handcrafted to order. Cost: $100. Not shown on our website -- order directly from the designer by . A two-dimensional lasercut acrylic set is being produced for release in Fall 2011 under trademark "Hopscotch".
Bishop Cubes Designer: Forrest Bishop Goal: Transform the arrangement of the 27 cubes from one shape to any other shape, without disengaging any of the cubes from each other. Cubes must be shifted by sliding along their faces. Materials: Plastic Classification: Sequential movement Purchase: See www.bishopcubes.com or contact by . Price: $29.95. Less than 500 of this model will be produced.
Breakfast Egg Designer: Vesa Timonen Goal: Take apart, and put together. Materials: ABS plastic Classification: 3.2. Interlocking geometric shapes Purchase: Available at Shapeways.
Carpenter's Rule Designer: Kelly Snache Goal: Find the hidden clues to the code, then open the secret compartment to find the treasure inside. Materials: Century pine, mahogany, miniature copper hammer, metal tent peg, rare earth magnets Classification: Take Apart Notes: Ornamental hammer is an original Cracker Jack prize from the 1930's; treasure is a wooden Stanley #36 folding ruler. Purchase: Contact the designer by . Cost: $700 with shipping included. Edition of 25 puzzle boxes, limited by the rarity of the Vintage Folding Rulers. Deposit: $350 CDN.
Cola Glass Designer: Tom Lee Goal: Remove the yellow string from the purple string (without untying knots or cutting string). Materials: Ready-made glass, wooden bead, string Classification: Disentanglement Purchase: Contact the designer by . Price: US$60 (not include the postal fees). Four made.
Cube Art Designer: Durandus Dijken Goal: Position the magnetic blocks on the magnetic plate and make a cube and get the same four colors on each of the six sides of the cube. There are three solutions (as hinted in the plate diagrams). Materials: Plastic, sticker foil, magnets Classification: Put-together Purchase: The puzzle can be purchesed at www.cube-art.com. The price is 12.95€.
Cube&Cubes Designer: Laurence Grenier Goal: Arrange the chain links to create a single image. Materials: Plastic Classification: Sequential movement
Cubes in Space Designer: Iwahiro (Hirokazu Iwasawa) Goal: Problem 1: Pack 10 cubes into the box so that no piece can slide in any direction after the lid closed. Problem 2: Pack 8 cubes into the box so that no piece can slide in any direction after the lid closed. Materials: Acrylic (Box), ABS (Pieces) Classification: 1.2 3-D Assembly
Curly Cube Designer: Vladimir Krasnoukhov Goal: Take the cube apart, and put it together. Materials: Oak wood Classification: Take-apart The wooden version can be bought from Grand Illusions, or from the designer by . The metal version of the puzzle can be ordered from PuzzleMaster.ca.
Daedalus Designer: Gregory Benedetti Goal: Disassemble and reassemble the cube. Materials: Marblewood, aluminum Classification: Interlocking Purchase: Contact the designer by . A small batch of ~10 pieces produced in marblewood. A small batch of ~20 pieces produced in other wood.
Diamond in the Frame Designer: Kirill Grebnev, Alexei Kanel-Belov Goal: Take six cubes with magnets and one cube without magnets to create a single, interlocking, symmetric figure. Take 12 cubes with magnets and seven cubes without to create a single, interlocking, symmetric figure. Materials: Natural wood (beech), magnets, paint Classification: 3.6 Miscellaneous interlocking Purchase: Please visit my web page: http://puzzle.palyn.ru/.
Dino Cylinder Cube Designer: Li Chung Man Goal: Rotate groups of pieces to restore the original shape and color pattern. Materials: Plastic: ABS Classification: Twisty puzzle Notes: This has the Dino Cube movement with an improved mechanism, which will jumble due to its cylindrical shape. Purchase: This is the first time mass production cubes are made with outline stickers. Price: US$ 18.00. It will be a small quantity selling on eBay, and some puzzle shops.
Dog Head Designer: Diniar Namdarian Goal: Each disc shows the silhouette of an object. Stack the discs so that the silhouette of a shepherd dog’s head becomes visible. Materials: Black Acrylic 3mm Classification: Put together Puzzle 1.1 Purchase: Cost: 15€. Contact the designer by .
Double Gear & Wheels Designer: Namick Salakhov Goal: To remove the gear by rotating and shifting it up and down inside the frame. Materials: Acryl, steel Classification: Sequential movement Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Drunken Dancing Fraulein Designer: Stephen Chin Goal: Open the box and find the small top and diamond inside. Materials: Wood, magnets Classification: 2.1 Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Equal7 Designer: Vladimir Krasnoukhov Goal: Arrange the dice so that on each face the number of dots is 7. Additional challenges: Arrange the dice so that on each face the number of dots is 10 (easy), 11 (medium), 12 (medium), 8 (hard), or 9 (hard). Arrange the dice so that the total number of dots everywhere is 62 (easy), 34 (hard), or 88 (hard). Materials: Transparent polycarbonate Classification: Sequential movement Purchase: The puzzle can be ordered from Recent Toys. Small quantities are also available from the designer by .
Fan-2n Designer: Dimitar Vakarelov Goal: Remove the string from the wire. Materials: Nickel-plated 3mm wire, rope, plastic ring, plastic beads Classification: Topological disentanglement Notes: Techniques for solving Fan-2 and Fan-4 are used to solve Fan-6. Purchase: Contact the designer by . Only limited number of hand-maded puzzles are available.
Flemin' Designer: Shiro Tajima Goal: Open the shell then find the secret compartment. Materials: Cherry, rengas, mizuki Classification: Take-apart Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Four to Square Designer: Jacques Haubrich Goal: Fit the four pieces flat within the tray. Materials: Stainless Steel (AISI type 304) Classification: ASS.STRA Purchase: A few copies are still available. Contact the designer by .
Fracture-10 Designer: David Pitcher Goal: Scramble the puzzle by making random moves of the various slices, using some 90 degree turns when possible. Restore the puzzle so that each side shows only one color. Materials: Selective laser sintered (SLS) nylon, vinyl stickers Classification: Sequential movement Notes: This puzzle turns on five different axes, all located at the vertexes around its equator. Each axis can turn in increments of 90 degrees, if not blocked by bandaged pieces. Purchase: Fracture-10 is available from the Shapeways Pitcher Puzzles Shop.
Granny's Tea Box ~ Granny's Hammer Designer: Kelly Snache Goal: Remove the top through a sequence of seven moves. Materials: Vintage Tea Box, walnut, poplar, maple Classification: Take-apart Notes: Once the lid has been removed, the internal locking parts can be taken out to view the entire inner workings of this puzzle box. Purchase: Contact the designer by . Cost: $175 each; 25 units available.
Grid Sticks Cube 8 Designer: Sándor Bozóki Goal: Build a cube. Reward goal: put the assembled cube on the stand! Build a cube which has faces with letters B, E, R, L, I, N. Build two cubes Materials: Beech sticks and stainless steel pins (no glue!) Classification: Interlocking 3.6 / 3.2 Purchase: See www.matches.hu or contact the designer by .
Groove Cube Designer: Eitan Cher Goal: Scramble the cube and then solve it such that it fits perfectly into the colored shell. Materials: 3D-printed nylon, Eastsheen 2x2x2 Classification: Sequential movement Notes: Though the solution algorithms remain the same as a normal 2x2x2, the challenge lies in determining the solved state. Each type of groove can hold multiple shapes of bumps: the rectangular grooves can hold square bumps, rectangular bumps, triangular-prismatic bumps, and cylindrical bumps, as they all have the same cross-section in at least one direction. Some bumps are also placed ambiguously, so certain pieces could go in multiple places. However, there is only one solution that has all the grooves filled perfectly by bumps. Purchase: Purchase as a DIY kit at my Shapeways shop. Cost: $50.
Horrible Hexagon Designer: Ton Delsing Goal: Slide pieces from start position (shown) to make a complete hexagon. Materials: Acrylic Classification: Sequential movement, sliding pieces, restricted route Notes: Movement along the central column is restricted by small piece that alternately blocks the top or bottom segments.
House with Trees Designer: Hiroshi Iwahara Goal: Open the cover of the box. Materials: False acacia, walnut, magnolia, angsana, keyaki, zebrawood, ichii, acrylic board Classification: Trick-opening
Ice-9 Designer: David Pitcher Goal: Scramble the puzzle with a few random rotations. After this the goal is to restore the puzzle to the solved state, with one color on each side. Materials: Selective laser sintered nylon and vinyl stickers Classification: Sequential movement Notes: This puzzle turns on six different axes. The three axes going through the four-sided vertexes can be turned in increments of 90 degrees, and the three axes going through the diamond-shaped faces can be turned 180 degrees. Purchase: Ice-9 can be purchased from the Shapeways Pitcher Puzzles Shop.
Judge's Gavel Puzzle Designer: Mike Toulouzas Goal: Remove the ring. Materials: Handle: lignum vitae, ebony, bocote; head: mahogany, dark oak; ring: dark oak Classification: Take-apart Purchase: Only 7 Judge's Gavel are made for now. See www.puzzzlevision.com or contact the designer by .
Kernel Designer: Sam Cornwell Goal: Take apart and re-assemble. Materials: Mahogany and oak Classification: INT-CART
Knot for You Designer: MINE (Mineyuki Uyematsu) Goal: Disentangle the four parts. Materials: Walnuts, wood beads, cotton cord, brass ring Classification: Disentanglement Purchase: Available ONLY in Japan at PUZZLE of MINE * WEB-SHOP .
Lost L Designer: Kohfuh Satoh Goal: Arrange the three pieces (without overlapping) to make an L shape. Materials: Polyvinyl chloride board Classification: Assembly
Magic Domino Designer: W.G.H. Strijbos Goal: Start with the pieces as shown. Remove the light dominos, then arrange the pieces so that the dark dominoes fill all of the dark holes. Remove the "Magic Domino" spacer. Slide the 11 squares so that the all light dominoes fill the light holes, and the spacer is returned to its original position. Materials: Wood Classification: Vanishing, sequential movement Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Moscow Ball Designer: Dmitry Pevnitskiy, Sergey Grigoriev Goal: Disassemble and assemble. Materials: Wood (nut) Classification: 3. Interlocking Solid Puzzles, 3.2 Geometric objects Purchase: See www.ru-puzzle.ru or contact the designer by .
MT5T (Make the 5 Tetrominoes) Designer: MINE (Mineyuki Uyematsu) Goal: Make five tetromino silhouettes: arrange the four dark pieces so that five holes are completely filled by the light pieces. Materials: Natural wood (wenge, walnut), MDF Classification: 2-D assembly Purchase: Available ONLY in Japan at PUZZLE of MINE * WEB-SHOP
NOBOX Puzzle Designer: Simon Nightingale Goal: Lock the box, and then unlock it. The starting/unlocked state is with the boxes separate and no loose internal parts. The goal/locked state is with the small box inside the larger box (enclosing the internal space) and again with no loose internal parts. Materials: Mahogany Classification: Secret locking and unlocking puzzle
Pack Berlin Designer: Abel Garcia Goal: Pack the 14 pieces into the box. No piece may project above the lip of the box. Materials: Pieces: bocote; box: bloodwood Classification: 1.2 3 Dimensional Assembly Puzzles – Non-Interlocking Notes: This puzzle was designed with three goals in mind: all pieces of the same thickness, unique solution, and difficult or impossible to solve using puzzle-solving computer software. The puzzle incorporates the “missing area” principle into a 3-D box-packing puzzle. Purchase: Two sizes of the puzzle will be available until supplies are exhausted: (a) standard size with pieces and box made of walnut, and (b) double-scale (2x) size with pieces and box made of exotic woods. The 2x size have (1) Bocote pieces and a Bloodwood box.
Puzzle Gift Box Designer: Allen Lin Goal: Open the box. Materials: Red oak, birch, magnet and iron rod Classification: Trick-opening
Quadratum Cubicum Designer: Christian Blanvillain Goal: Assemble all 68 pieces into one cube. Select a subset of pieces that can be assembled into either three small squares or one larger square. There are nine sets of pieces with this property (one shown). Assemble all 68 pieces into one square. Materials: Puzzle: Plexiglas; tray: MDF; box: mixed MDF and Plexiglas Classification: ASS-STRA Purchase: See QuCub order page.
RAT Designer: Kohno Ichiro Goal: Construct the rat body using the letters R, A, T. Materials: Torreya wood Classification: Interlocking Purchase: Contact the designer by . Price is US$60.
Ring Case Designer: Osanori Yamamoto Goal: Assemble the four pieces into the frame so that none of them sticks out. Materials: Wood Classification: Interlocking Purchase: Contact the designer by .
riZidity Designer: Bram Cohen Goal: Assemble the 12 wooden pieces in the box so that when you shake it the pieces do not come loose. Materials: Acrylic, MDF veneer Classification: ASS-CART Purchase: See ponoko.com.
S in Bloom Designer: Gregory Benedetti Goal: Use the eight dark petals to make an S inside the frame. Materials: Nylon 12, selective-laser-sintered (SLS) Classification: Silhouette puzzle Purchase: Models will be available at shapeways.com.
Shift Pole Designer: Albert Gübeli Goal: Scramble and unscramble the pieces, using the two shells to guide the movement. Materials: 24 nylon faces, 2 Acrylic shells, 24 magnets, iron sphere Classification: SEQ-RT3D Notes: The 24 face pieces are held in position by magnets. The figure will shape-shift if you rotate by hand without the aid of the shells. Purchase: 4 Prototypes; cost: $ 200. See www.albinegri.ch or contact the designer by .
Simple Solid Ring Maze Designer: Yuta Akira Goal: Starting from the position shown, free the ring from the cage. Materials: Stainless steel, wood Classification: Disentanglement
Sliding Put Together Puzzle Designer: Ton Delsing Goal: Put the 15 pieces in the tray to construct the digits 1 through 9 in numerical order. Then slide the pieces to form a magic square (you must first determine how this magic square can be constructed). Materials: Acrylic Classification: Put together and sequential movement. Notes: The solution starts with a hint, showing the form required for each digit.
Snake Cube Designer: Hideaki Kawashima Goal: Remove one panel to find the secret compartment. Materials: Walnut, maple, angsana Classification: Take-apart
Spin Designer: Tom Lee Goal: Remove the metal tube from the string. Materials: Stainless steel wire (3.5mm), string, wooden bead, and metal tube Classification: Disentanglement Purchase: Contact the designer by . Price: US$30. Four made.
Spinnomotto Designer: Stephen Chin Goal: Find the three steps to open the box and find the small top inside. Materials: Segmented wood, magnets, electronics Classification: 2.1 Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Spiral-n Designer: Dimitar Vakarelov Goal: Remove the string from the wire. Materials: Nickel-plated 3mm wire, rope, plastic beads Classification: Topological disentanglement Notes: Techniques for solving Spiral-2 (or Snail-2) are used to solve Spiral-4. Purchase: Contact the designer by . Only limited number of hand-maded puzzles are available.
Spots Designer: Steve Kemp Goal: Place 8 magnetic tiles on each face of the base cube so that there are 1 through 6 spots shown on the six faces. However, unlike a standard die, the spots are positioned asymmetrically. Materials: Polystyrene, tin plate, plastic film, card, magnetic rubber Classification: PAT-EDGE/1.3
Superstrings Designer: Richard Gain Goal: Take the two pieces apart and reassemble them to fit back inside the box. Materials: Selective laser sintered polyamide cube, acrylic box Classification: Interlocking/disentanglement Purchase: This puzzle can be purchased from Shapeways for under $50. Unlimited quantities will be available as the puzzles are printed on demand.
T+3 Designer: Hiroshi Yamamoto Goal: Arrange the three pieces to make a T pentomino. Arrange the three pieces to make three more pentominoes. Materials: Acrylic board Classification: 2-D Assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Tea Time Designer: Victor Lam, Kazakh Wong Goal: Remove the wooden cube from the spoon and string. Materials: Wood and rope Classification: Disentanglement Purchase: Contact the designer by . Price: US$20.00. Quantity produced: 10.
Three-Cornered Deadlock Designer: Hideaki Kawashima Goal: Open all the lids at the same time. Materials: Magnolia, cherry, walnut, maple Classification: Take-apart
Tick Box Designer: Sam Cornwell Goal: By sliding, disassemble and reassemble the puzzle. Materials: Recycled rahmin Classification: SEQ-SL2D
Tornado Designer: Pantazis Houlis, Arcady Dyskin, Alexei Kanel-Belov, Elena Pasternak, Yuri Estrin Goal: Place the four tetrahedrons inside the frame so that no piece is loose. There are at least two different solutions. Materials: Frame: walnut; various hardwoods for the tetrahedrons Classification: Slocum: 1.2, 3-D assembly Purchase: See www.puzzlewood.de.
TriPenTile Designer: Péter Gál Goal: Fill the holes in the book or solve tiling problems as described in the attached booklet. Materials: Paper, plywood, synthetic leather Classification: 1.1 2-D combinatorial assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Triple Mosaic Designer: Wim Zwaan Goal: Fill the tray with three different mosaics: with 9, 6 or 4 black squares. Materials: Box: bubinga; pieces: wenge, maple Classification: 2-D assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Twelve Piece Burr Ball Designer: George Miller Goal: Take apart and put together. Materials: Double-sided tempered hardboard Classification: 3.2 Interlocking geometric object Notes: There is only one way to solve this puzzle, taking advantage of the slight flexibility of the hardboard.
Twisted-8 Designer: David Pitcher Goal: Scramble the puzzle by making random turns on various axes. Now the goal is to restore the puzzle to its original shape, with all faces showing a single color. Materials: Selective laser sintered (SLS) nylon, vinyl stickers Classification: Sequential movement Notes: This puzzle turns on 10 different axes. The eight axes around the equator turn 180 degrees, while the two axes at the four-sided vertexes can turn in 45 degree increments, allowing for shape-shifting. Purchase: Twisted-8 is available from the Shapeways Pitcher Puzzles Shop.
Wandering Chain - Three Rings Designer: Ede Gergényi Goal: Remove the chain and put it back. Materials: Wire, chain Classification: 4.2, or 4.3 Wire with non-rigid element Purchase: Contact Péter Gál by .
WAY Designer: Volker Latussek Goal: Create free-standing circuits (with no beginning or end) by connecting pieces by joining circular faces. Sample puzzles: Build a free-standing circuit using 2 L's, 2C's, and 1 S. Build a free-standing circuit using 2 L's, 3 C's, and 1 S, where only one L touches the table surface. Place all 18 blocks into the 6x6x1 box. Assemble all 18 blocks into a 3x3x4 block. Materials: Oiled beech Classification: Put-together Purchase: See www.ahmes.de.
Xmatrix Cubus Designer: Jeremy Goode Goal: Navigate the ball from the gold frame into the opposite silver frame and back again. Materials: Acrylic box, GPPS internals, steel ball Classification: Route-finding/dexterity Purchase: Purchase: Price: £13. See www.xmatrix.co.uk
Zen Designer: Carbriel Lai Goal: Remove the rope. Materials: Acrylic, rope and metal ring Classification: Disentanglement Purchase: Contact the designer by . Cost: US$30. Quantity: 10.