2023 Puzzle Design Competition Entries

2023 Puzzle Design Competition

Entries

The Design Competition Guide (same content: photos, instructions, and notes) is available here .

The following is a summary of the 62 entries in the 2023 competition (click on images for larger photos).

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

Al Bus Designer: Jordi Gallén Goal: The first goal is to find the wand. There are further instructions inside the trunk. The puzzle is solved when all the three goals have been achieved. Materials: PLA, TPU, magnets, steel, brass and paper Classification: Sequential Discovery Purchase: Contact the designer by . Printed on demand.
The aMAZEing PuzzleBox Designer: Peleg Saban Goal: To find a golden bar hidden inside using sequential movement. Materials: Original LEGO bricks Classification: 5.6 Purchase: Visit QuizBrix; $99 + $15 shipping; two color schemes
Another Broken Burr Designer: George Bell Goal: Assemble the puzzle so that the colors match. The finished appearance is six intersecting square sticks, each of a different color. Materials: PLA plastic Classification: [3.2] Geometric objects, INT-POLY Interlocking Purchase: Visit Etsy PolyPuzzles
Battery Operated Box Designer: Kagen Sound Goal: Open the box. Materials: Various hardwoods Classification: Take apart Purchase: Visit Kagen Sound
Bells Designer: Stephan Baumegger Goal: Put all parts into the box so that you can close the lid. Materials: Wood, brass Classification: (1.2) 3D assembly puzzles Purchase: Contact the designer by or visit Puzzleisure Facebook
Bookmark Box Designer: Kagen Sound Goal: Open the Box Materials: Cherry, walnut, holly, darkened walnut Classification: Take-apart Purchase: Visit Kagen Sound; multiple versions with different woods
Carl Sagan's Galactic Orgy Designer: Kris Antibus Goal: Disassemble the burr and have a blast doing it. Materials: Ziricote, Kingwood, Pau Amarello Classification: 3.4 INT-CART Notes: The burr is designed to be unusually stable in wild arrangements. Purchase: Contact the designer by . Price $125, production is not limited, produced in batches of 10.
Chained Lumbers Designer: Koichi Miura Goal: Pack all six lumbers and chain into the box and close the lid completely. Materials: Wood, stainless Classification: Put-together
Chaos Maker Designer: Hiroshi Yamamoto Goal: Place eight pieces in the biggest frame. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 2D assembly
Cherry On Top Designer: Brian Kaplan Goal: There are three steps to fully solve this puzzle: 1. Find the cherry. 2. Place the ice cream in the bowl so that it lies perfectly flat. 3. Place the cherry on top of the ice cream. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 2.2 Purchase: Contact the designer by . A small number may be available for sale.
Coin Wallet Designer: Koichi Miura Goal: Put the four coin pieces completely into the (rectangular area of the) wallet. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 3D Assembly
Cubicule26 Designer: Doug Engel Goal: Assemble a cubic structure, fully using all connectors. Materials: Plastic Classification: 1.2 3D Assembly (Slocum) Purchase: Contact the designer by or visit Etsy Puzzleatomik
Dial Case Designer: Junichi Yananose Goal: Open the box and reassemble it. Materials: Wood, bamboo, Metal Classification: Sequential Discovery (2.1 Trick-opening)
The Diamond Safe Designer: Stephan Baumegger Goal: Hide the diamond in the center of a symmetric burr. Materials: Wood, acrylic Classification: 3.2 Geometric objects Purchase: Contact the designer by or visit Puzzleisure Facebook
Fermat Meets Fuller Designer: Dr. Volker Latussek Goal: Pack six triangles into the restricted box. Materials: American walnut, merbau Classification: Packing
Flip Flop Designer: Eric Harshbarger Goal: Flip-flop the 4x4 arrangement of dots and achieve any of the following goals: (Easy): Both sides of the puzzle displays four dots of each of the four colors. (Medium): Additionally, on both sides no two dots of the same color should be adjacent (rank and file) to one another. (Hard): Additionally, on both sides each row and column should contain only one dot of each color. Materials: PLA, steel Classification: Slocum 5.6 Purchase: Contact the designer by . $75 + shipping; manufactured on demand.
Four Noble Truths Designer: John Opsahl Goal: Open the box, guided by the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. Materials: Wood, metal, and magnets Classification: Slocum 2.1 Trick or Secret Opening Puzzles
Gem Designer: Osanori Yamamoto Goal: Assemble three pieces fully inside the frame. Materials: Wood Classification: Interlocking
Hatching Designer: Roman Liu Goal: Open the block and discover the eaglet (off-spring). Materials: Stainless steel, iron, titanium alloy, magnet Classification: Take -Apart
Heart and Arrow Revised Designer: Esko Anttila Goal: Both the hearts and the arrow are solid uncut pieces of plywood. How was it made? Materials: Plywood (birch and mahogany a walnut stand) Classification: Slocum 10. Impossible Puzzles
Hex Flex Designer: Kagen Sound Goal: Open the box. Materials: Maple burl, ziricote, English sycamore Classification: Take apart
Hide Designer: Kohno Ichiro Goal: Hide the cube with three pieces, and with the following conditions: Each of three pieces must touch two sides of the cube. The finished work is symmetrical in shape. Materials: Rosewood, ebony Classification: Put-Together Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Hinge Cube Designer: Shin Fujita Goal: Manipulate the flexible geometric structure to create the desired shape. Materials: ABC, polyester Classification: 3D Geometric objects
Hive Stars Hotel Designer: Alexander Magyarics Goal: Put all five pentahex pieces into the tray: 6 spacing challenges Put all five pieces into the hive: 3 symmetry challenges Place four out of five pieces: 2 bonus challenges Materials: PLA Classification: 2D assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by for 3D print version, or visit NothingYet Designs
Identical Shapes Designer: Emrehan Halici Goal: Two challenges: Put the two pieces together to obtain a symmetrical shape. Put the two pieces together to obtain a non-symmetrical shape, so that the resulting shape can be cut into two identical pieces. Materials: Plastic Classification: 2D Assembly Notes: The pieces can not be flipped or overlapped.
Jigsaw 16 Designer: Yuu Asaka Goal: Put all the pieces into the frames. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 2D Assembly Purchase: Visit UTTO-PUZZLE
KARAKURI Packing Designer: Yasuhiro Hashimoto Goal: Pack all five pieces and two pins completely into the box. Materials: Wood Classification: 3D Assembly Purchase: Visit PUZZLE of MINE * WEB-SHOP
The Last Piece Designer: Gregory Moalic Goal: You must solve a jigsaw puzzle with just one piece remaining—but it always pops out! Materials: Poplar wood Classification: OTH-MAGI Purchase: Contact the designer by . $20-30.
Lock in Roll Designer: Taisei Moriya Goal: Pack the four padlocks completely inside the cylinder. Materials: Plastic, brass, iron Classification: 3D Assembly
Medousa Designer: Pantazis Houlis Goal: Place the 24 snakes on the Medousa board such that all colors match at the four connection points of each snake. Materials: Paper, PVC, plasticized paper Classification: 1.1 2D Assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by . Limited edition of 100; also available at the Megisti Puzzle Museum.
Mini Pack 3 Designer: Osanori Yamamoto Goal: Build the apparent 3x3x2 block into the box. (The opening of the box is completely filled and any empty space is hidden within the box.) Materials: Wood and MDF (color print) Classification: Interlocking
New 15 Puzzle Designer: Haym Hirsh Goal: Starting with the numbers 1-15 in order but with the 1 and 15 tiles swapped, slide the tiles to get the numbers correctly in ascending order. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 5.3 Sliding piece puzzles Notes: There is no number 8 tile; it is etched in the base.
Oceanside Designer: CBD(Cao Baoduo) Goal: Make a flat shape that can be divided into two congruent shapes. There are (58 + 1) solutions. Materials: PLA Classification: 1.1 2-Dimensional assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Peeking Designer: Shih Yu Chung Goal: Pull out the cylinder. Materials: Wood (mahogany), magnet, metal ball, acrylic Classification: Trick opening Purchase: Contact the designer by . Price $60-70 + shipping via PayPal
Pickagram Magnetized 3D Art Puzzle Designer: Gilryong Song Goal: Create geometric forms with the magnetic 3D tangram pieces. Each card gives challenges in four categories (point, line, shape, and form) of varying difficulty. Materials: ABS plastic, and neodymium magnets Classification: 1.2: 3D assembly puzzles -Non-Interlock Purchase: Visit PICKAGRAM; $29 or $199 for 7-color set
Picolock Designer: Boaz Feldman Goal: Open the lock Materials: Brass and stainless steel Classification: OPN-LOCK Purchase: Visit PUZZLOCKS
Pin-Up Box Designer: Lucie Pauwels Goal: Pack all pieces inside the box and fix with the pin so that nothing drops out when you hold the box upside down. Four pieces have a pin-hole, each giving a solution. Materials: Jatoba, wenge, bubinga, maple Classification: 1.2 3D assembly
Play-Girl 2 Designer: Alexander Magyarics Goal: Put all the pieces into the box and completely fill both openings. Materials: Pink oak, wenge Classification: 3D Assembly Purchase: Visit Pelikan Puzzles
PoopLock P1 Designer: Mickael Simonetto Goal: Find the hidden treasure. Materials: PLA, brass, magnets, springs, metal Classification: Sequential Discovery (2.1 Trick opening)
Ripple Designer: Kyoo Wong Goal: Disassemble and reassemble the three mutually interlocked pieces. Materials: Zinc alloy Classification: Take-apart
Round Designer: CBD(Cao Baoduo) Goal: The ball always rolls to one half when it is placed freely on a smooth and flat surface. Try to make it stay on the opposite half. Materials: UV curable resin, graphite Classification: 6.4 Miscellaneous dexterity Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Six Blocks Away Designer: Goh Pit Khiam Goal: Pack the six identical blocks into the box. Materials: Box: white oak, katalox; Pieces: chakte vega Classification: Put-together
Skiff Designer: CBD(Cao Baoduo) Goal: There are three identical sets of three pieces. Use each set to make a different flat shape that can be divided into two congruent flat shapes. Additionally, use all the pieces to make a regular hexagon. Materials: PLA Classification: 1.1 2-Dimensional assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by .
Slide Swipe Designer: Haym Hirsh Goal: Solve eight challenges, each requiring the insertion of selected polyomino pieces into the tray. Materials: Bocote and acrylic Classification: 5.3 Sliding piece puzzles
Solomon's Trinity Designer: Kate Jones Goal: Move three pawns in sequence to add stones on the Star of David board spaces and fill all spaces. Other goals also included. Materials: Textured cardstock grid, marbles, wood pawns Classification: Sequential movement Purchase: Visit gamepuzzles; price $35 for laser-engraved vinyl
Space Burr Designer: Boaz Feldman Goal: Arrange the magnetic burr pieces within the cage, so that they do not contact with one another. Materials: PLA Classification: 1.1.3 and also 6.6.4 (Slocum) Notes: Utilize the supplied spacers to accomplish this task.
Spacing Out Designer: Peter Gal Goal: The booklet contains more than 100 challenges of five different types. The unusual feature here is that the problems do not refer to the shapes to be filled out but to the empty fields. Materials: Paper, wood, rubber Classification: 1.1 2D assembly
Strugg L Designer: Junichi Yananose Goal: Take out the pieces from the box and put them back in their original positions. Materials: Wood, bamboo Classification: 3D Packing
Stuffing Burr Designer: Dr. Volker Latussek Goal: Assemble a shape where all the notches are filled. Materials: Purpleheart Classification: Put together
Supernova (Four Color Problem 36P) Designer: KUMIKIYA (Ueda Harunobu) Goal: Initial state is a stellated octahedron, with one color for each face Assemble a regular octahedron and four regular tetrahedrons (three colors for each face) Assemble the stellated octahedron, but with three colors on each face Return to the initial state Materials: Nylon plastic Classification: Interlocking Solid Purchase: Contact the designer by or visit Kumikiya
Surround2 Designer: Kohno Ichiro Goal: Surround the cube with six parts, so that all magnets are engaged and the final shape is stable. Materials: Rosewood, ebony, oak Classification: Put-Together Purchase: Contact the designer by .
3D Symmetric Silhouette Designer: Yuji Shimamura Goal: Assemble the three pieces into various shapes with mirror symmetry. Materials: Wood Classification: ASS-CART / 1.2 3D assembly Purchase: Visit PUZZLAB
TIC Vault Designer: Andrew Crowell Goal: Open the vault and find the ID number/prize. Materials: PLA plastic, magnets Classification: Sequential Discovery / Interlocking
ze Tooth Fairy Puzzle Box Designer: Stephen Chin Goal: Perform root canal surgery to open the drawer. Materials: Wood, choppers, junk Classification: Slocum 2.1
Trapped Bird Designer: Koichi Miura Goal: Free the bird. Materials: Acrylic, MDF Classification: Take-Apart
Triturn6 Designer: Doug Engel Goal: Assemble a complete geometric form. Materials: Plastic and magnets Classification: 1.2 3D Assembly (Slocum) Notes: Each piece has two pairs of magnetic connectors. Purchase: Contact the designer by or visit Etsy Puzzleatomik
Tube in Cube Designer: Dr. Volker Latussek Goal: Place the eight logs into the box. Materials: Elm, bubinga Classification: Packing
23 Designer: NothingYetDesigns Goal: Pack the four pieces fully into the frame. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 2D Assembly Purchase: Visit NothingYet Designs
Ultimate Snowflake Designer: William Waite Goal: Fit the pieces in the tray. Materials: Maple and walnut Classification: 2D Assembly Notes: The tips of each snowflake fit into the sides of the adjoining snowflakes: four types of tips and four types of sides. Purchase: Visit Puzzle Mist
Walter's Radio Designer: Dee Dixon Goal: Remove the DED chip to deactivate the radio Materials: Wood, glue Classification: Sequential Discovery Purchase: Visit DEDwood Crafts
WDIGMI Designer: NothingYetDesigns & Tanner Reyes Goal: Fit all seven pieces fully into the frame. Materials: Acrylic Classification: 2D Assembly Purchase: Visit NothingYet Designs
Yes U can Designer: Frederic Boucher Goal: Place the pieces on a flat surface, then cover completely the Y-shaped piece with the five U-shaped pieces. Extra challenge: Assemble the six pieces in a 3x3x4 shape so that no holes pass completely through the shape, in any of the three axes. (Covering the Y-shaped piece does not matter.) Materials: PLA Classification: Slocum 1.2 : 3-Dimensional Assembly Purchase: Contact the designer by .