2011 Puzzle Design Competition
Entries

The Design Competition Guide (photos, instructions, and relevant notes) is available here.

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: Ł13. 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.

 


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