Blockistry

I suspect that the first time I saw this puzzle was among the 2020 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition entries – but sadly due to the pandemic we didn’t get to play with it at an IPP – I suspect that if I had I’d had bought myself a copy a while ago!

It popped up on my Facebook feed and then one or two folks mentioned it was worthwhile, so I duly ordered myself a copy and a few days later one of the reputable delivery companies dropped off a copy at a nearby convenience store for me…

I’m a big fan of clever packaging that shows off a puzzle and this one definitely fits the bill – the cut-out on the lid shows a nice view of the bits inside while also alluding to the overall shapes of the pieces.

Inside you’ll find four identical wooden pieces with some sides painted black and some left natural wood, there’s a little white felt backdrop for positioning pieces on and a booklet of challenges…

Try and resist the urge to examine the way they pieces are shipped and just tip them out – if you don’t, you’ll spoil your first challenge – each challenge takes the name of an element and they get progressively more and more “interesting”, as you’d expect.

I found I could work my way through quite a few of them and then I’d need to stop and Think (c) a bit every now and then as the solutions seemed to almost change gear and use different sorts of solutions – which is great for keeping puzzlers on their toes!

There are definitely a bunch of them that required quite a bit of a Think (c)… and if you do want to check your answers (although it should be pretty clear form the relative sizes and shapes of the black and natural wood in the challenges that your answers are correct) the Blockistry website has a set of solutions available behind a password.

An excellent set of puzzling challenges in a handy format… with a bunch more challenges via the Blockistry Mastermind Facebook group.