First, we had to
John McClane
Pack Hard.
Later, it was time to
Pack Harder.
The Puzzles resisted and we had to
Pack Hard with a Vengeance.
It still wasn’t enough and we asked ourselves if we should
Live Free or Park Hard
Finally, it’s a Good Day to Pack Hard
Coin Wallet, Perfect Entrance, 3L x 2
Designed by Koichi Miura, Produced by Mine
Packing puzzles, as a genre, can be quite diverse. All the great artisans have produced great examples of this fact: Stephan Baumegger, Yavuz Demirhan, Tom Lensch, WoodWonders, Pelikan… PuzzleMaster has 173 tray and 3D packers right now and NothingYetDesigns is an excellent curator of both 2D and 3D packers. RobsPuzzlePage is still loading all of its numerous examples 🙂
There are a number of designers whose names have been or should be written on these pages – I think even Osanori Yamamoto may have somehow managed to completely evade me thus far (except for a great(?) moment in my parody of Baby Got Back). Another that seems to have escaped my serious gaze thus far is Koichi Miura. Most of my puzzles by him have been beautifully produced by Mineyuki Uyematsu (MINE) and an excellent trio of puzzles recently added to my collection serve as great examples.
Coin Wallet
Coin Wallet is a restricted entry 3D packer that consists of 5 multi-coin pieces and a “wallet” in which to place them with a restricted opening at the top. MINE has done an excellent job of producing the coins, apparently not such an easy job to do: there are three layers of “coins” inside and the yellow pieces are 3 and 1 vs. the white’s 2 and 1. Placing any three coins inside is trivial but that fourth one….. it seems like it should be easy but, as with many a good packing puzzle, it just isn’t.
After a good amount of trial and error, getting to know the pieces and what allows what, I began to get a sense of how these would fit together and what needs to happen to allow them to do it. Still, the temptation to try and force the pieces kept rearing its ugly head until I stepped back and really thought about how this will work. That’s a big part of a good packing design imo – logic and reason will ultimately win out over trial and error, getting you over the finish line after t&e gets you past almost all the hurdles.
There is something so satisfying about finding how that last piece goes in, ultimately smoothly and without any trouble or resistance, once it is done correctly, that is.
Perfect Entrance
Perfect Entrance’s has two sets of identical pieces with a frame that will allow any single piece easy access in its front entry. A finger hole in the back helps with removing the pieces, which you will likely do many times before successfully solving it. Again, getting three of the four pieces is simple but that fourth one…
I had originally solved this one at IPP41, where it had been entered into the puzzle competition. It was in the top-10 for the Puzzlers’ Award, earning universal praise as far as I could tell. Fortunately, my terrible memory meant that re-solving it was a non-trivial exercise when my own copy arrived a few weeks later.
Although it might seem that PE could perhaps be solved just through trial and error (there are only so many permutations that are possible), there is more going on than just order. Any anyway, that is both time-consuming and not all that fun – rather, stepping back after some experimentation it is possible to see how the second layer of pieces might be permitted entry. With an aha!, I saw how it must work and lo and behold that last piece was no problem at all; everything fits perfectly when you know what needs to be done. So very satisfying to feel that aha! become reality.
3L x 2
3L x 2 is another Miura/MINE puzzle, this time featuring two sets of three identical pieces that must fill a frame with a restricted entry – what really sets this apart is the moving panel that allows alternating entry into either side (but not both at the same time). This one took me much longer to solve; perhaps it was the extra pieces or the moving piece that slowed me down. Regardless, I would struggle with this one for quite a while, trying and failing a number of ideas after the experimentation phase ended.
I love packing puzzles with dynamic elements (see my still unsolved Everyday Holiday puzzles by Yavuz Demirhan) and 3L x 2’s sliding entry adds some intrigue to the puzzle, making for something particularly tricky. I spent a LOT of time on this one – there are a good number of possible builds but it becomes readily apparent that many of them will simply not be possible.
Once I had a good sense of what would and wouldn’t work, I spent a long time trying different builds outside of the frame, attempting it inside when it seemed like I had a lead. Eventually one last aha! hit and I was able to get that last piece in! Huzzah!
Packing Puzzles are a great example of how something that seems so simple can pose a particularly problematic puzzling experience. Stay tuned as there might just be a day when we need to Pack Hardest (or something).
Puzzle Ramblings 