Answers From The Void – Sixmetry

There is something appealing about a packing puzzle with identical pieces.  I think it has to do with the initial assessment done by the subconscious mind where it realizes that it has less shapes to deal with and throws a couple of dopamine chits your way.  And yes, fewer shapes does equate to less complexity, which in many cases results in easier.

Sixmetry is a 3D packing puzzle designed by David Goodman and made by Vinco.  It was used by Patrick Major at the 41st International Puzzle Party as his exchange puzzle.  The puzzle consists of 6 identical wood pieces that need to be packed in a 4x4x4 wooden box.  Each piece consists of a 2x2x1 board attached to a 2x3x1 board.   The pieces consisting of 10 voxels each only use 60 voxels of the 64 voxel box leaving 4 of them unoccupied.

Even without the clue in the name, I would have guessed that the solution would be a symmetric shape.  In fact with 4 empty voxels in a 4x4x4 box, I assumed we had a Slothouber–Graatsma situation brewing here.  Don’t google that if you want to avoid spoilers.

There are a lot of puzzles that fall into this category.  A lot.  So many!  And after so many, when you are presented with one of these, you basically know where the empty voxels are located, which simplifies determining the solution.  And this allowed me to solve Sixmetry in about 5 minutes.  I’m sure it would have taken a lot longer if I hadn’t know the positions of the empty voxels.

And extra points for Vinco for providing the non-solution packing configuration on the instruction sheet.

Easy As – Duck Soup

How many puzzles can you say are as easy as duck soup and be completely correct irrespective of the person attempting to solve it?  Well this one’s Duck Soup for everyone!

Duck Soup was developed by Guy Loel and David Goodman and entered in this year’s International Puzzle Party (IPP) Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition.  Although it didn’t win any awards, I thought it was one of the top stand-out puzzles in the competition.  It was well-themed, well-made, and a good challenge.  

There are 2 goals: the ultimate goal and a waypoint goal for encouragement.  The waypoint goal is to make a bland soup by packing all 7 ducks in the pot without the bouillon cube (with the lid closed of course – no legs hanging out of the side of the pot like in the kitchen).  If and when you accomplish that, you can add the bouillon cube to the pot as well for the ultimate soup experience.

No names for the ducks were provided so I’m going with Rufus, Pinky, Chicolini, Bob, Gloria, Vera, and Zander.  I managed to pack these 7 ducks into the pot in the IPP41 design competition room without the bouillon cube.  It was enough of a challenge to realize that I wasn’t going to obtain the ultimate goal at IPP if I wanted to spend time enjoying the many other puzzles in the competition.

When Duck Soup became available on Nothing Yet Designs, I grabbed a copy as soon as possible.  Continuing the theme, the puzzle arrives in a takeout box with everything you need to successfully make Duck Soup – a pot complete with lid, 7 ducks, and a bouillon cube just to spice things up a bit.  You don’t have to worry about the ducks making a mess.  The bottom of the box is filled with hay.  All the pieces are 3D printed and they are very well-done.  As well-done as the design competition version was, these are weller-done.  The ducks are so cute, who wouldn’t love them.  And the pot, most amazing pot ever!  Love that fuzzy skin.  However, I do have to say that I miss the magnets that held the lid on the pot in the competition puzzle.  Having 3D printed a few puzzles myself, I completely understand avoiding embedded magnets and I feel the tradeoff with the other enhancements like multicolor printing was worth it.

Working on getting that bouillon cube to dissolve in the pot at home, I think I discovered most of the 180 solutions of organizing the ducks in the pot without the bouillon cube.  And of course it was just as easy to add the bouillon cube and leave out Rufus (who was very grateful by the way).  

I failed to make the ultimate Duck Soup over several days.  The ducks were just not cooperating and free-ranging in my living room.  Did I mention that there is only 1 proper way to make Duck Soup?  At some point I stopped and decided that I needed to think like a duck.  If I were a duck, how would I cozy up to other ducks to waste the least amount of space.  Once I figured that out, it was Duck Soup!

The IPP design competition has so many great new puzzles designs that they can’t all be given a prize.  Duck Soup is one of those gems.  If you want one of your own, you can get it from Nothing Yet Designs when it is in stock.

Not ducks were harmed in the making of this blog.