Hey Puzzlers!

Here is my entry into the Summer Puzzle-Building Competition.

Groove Cube

VIDEO!
SHAPEWAYS!




The video explains it all. This puzzle is incredibly difficult, though not quite as difficult as Eric's (gingervergo's) Child's Play. I was able to do the first layer pretty easily, but the last layer is rather diabolical, as it's easy to lose track of where you are, since the whole thing is white. I ended up looking at my CAD drawing to solve the last layer this time, so that I could have the solved puzzle in the video. I'll try it again before Nationals, though.

I am currently working on trying to develop a good color scheme that doesn't change the difficulty at all (i.e. doesn't give anything away about the solution). <== Very hard to do... Any ideas would be welcome.

I'll post some more pictures in the competition page later today.

Enjoy!

-π (Eitan)

Awesome!

I suggest coloring each individual bump according to shape, and leaving the underlying cube white. One way to do that would be to print the cubies with holes in them that the dyed bumps can snap into, but that would require a completely different redesign. Alternatively, you could have it printed in color, but that would add to the cost substantially.

Interesting that both you and Eric made puzzles with non-standard identification of goal states.

As for coloring, it would be cool if you colored the pieces differently according to their shape profile. Examples:
Circle - Red
Triangle - Yellow
Square - Blue

Then, when coloring a face, do it according to all the colors of it's profiles. Examples:
Sphere - Red
Cylinder - Purple
Pyramid - Yellow
Triangular Prism - Green

Also apply the colors to the grooves in the cover. This should help you identify were pieces can go more readily but shouldn't give it away like a normal stickering would do.

Of course after thinking of this I realize that there's 4 shape profiles so this won't work. Maybe you could do black for the 4th channel?

That seems like quite a tough cube!
I don't think you should color it, unless it is the complete cube that is dyed.
Would it also be possible to make different shells for this same cube, so there would be different challenges?

That is an awesome idea! I'm going to make sure I can solve this one first, then I might try that out!

-pi (Eitan)

I have now made the puzzle available on Shapeways!

If you order this puzzle, be sure to PM me so that I can send you the information necessary to correctly assemble the puzzle.

-π (Eitan)