Congratulations to Katsuhiko Okamoto for winning the Jury Grand prize at the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition at IPP 2007

http://www.puzzleworld.org/DesignCompetition/


Oscar

Sweet!!!


Oh look what else was on that page!



Secret of Atlantis

Goal: This puzzle has two sides, and each side has a specified solution state. The goal is to go from one solution state to the other and back. ; One solution state (on the one side) shows a picture of two Corinthian columns, and the other solution state (on the other side) shows the picture of a volcano looking at the capital of the city of Atlantis.

Materials: Transparent square plastic tiles with diagonal grooves, connecting strings, and paper tiles inserted between the plastic tiles.
Classification: 5.6 Miscellaneous sequential movement puzzles

Notes: The puzzle is based on the mechanism with square tiles and strings that is used on the Rubik's Magic. A critical difference is that this puzzle uses an odd number of tiles. It is because of the odd number of tiles that this puzzle can never become flat. And it is the same reason that there is no shape-parity, giving the puzzle approximately double the combinations of other even numbered-tile puzzles.


Congrats to Katsuhiko and Pantazis!

Ah, and the Bevel Cube!

Congratulations to all participants! It looks like there were a lot of very interesting puzzles there. Extra congratulations to the Void Cube! It is truly an amazing puzzle...

I am at the airport now, waiting for my flight back home. It has been some AMAZING three days! Everything has been perfect, and it was organised perfectly!

I will describe my experience and share some nice photos tonight... now I must declare around 80(!!!) puzzles to the customs LOL

Take care all of you, wish you all a great day!




Pantazis


PS. I voted for the void cube and the bevel cube, and I am glad another twisty puzzle wins the award! GO TWISTY PUZZLES!!!
PS2. I can't type properly with this airport internet computer LOL

This is an incredible achievement for Katsuhiko who has now have an award winning puzzle 2 years in a row. The puzzles were judged by an international panel of famous designers and puzzle collectors.

Congratulations to Pantazis for his Secret of Atlantis, another great example of a new puzzle from this comunity. Pantazis has taken the Magics and elevated them to higher levels.

I encourage people who design puzzles this year to enter the next competition in Prague.

I will have a puzzle or two in the competition next year. Hopefully I will give Katsuhiko some friendly competition.

Congratulations to Katsuhiko for creating the category of "Seemingly Impossible Twisty Puzzles". The puzzles he made, and won with, show that he thinks beyond what is impossible, and than builds it.

Pantazis has shown that he is exceedingly clever in the way of the Magic. I am looking forward to his PantaFlip entry next year.

Okamoto-san well deserved this!
He took puzzle building to the next level of designing his own internal mechanisms!
Incredible and groundbreaking.
I absolutely love his puzzles.
Well done!
Vadim

the void puzzle...
now i KNOW that the revolution could of been made to twist!

Congrats to him! the void cube is indeed awesome.

First of all, I want to say that it was an incredible experience.
It cannot be described with photos, videos or words.
You really really have to be there to understand how I feel right now.

All the people there, were so friendly, so humorous, and so smart.
I had never been to a puzzle party before, and suddenly, there I am,
joining the best of all!!!

If you have ever seen the movie "Short Circuit", at some point, Johnny 5
escapes
and goes out to the real world, where he almot had a data overflow...
That was exactly how I felt!!!

I didn't want to sleep for a minute, and I was so exhausted when I returned home,
that I slept 18 hours straight!!! I will be posting 7 or 8 parts with photos...!
(Please be patient as I have very little time available right now!)



Part 1: First Amazing Impressions at Mr Puzzle's Home!






Wooden puzzles!!!



The crystal maze (made of a few thousand pieces) came from a star trek movie!!!



Mr Puzzle's Twisty puzzle collection!



And in case you haven't noticed... FIVE Dino Cubes!!!



All puzzle were very nicely displayed.



Some puzzle locks...



More classic puzzles...



... and more wooden puzzles!!!



Mr Puzzle himself!



This one's is for David Litwin! I met Stan, and he gave me the Dino Cube Box,
while I fixed his Flexible Hexagon during dinner without tools, just using my hands!



More parts to come soon!




Pantazis

Wow! Great pics! I can't wait for the rest.


AND YOU GOT TO MEET BRIAN YOUNG!

I'm very envious!! I love his puzzles! My other half of my puzzle collection consists of his Burrs

More pics!!! (Part 2 & Part 3 together!)




Playing with a "ball in maze puzzle". The goal is to carry the entire labyrinth.




I decided to use brain power without muscle power... hopefully no one is looking!
(it required two or more people to lift it)




A GIANT chinese rings puzzle!!! Just like the previous one, two or more people are required!




Dick Hess (on the left) has a collection of 25,000+ puzzles!!! I exchanged with him
a Magic Octopus for some interesting metal puzzles!
You may also recognise Herr "puzzle-shop.de"... Hendrik Haak!




Milan and me meet for the very first time!!!




This is Mrs Puzzle (Sue Young). Both Brian and Sue played a super major role for the success of this puzzle party!




This is (WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?) Oskar Van Deventer!!!
For two years I had a folding triangle (plastic & magnetic) puzzle which had his name on it
and I didn't know how it worked. So when I met him in person he explained everything!
(he is holding the puzzle which had three octahedron solutions!)




Another picture with famous puzzle people. Try to name three of them! LOL




Mr Takashima, is involved in both puzzles and taking care of neuclear waste!




Peter and Milan! (I am in the middle)




Moving bowl (the goal was to make it tremble and the water could jump high!)




Here is an Australian maze with sharks and snakes, and you only have to jump
from and to certain spots. Sounds easy? More restrictions are equired... see below...




Try to wear that white shirt and that leg cyclinder, and you will understand how prisoners feel!
Plus, it makes the Australian maze more interesting! I finished it faster than all the others!




A pole with two huge wooden puzzles, one on the top and one on the bottom!!!




A group photo!




Another huge game... this was a two player one!




A Metal & string puzzle...




To solve this puzzle, you must lift it up first...




And now what? HEEELPPPP!!!!




An Australian IPP without kangaroos solving puzzles would be meaningless...
This roo is helping us to solve the insane cube variant puzzle!



More to come!





Pantazis

We aren't all so fortunate to know them by sight. Could you introduce them to us?

Or is this a puzzle!

I think I recognize George Miller and Oskar van Deventer. Oh...and that Greek fellow in the back.

Oskar and George are very famous. The other two are also some very keen puzzle party attenders who have create puzzles for exchange. You may still try to guess them. The person on the left is very good when it comes to solving magics (he was the only one who solved the Secret of Atlantis at the presentation of the puzzle competitors). The other guy (in front of me) is very smart in understanding how magics work.

As for me, I represented Australia (I have dual citizenship, Greek & Australian). My strong Irish-like accent baffled many of them.
I guess if an IPP happens in Europe I may represent Greece this time LOL (always depending on which of my two beloved countries is nearer to the IPP)




Pantazis


PS And by the way, something slightly related, I have no more Olympic Wanderrings left! I sold and exchanged all of them!

Whoa, look at all the puzzles!

I think my only problem is that I'm not much for anything other than twisty puzzles, wooden and metal puzzles give me nightmares.

Part 4!!!



George Miller playing Hexagonal Checkers with me... Final score: a draw 1-1!




The awesome "Cubature of the ball"! The goal is to free the ball from the 2x2x2 box.




More competition puzzles to try out on one of the tables!




Another table!




Yet another table!




The pizza is hiding the Secret of Atlantis...! hhhrrrmph!




Me just after I solved the Void cube (which was the winner) from a tricky parity issue!
I must say, the movement feeling of the puzzle was TOP CLASS!!!




Hendrik and the Void cube! Everyone just loved putting our fingers through it LOL




The Switched Maze. Not a difficult, but an excellent puzzle, it got an honorary award!
I was unable to stop myself bying one of those!




Katushiko Okamoto's other puzzle, the Bevel Cube... it had a very nice feeling.
I believe it deserved to win something, but I am a twisty puzzler, so am biased LOL




Edi Nagata and his AMAZING Bus flipping puzzle...! Just WOW!




The Luxemburg connection! I told all of them to give a very big hug to Georges from me!






Pantazis

I am reasonably sure that the person behind Oskar is Bram. He is indeed wise in the way of puzzles. When he finds a way to directly connect his brain to a 3D printer, we will see some amazing puzzles come out.

I also recognised George Miller (PuzzlePalace), and Oskar (because of the caption in the picture just above this one)

You got to touch the void cube!!!!!!! Lucky!!!!


That bevel cube looks interesting, lol. I like the void cube better though.

Very correct Adam, well done!

Bram has actually posted a video of him at the twisty forum last May.
viewtopic.php?t=6907

And the guy on the left is his friend Wei Huang. They are both super smart people!




Pantazis

Thanks for sharing. Amazing photos and puzzles too. Some day I have to get to a cube day and/or puzzle party event. Looks like a lot of fun.

Great pictures and story. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Just a couple of more questions.

From the one IPP at which I participated (Antwerp), I understand that besides the design competition, there is also a puzzle exchange (some 100 puzzles being exchanged by each participant) and a puzzle market.
Where there any twisty puzzles or, more generally, sequential puzzles in the puzzle exchange?
Where there any new twisty puzzles at the ‘puzzle market’?

Regarding the puzzles you showed us,
- who is the inventor of the ‘Cubature of the ball’?
- who is the inventor of the ‘Switched Maze’ and how exactly does it work?
- how does the ‘Bus flipping’ puzzle by Edi Nagata work (is it similar to Rubik’s Dice puzzle?)?

and……. last but not least…….
did Wayne (‘Sausage’) also attend the IPP?

Geert, you'll definitely want to visit the event's Web Site. There's a really nice PDF document that has descriptions and closeups of all the puzzles, including a gorgeous shot of 'Cubature of the Ball.'

I don't think they've identified all the entrants yet (I can't find it anyway), but Kirill Grebnev invented the 'Switched Maze."

Hi Geert!

I spent some time looking at the exchange puzzles, but I didn't spend as much time as I wanted as I was busy at my table with the magics. And because of this I almost forgot to vote!

I did though had a good look at the special table with the exchange puzzles and I cannot remember there being any sequential puzzle, except (maybe - I didn't have any time to try it out yet) the Sliding Metamorphosis which is made of wood. From my idea of the exchange, the puzzles there *may* be excellent, but they don't tend to be the best ones around because the exchangers need to make one for every exhange participant (this time there were 74 I think).

There were however some interesting ones at the design competition, and some were available for sale directly after the competition ended! The other sequential puzzles (besides the Void Cube, the Bevel Cube, the Switched Maze, the Cubature of the Ball and the Secret of Atlantis) were the Cross Box, the Micromaze, the Passe Cylindre, and the Whiz of Oz. But some of those are not twisty puzzles.

At the exchange day, I managed to get from Milan, three Okkis with different sticker variation, an I-cube, and a 3-layer Puck.

I got a roundy and other well known puzzles from Hendrik, as well as a Russian(?) gripple and a magic with Polish tiles (which are smaller than normal) from Irina.






Kirill Grebnev designed three puzzles, Cubature of the ball, Switched Maze, and the Forest puzzle (I bought all three of them if photos are needed). I expected the first two (which are excellent sequential puzzles made of acrylic) to win an award, but the last two did...!

I have a photo of him holding the Cubature and the Switched Maze, I will post it tonight!


Edi Nagata's puzzle is called Flip-Side and he made one for the 2005 design competition (this one had a "cat to dog" theme, while the one I saw had a "red to green bus" theme). The goal is to bring the inside picture to the outside and vice versa, by being able to flip one tile (from any side) towards the empty side. The mechanism is a genius one as everytime a side goes to the empty side, the edges lock to enable it to continue with the next move. But he said the puzzle is a bit fragile (in my opinion it was fine, but I am known to handle puzzles with care), and he hopes to find a company to market it. Here is a photo from the competition website.

He added that the bus is not available for sale yet. I am not sure about the cat though! And did you know that Edi used to stay in Perth ten years ago?






I didn't see him, and I also looked for him in the list before I go to the IPP, but he wasn't inside. I would have loved to meet him. He must have been terribly busy...



Tonight I will post more photos, with the exchange table too!





Pantazis

Part 5!!!




I was given the honorable position of the "Protector of the Exchange Puzzle Room"!
Since this was my first IPP, I was not allowed to be inside, but being the guard of the room,
I was given the power to deny entrance to those who did not meet the requirements!!!
Many puzzlers were quite naughty and they were testing me constantly, but I was always up to the task!
And by the way, I was *not* protecting the people, I was only protecting the puzzles!!!




And just outside the exchange room, the competitor puzzles were placed again for people to try them out!
It was very interesting to be a guard and play with the void cube most of the time!!!
And as can be seen, the Secret of Atlantis is proudly displayed!




Another view, with more tables in the background!




Another advantage of being the protector of the puzzle room, is that you can meet beautiful girls!





One of the best photos I took... me and the Founder of the IPP, Jerry Slocum!!!





We were at the Gold Coast, and the hotel was a 2 minutes and 34 seconds walk away from the beach,
so how could it be possible for an island boy like me to not go for swimming?




The hotel of the IPP was the Gold Coast International Hotel. An excellent place,
with many nice facilities, gym, view, spa etc. Excellent choice by the IPP organisers!





The Australian Theme dinner... a wise owl sitting beside me...




My invitee touching a cute crocodile...! Just count your fingers after you do this!




Hey... did someone just gave me a nice scarf...? oh wait!!!!




The mother of the snake of the previous photo took revenge...!




A much larger crocodile than the one before...




Aboriginal dances and didgeridoos... very old traditions!




Trying to blend in the dance...




Now this is an Emu running around completely loose! (there were heaps of roos too)


It was in this place where Stan Isaacs gave me the Dino CUbe box...
And a wild park was simply the best place for something like this to happen.
Thank you Stan, now the cube and the box are re-united, and we both wished David Litwin was also there.


Sorry for some of photos not being puzzle related, but I guarantee you, the next photo part will be full of them!!!




Pantazis

The day where everyone had a table to exchange puzzles! I am holding my Moebius magic.




Hendrik's table was just beside mine!!!




Some puzzles out of this world made by Oskar!




George Miller and his Rotten Apple puzzle!




Hendrik and Milan talking about Adam Zamora's inverted 2x2x2 cube!




The table with the exchange puzzles!!!




This is Kirill Grebnev who had two of his puzzles winning awards. I bought everything
he had on offer.... and that before we knew who took the awards! Classy puzzles, no doubt!




Hiren Shah talking about puzzle locks...
I asked him a question about what locks he uses for his luggage!




There were 4 or 5 puzzlers who had a... puzzle-tie!




And the winner is.... Secret of Atlantis!!! (oh I so wished! LOL)
Note that they show the wrong side, a sign of it was a puzzle not well understood even from experts.
But they loved it when I was doing demonstrations LOL
On a serious note, I can only say one thing: It was an HONOR to have
my puzzle accepted to compete and be there among the best in the world!

During the awards dinner, me and four other participants were called to the stage in front of everyone
and each of us was awarded for our contribution with a very delicate present (puzzle necklace).
I will never forget that moment, with people clapping for us, and it was so unexpected,
that me and my invitee didn't have the camera ready!!! (if any paticipant has a photo of this please let me know!)




There was even a "speed tanning" competition... please... DONT ASK!!!




Our dinner table... as expected, lots of puzzles on the table,
including the tornado burr which also won an award!




Well, there is a story behind those people too, all of them GREAT people!




Flying back to Perth... even though I was still within Australia, it was a 4+ hour flight!!!

Finally I would like to publicly thank Brian Young, Sue Young, Rick van Grol, Frans de Vreugd,
and everyone else who was there. They were all magnificent!!!


End of photo story!





Pantazis

Thank you for the photo tour! It was good to see some in-depth coverage of the event. I think this is the first time that this many pictures were posted about IPP.

Oh wow, i had no idea that the void cube was empty in the middle, I thought it was just see-through with a different core. When I first saw the puzzle I wasn't really that impressed, now i'm speechless!

You must've missed this video, then.

It's dramatic to watch the empty-centered Void Cube in action. I think someone even called it "spooky."

I met both both Bram and Wei Huang. Wei is probably one of the best puzzle solvers in the world, if not the best. I've seen him in action solving puzzles with incredible ease. I am not surprised that he solved your Magics. He created a bunch of mathematical puzzles for a Google DaVinci competion. Here is his bio.

" Wei-Hwa Huang, four-time World Puzzle champion
Wei-Hwa Huang is an award-winning American puzzler and member of the U.S. team for the World Puzzle Federation. He has won the annual World Puzzle Championship on four occasions: 1995 and 1997-1999.

Huang graduated from the California Institute of Technology and is an employee at Google. One of his most famous projects was the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google, which was a set of 24 puzzles launched on April 17, 2006, in cooperation with Columbia Pictures.

Google gives their employees 20 percent of their time to work on personal projects; much of Huang's time from August to December 2006 has been spent on his puzzle gadget. "

Could you please remove all the images off this thread and post a link to them or something? It took like 10 minutes to load this web page.

Your welcome. I had a chat with some people at the IPP. It is ok to post information from the past, but not for the future!
And I had promised that I would do this anyway! No further comments.






It was indeed the best puzzle.




1. It will take a lot of time (that I don't have) to place them the way you want.
2. Just like on my website, I always take care of making my images download-friendly and optimise their size. The average kb for those images with width=592 must be less than 30kb. On my PCs (home and office) the page shows (with all photos) in less than ten seconds. Now, if you have a bad connection or less than mine (1.5 Mbs/sec), then just be patient! LOL
3. It is always better and more efficient (in an optical way) to have images show directly than links. That is my preference anyway.







Very very impressive details indeed. As stated, he was the ONLY one to my knowledge who solved the Secret of Atlantis.
(Adam Zamora also did, in an impressively fast way last December!)
And when we decided to exchange puzzles, he wanted me to send him the parts, and not the puzzle already stringed! LOL
Yes, he does likes challenges, a genuine world class puzzler!




Pantazis

I'm confused about something.

Before I say what I'm confused about I should point out that it is my understanding that most browsers load pictures last, if that is not the case for you what I am about to say is moot and can be ignored.

Assuming that is the case, why does it matter how long it takes the page to load? If all of the pictures were taken out of the thread as you've requested you'd have only the text and links to the pictures, which is functionally equivalent to having a partially loaded page in which the pictures are not loaded yet, which is in turn what you have right now.

What makes a thread without pictures because they are linked to out of thread better than a thread without pictures because they are not yet loaded?

I'm confused as to how one would be any better than the other.

I was a bit confused too. But maybe it is all about re-visiting this thread and then being forced to reload again the previous images.

Still, the overall size shouldn't exceed a download equivalent to a typical youtube video.
And this is not just any occassion anyway, it is the best puzzle party, so it deserves to be reviewed again and again!




Pantazis

Ha ha, Pantazis the puzzle guard! I like it!

I forgot to tell you, congrats on your puzzle! I'm glad it got some recognition.

Too bad you and the void cube won't get to spend any special time together

I took this photo at home while I am trying to organise the new size of my collection
with all the new puzzles that I acquired from many famous designers.






The photo below is the precious necklace I was given at the awards dinner. As I said, I was surprised that I got it
because the whole experience has rewarded me much more in many ways, compared to what I did.






Finally, I have found the names for all my puzzles except the one pictured below...
I liked it so much that I got two of them. Can anyone help me identify the puzzle's name and creator?
(it has only inscribed the words "IPP26", so anyone who had been in the previous IPP might know)




Thanks in advance!



Pantazis

I believe thats Circelei by Hendrik Haak.

wow that was a mighty fast response! Many thanks joey!!!

List is now complete!




Pantazis

Circelei is the puzzle Hendrik Haak exchanged last year. But it is desingned and made by J.C.Constantin.

Full puzzle details are now available including designers and purchasing information.

http://www.puzzleworld.org/DesignCompet ... efault.htm

Haha! I love when he gets the edge parity and is like... uhhhhh...

Heh, you posted the same comment on that video

I can't remember that parity alg anymore, so if I play with my cube void cube style it's a bit of a pain.

Here's mine, it swaps UB and UR: M' U M' U' M U' M U2 M' R U R' U' M' U R' U' r U'

That trashed my cube. Are you sure you wrote it right?

It should read:
M' U M' U' M U' M U2 M' R U R' U' M' U R U' r' U'

Here's how I would do it:
U L' U' L M' U M' U M' U M' U L' U L U' M' U2 M' U2 M'
Not optimal, but two well known algs, and I can do it pretty fast.

How about this?

M' U M' U' M U' M U2 F R' F' M' F R F' (U')