The end of the year is always a bit of a whirlwind for us as it's by far our busiest time but as the dust settles it feels like a good time to have a look back at our favourite puzzles from 2024.
It felt like a big year for new puzzles, although it has felt like that for a few years now. I keep waiting for a drop or lull as maybe it becomes less popular but minds greater than my own keep on working on excellent new designs.
While the puzzles here might not all have been made and released last year they were at least new to us here at Crux so I'll count them.
I suppose the best place to begin is at the end so one of the most recent additions for us was the Candle puzzle by Constantin. With 24 numbers you rearrange the pieces to leave just one number showing and can then of course have multiple challenges. It's not a puzzle that is particularly complicated but as it was coming up to Christmas it seemed like a nice alternative to advent calendars.
Now I don't want to come across as a stick in the mud but... Back in my day, after I'd walked 18 miles to school and back, I would feel lucky to open my advent calendar with a chocolate behind the door (the year with just pictures was not a happy one). These days it seems like they are spawning into catalogues of products from brands. I feel the Candle is a simpler alternative and can be re-used year after year by which time I'm sure you'll forget the solutions to each day.
Something we decided to explore a bit more last year was jigsaws. They're a different kind of challenge to mechanical puzzles but we're becoming big fans and found some interesting hybrids. Waves from the US produce some really cool, iridescent jigsaws which are part jigsaw part 2D packing puzzle. Tricky and satisfying to put together I think the Triad 49 was my favourite of the range. 2025 is a year we're hoping to add more jigsaws to our shop so if you're a fan then keep an eye on what we have coming in.
One of the aspects of puzzle design I like is the materials, I'm a big fan of nicely made wooden and metal puzzles. Plastic is something we don't do too much of tend to steer away from on the whole. For that reason we were a bit hesitant about stocking the Keebox puzzle boxes. After trying one however I realised it was completely possible to make quality and very interesting puzzles from this material. In fact it of course allows for designs that would either be prohibitively expensive or impossible to make from wood or metal. So far I have tried both the Blue and the Yellow boxes and while the blue was fun it is fairly simple so the Yellow has to be my pick for 2024. A little unfair on the Keebox Orange which is yet to be attempted by myself but I'm sure it will also be good.
Finally for one last puzzle of the year it is going to go to the Tesla Box by Puzzle Potato. So the cluebox or escape room style puzzle boxes have been really popular in the last couple of years. This has led to some new designers popping up and Puzzle Potato is one of the leaders. I'm still not entirely sure about the meaning behind or origin of their name but they make good puzzles! The Tesla is innovative with a built in dynamo and these style of boxes can start to feel repetitive without any new angles but this box has done that really well and definitely feels like a leap in terms of these puzzle boxes designs.
So with that we wrap up 2024 which felt like a great year, my brain feels like it is ready for some new challenges so here's to a head scratching 2025!
