02AB6: Puzzle Gushing

Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 670

Late last year I supported the Kickstarter for Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia, which is a massive 4-panel puzzle created by the folks at Unidragon that includes a complex layer of games, riddles and such. So it's a puzzle and a game that includes Where's Waldo-style elements and AR stuff. I'm still waiting for this set to arrive (even though it was shipped out on 1 December), but this week my "bonus" wooden puzzle arrived first. The Kickstarter level I pledged at included one of the wooden animal puzzles that Unidragon is more famous more at this point, which I had been super curious about given repeated ads on my social feeds. So I figured this project was a good opportunity to finally satisfy my curiosity about this project under the guise of still focusing on adding an innovative game to our collection.

I've talked about missing the experience of working on puzzles while growing up. Our grandmother would empty some large puzzle set onto the old Narra dining table and anyone would stop by and try to work on it before going about their business. And they were always almost monochromatic monstrosities - the one that really stands out in my mind involved a bouquet of roses with some very dark background that was hard to work on in the relative gloom of the dining room. 

So I've only had the puzzle for two days and I started working on it in-between meetings and other work tasks. And I'm not ashamed to say that this puzzle really challenged me because it's not your typical puzzle. The set includes puzzle pieces shaped like different animals and so you can only imagine what kind of creative shapes are needed to hide those animals sufficiently. But I super enjoyed it and I kind of regret that it's already finished. But I also look forward to disassembling it and putting it together again and again and again.

Puzzles can be stressful but they can also be very relaxing and I like the almost meditative experience that takes place when you really get in the zone. You can struggle to put things together for an hour, but you just need to walk away and then your brain resets or something. And then things literally fall into place and that piece you couldn't figure out where it should go now feels almost drawn to the right spot. I love that feeling - and no digital puzzle ever quite captures it. There's a large tactile part of the puzzle experience that feels rather essential to me and I'm glad that we now have this beautiful wooden puzzle set. I just want the game puzzle to arrive soon - at the very least it's in the country based on the latest DHL update, but it's still taking its time to get here.