About
A Brief History
The spark for this site was formed many years ago when I realised I had several hobbies and interests I was indulging in regularly, apart from sports and my engineering career. One was hunting down interesting and challenging puzzles I could immerse myself in rather than the daily paper crosswords. And the other was dabbling in graphic design. I was never an expert at doing either to be truthful, but I loved the challenges they presented as great past times and hobbies; they still do.
In my endeavours to find challenging and interesting puzzles I could do on paper, as well as physically of course, like the Rubik’s cube, jigsaw puzzles, and several other clever devices I’ve come across, I found I had ideas on puzzles of my own; puzzles I had not seen anywhere. So one day, I decided I would try my hand at creating one. I soon found out that it was a little more involved than first imagined. Involving certain steps I hadn’t considered before, and they were often just as challenging as the puzzle itself at times, if not more!
Chewing over the basic ideas. Working out the nuances. Figuring out the possible issues. Designing it, re-designing it. Working through it to its solution and ensuring it was solvable and how. Then graphically creating it and presenting it as a finished puzzle. Sometimes this can take days, or even weeks depending on the type of puzzle, but it’s always satisfying when it’s finished and ready to challenge the mind.
I began sharing them online, just the odd one or two at first, but soon became a regular thing. Then someone suggested that I should create a Facebook page, and everything else has blossomed from there, like the MindGym Puzzle book series now in its fourth issue and I’m working on getting the fifth out at the end of June or July.
Of course, the one thing I was not prepared for in the beginning was the fact that I could work on a puzzle for days to produce a finished article and someone would complete it in minutes! Now, that did not necessarily mean it was a poor puzzle, which admittedly was my first thought, but more the fact that a good puzzler was on the case! I have long since learned that no matter the puzzle, there will always be someone, somewhere, good enough to solve it – and that’s cool with me!