Modern, Magical Jigsaw Puzzles Are the Hot New Thing
Clickbait headline: You won’t believe the mind-blowing twist ending in these new jigsaw puzzles!
In 2020 the newly-established Magic Puzzle Company raised over $3 million dollars on Kickstarter selling a set of three 1000-piece puzzles that promised they had a magical “twist ending.”
…what?
I had never put together or even had any real interest in jigsaw puzzles in my entire adult life, but how could you not be intrigued by that sales pitch? Puzzles can have endings? Puzzles can have surprise twist endings? What does that even mean? This is a verbatim quote from their Kickstarter, and the exact moment I knew I was going to have to give them $50 for the full set to see for myself. I mean, tell me you aren’t intrigued:
“Normally, jigsaw puzzles don’t have an exciting ending. You put in the last piece, and you’re done. We’ve designed these so that when you put in that last piece, it triggers a magic trick, which reveals the special ending to the story of the puzzle.”
“We’ve applied a bunch of principles for the world of mathematics, magic, and illusion to create something that’s never been done before in the world of puzzles.”
It’s tough for a blurb like that to not set your mind racing, right?
Almost exactly one year later in June 2021 Odd Pieces, another new jigsaw puzzle startup, raised $500k on Kickstarter selling a set of three “mystery puzzles,” promising that they’re “a jigsaw puzzle game.” (fyi - Odd Pieces series 2 is on Kickstarter now!)
The Odd Pieces puzzle company isn’t quite so secretive about how their puzzles work, and never claimed to be working with mathematicians or illusionists. Their puzzles all depict a very busy Where’s Waldo-esque scene filled with hundreds of little characters. The twist is that the picture on the box isn’t exactly the picture on the puzzle you’re putting together. The puzzle is set a few moments after the picture on the box, and as you assemble it, you piece together the storyline of what happened to cause everyone to suddenly move and slightly change:
Naturally, I had no choice but to buy all six of these puzzles and try them out for myself. And - surprise surprise - I loved them. I guess I’m a jigsaw puzzle guy now? Is this what it means to get older? The weather is getting colder and once winter descends in full that means it’s PUZZLE SEASON once again. Can’t wait to drag the card table back out and work through our growing puzzle backlog.
We’ll circle back around to Magic Puzzle Company’s “magic trick” closer to the end of this newsletter, but first I want to talk about what made these puzzles so fun and satisfying, and why you, my (presumably?) slightly younger and hipper subscribers might like them, too.
Things I Liked
The Art
These puzzles are not using generic clip-art. You’re never putting together 250 pieces of sky. In fact both companies specifically commissioned original artwork from independent artists specifically to be used in a puzzle. The scenes themselves are fun and interesting before even considering any special twists -- each area of these puzzles is filled with interesting characters and tells its own little mini-story, tying into the bigger “central” story.”
The art in general is more aligned to my tastes and preferences. They’re all just more fun.
The Cut
Almost each *individual piece* in these puzzles seems thoughtfully composed and cut. With 1000 pieces in each puzzle they don’t all have a funny face or detail. But there genuinely does seem to be a large amount of care and attention put into ensuring no piece is ever a generic smudge. They’re also cut into more interesting shapes
Quality of Life
Posters of the scene are included in the box, making it easier to share the puzzle with someone - there’s no need to keep the box top with you. The printing and cardboard are high quality, there’s no puzzle dust, and the “cut” itself feels high quality, with all the pieces fitting together perfectly.
They Feel Play-Tested
Tying into my previous points regarding the art being specially-commissioned and the individual puzzle pieces feeling thoughtfully composed - these puzzles are full of little details that allowed me, a puzzle novice, to still cruise through them with minimal frustration. There are lots of examples, but one specifically from The Happy Isles: it’s a puzzle filled with dozens of individual islands, and on each island the characters are wearing different outfits, allowing you to quickly and easily sort your pieces and see at-a-glance roughly where it will go. All the puzzles are set up that way, in different ways. Rooms have subtly different color schemes and gradients, and so-on.
Fun Unboxing and Extras
Both brands feature a satisfying puzzle unboxing experience, with several extras included. Odd Pieces give you a comic to help enhance the story as well as some stickers. Magic Puzzle Company gives you a Where’s Waldo-style checklist of extra scenes and stories to find. Both brands include posters, as mentioned.
Has this always been a thing? Or is the Jigsaw Puzzle Revolution real?
I don’t really know that much about the jigsaw puzzle “scene.” Or even if there is such a thing. So I don’t have a lot of context on whether younger-skewing, hybrid jigsaw puzzles like this have always existed. Probably yes, in one form or another. It makes sense that people into brain teasers, board games, mazes, and adventure books would also be into jigsaw puzzles.
But even a cursory look at Kickstarter and similar platforms seems to show an explosion of “It’s a jigsaw puzzle - but with a special twist! - projects. There are a lot of intriguing examples of puzzles mixed with mazes, mysteries, storylines, adventures, and board games. I can’t directly vouch for any of these products - in a lot of ways they feel like echoes and imitations of what Odd Pieces and Magic Puzzle Company have accomplished - but they do at least look interesting. Leave a comment if you’re a reader that has checked any of them out.
Quatro City
“Explore detailed illustration and unravel the secrets of mysterious Quatro City through a gripping and interactive story-telling quest”
Quezzle
“Not just a puzzle but a beautiful illustration and a quest game. Go through mazes and quests”
Murder by The Pyramids-Classic Mystery Jigsaw Puzzle
“Read the story, assemble the unseen puzzle, piece together the clues and solve the crime.”
Vizzles: Visual Puzzles
“Uncover all the visual riddles hidden inside these wondrously illustrated game puzzles”
So back to the secret twist at the end of the Magic Puzzle Company’s puzzles. Did it deliver?
It’s still a cardboard jigsaw puzzle, so it’s important to keep your expectations in check. It’s not like you’re going to put in the last piece and it’s going to sprout wings fly up off your table. So if you keep in mind how cool a puzzle’s twist could ever potentially be, I would definitely say it delivered on the intrigue and was a very cool moment.
I’m not going to spoil it in full (sorry!) but basically - once the puzzle is complete, you’re given a chance to make the puzzle a little bigger in an unexpected way, and it recontextualizes the entire scene with more artwork and detail. It truly does deliver a satisfying “ending”
Great post in time for bad weather and more time for indoor games. I've never been good at jigsaw puzzles, but I may need to give these a try. Thanks.
I'm so glad you're back to writing more regularly about board games. When these show up in my inbox, it's the same feeling I had when I was younger receiving Nintedo Power, EGM, and OPM at my house. I'll definitely be getting a couple of those Odd Pieces puzzles as gifts for people in my life. Clever twist on the puzzle formula!