I have been watching videos on YouTube by Mr Puzzle and Chris Ramsay where they solve/review different puzzles that have been released.
It seems like with every example there’s only a single thing to be solved and if you get that then you’re basically done. If you want the puzzle to take more time, then you simply make it a harder puzzle. But then, with the harder puzzles, the solution seems to be to fiddle with the damned thing until you randomly happen on something. It’s really more with the middle-ranged puzzles that you can actually observe and hypothesize strategies for defeating the thing. But those, you accomplish in 15 minutes, and now you’ve spent $50 for a paperweight.
It seems like there should be something that is more like a onion of mid-level puzzles, where solving one just leads you into the next, and you have to go through 4-5 layers before getting to the end.
Is there one like that? I haven’t spotted anything that seems to do that on either of the two channels.
While this isn’t a multi level puzzle, being a 3d jigsaw type puzzle, it isn’t a single “Aha!” type solution either. Being see-through plastic pieces, with no indication of which side up is correct, it was one of the hardest ones I have tried that one could actually solve, without needing that random event to help.
Are you familiar with the quiz web site Sporcle? They did two things of this sort called “Puzzle Hunts”, basically there’s an initial series of quizzes, each of which reveals a component of the next-level puzzle, and then solving that one gives you hints to the ultimate answer.
There’s a good one you can google called The Lotus Box Puzzle that has a couple of layers to it. Don’t watch any youtube videos on it unless you want it spoiled but it seems to have a primary and secondary solution.
