Rediscovering My Passion for Awesome Brainteaser Puzzles
I have always loved games of all kinds – video games, board games, cooperative games, schoolyard games, lawn games, puzzle games – the list is seemingly endless. Games are just so damn fun, and a wonderful escape from the pressures, chaos, and stress that daily life can bring. They are also a great way to connect with friends and family and build lasting bonds that endure over the years. I've realized the depth of this passion, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Erin and I have been largely avoiding going out, and have mostly stayed in. We might go down to the river's edge and hang out on the pier, go out on her parents' boat on the weekends (which is the absolute best), but a good portion of time we spend hunkering down. And with the situation we are all enduring, games are the perfect method to unwind.
Lately, during COVID, I have been rediscovering my interest in brainteaser puzzle games. Diving back into games like this is a refreshing respite from the constant screen time every day. I do "love" all my screens, but at some point, I just need a break from it all. It's hard to describe that rejuvenating feeling of taking my eyes off the many screens I have, and just focusing all my energy and concentration on a brainteaser puzzle. I love feeling the pieces in my hands, the gears in my mind turning, trying to solve the challenge, and organize all the logical deductions flowing around in my head. I highly recommend checking out games like this if you looking for a different kind of activity during the pandemic.
Where My Love of Brainteasers Began (At Least, I Think…)
So where did this all start for me? Most certainly there were many brainteaser games, puzzles, and trivia that inspired me, especially from a young age. But a recent and defining moment was one summer break during college – I believe it was after my junior year at Stetson, but I'm a bit fuzzy on which specific year it was. I was at the Cape for a few weeks during the summer with my family, enjoying the sun, seafood, and salt water - just a few among the many pleasures that Cape Cod offers. During these trips, we would pick at least one weekend to drive up to Provincetown, which is about an hour-long drive from Chatham, assuming you can beat the traffic! We would park at my Uncle Mick's church, and walk down a hill, through an alley, and emerge onto bustling Commercial Street. It's a fantastic spot on the Cape, brimming with activity and energy. Walking up and down Commercial is always a blast, even with summertime crowds. Here’s a glimpse of Provincetown from MacMillan Pier, below – a beautiful spot for a quieter stroll, when Commercial Street gets particularly hectic.
Of course, we always had the favorite go-to spots we had to hit before returning to Chatham. Always at the top of my list was the puzzle and games shop, Puzzle Me This. The shop leaps out as you walk by – vivid purple siding, huge windows chock full of games, and an always-open door where you can peek in and see the endless rows of board games, puzzles, and toys. For fans of puzzle games, it's the kind of shop that you don't ever want to leave. I would often have to be eventually yanked out of this shop by Erin or one of my family members.
Provincetown’s Paradise for Puzzle Fans
During this one particular trip, I found myself gravitating towards the left wall of the shop, which had a million different smaller brainteaser puzzle games. Most are colorful, have a great tactile feel, and have several different challenges that get progressively more difficult, making them a fit for a wide age range. I always loved seeing on some of these games' packaging that the appropriate age range was 6 - 99 years!
I happened upon a game called IQ Fit, from SmartGames. It looked phenomenal. It was incredibly compact, with vibrant colors, and a hinged lid. It's what's known as a "packing puzzle," a game where you have to fit all the pieces into the empty spaces, in a certain configuration. IQ Fit's unique feature is that the board has holes in the bottom that can accommodate a variety of orientations of the 3D pieces. One piece might look one way when you glance at it, but you quickly see that each puzzle piece has a few possible ways to fit into each challenge, and you have to figure out which way to orient each piece. Even better, the game had a booklet with 120 different challenges! Soon enough, my Mom, Dad, and sister were looking at the game, and everyone was intrigued. My Mom even decided to purchase one to use with some of the students she was counseling at the time.
The SmartGames Floodgates Open
I was super excited to buy my own copy of IQ Fit, and I also picked up another incredible one, IQ Twist. This puzzle had a very similar look as IQ Fit, but with unique pegs you had to put on the board, and fit the colorful puzzle pieces around them, but the pegs and pieces you place must be the same color, and the puzzle pieces had holes only in certain places, to accommodate the pegs. It was a totally different packing puzzle game than IQ Fit, also with 120 challenges, and I knew I had to grab it. That evening we set up the puzzles on the table in the living room and spent hours poring over them.
This experience resulted in me going down the rabbit hole of puzzle games from SmartGames. I found out they are a Belgian company that is known for making quality games for all ages, with quality materials, and some really unique designs. I loved what they were doing, and I was elated to see that they designed a wide range of brainteasers, including several others in the IQ series. I decided from that point on that I had to keep up with what they were working on. Each summer that followed, I would return to Puzzle Me This, hoping to find another new IQ game title that was available, or perhaps a new sliding puzzle they made – they offered a ton of variety in their games, and usually these regular summer trips to Puzzle Me This would yield new discoveries. No matter what it was, as long as it seemed challenging and interesting enough, and SmartGames created it, I would buy it. There was something so incredibly tranquil and relaxing about taking these new brainteaser puzzle games back to the house in Chatham, and working through them on the table in the living room, perhaps while watching a movie or enjoying a snack during a quiet summer evening - it became one of the smaller Cape rituals that I always loved, and still do. The games became fixtures on the table during these trips, and the whole family continued to dabble with them – over breakfast as well sometimes!
One of the most popular SmartGames brainteasers that has remained on the Cape Cod living room table over many seasons is Quadrillion. This puzzle has four plastic, black and white double-sided boards, with rounded divots to accommodate the puzzle pieces. The best aspect is that the boards all can attach together with magnets in several different configurations, and then it’s a matter of getting all the colorful pieces on the board. This puzzle has many hundreds of thousands of possible solutions – so rather than relying on a particular challenge, you can just snap the boards together any way you like, and get to work! Quadrillion may not be as portable as the IQ series titles, but it’s still one of my all-time favorites.
The Brainteaser Puzzle Collection Grows
Before moving down to Virginia in November 2019, I had a sizable collection of these type of brainteaser puzzles – easily over 20 of them. I discovered many other great games on Amazon, and other niche game sites, from companies other than SmartGames. Others I really enjoy include the Kanoodle series and puzzles from Lonpos, to name a few, but I still consider SmartGames to be the king. They have an amazing variety, innovative designs, great quality, and a commitment to pushing the envelope of what a great brainteaser puzzle can be, and who they can appeal to. I get such a thrill out of solving these kinds of challenging puzzles and introducing them to others.
When we moved to Virginia, we packed away nearly all of these games in boxes, along with our vast collection of board games, and they went into our storage unit. My collection became mostly out of sight, out of mind. Of course, there were so many fun new things to discover in Virginia, and my Nintendo Switch held my attention, too, during downtime in the evenings, along with checking out new movies and TV shows. It wasn't actually until COVID-19 hit that I realized how much I missed these brainteaser games and that they might serve a useful purpose during such difficult, uncertain times.
In mid-May 2020, after a long time of neglecting to do so, I decided to browse the SmartGames site. I was curious to see how the company was doing, and what new types of brainteaser puzzle games might be out there that I haven't tried. Of course, with my renewed desire to dive into brainteasers once again, SmartGames was my obvious first step. I was thrilled to find several new games they had developed, ones that I had never heard of before! I placed two orders within about a week, and after a few days, I was back to enjoying brainteaser puzzles again, just in a new setting, along with more uncertain, anxiety-ridden circumstances. It wasn’t long before a few really stood out to me, and easily stand alongside some longtime classics.
Here are a few of my new favorite brainteaser puzzle discoveries, all from SmartGames:
IQ Arrows: The latest in the IQ series! I was ecstatic to find the newest one. There are 120 challenges, and all involve colorful directional arrow pieces, that need to be arranged based on specific clues. Just like all the other IQ games I have, the concept is great, and it's an amazing new entry in the series.
Zig Zag Puzzler: A fantastic, portable puzzle with 80 challenges. 40 involve creating a true zig-zag shape, as the name suggests, and the remaining 40 focus on building a unique pyramid, with an uneven base – it's wild. This puzzle offers a wonderful challenge and looks fantastic on a desk or shelf.
Parking Puzzler: A standout new deduction game, involving arranging different colored cars in parking spaces. The cars can only be facing one direction, and can't occupy an exit row. The various clues are a blast to figure out.
Color Catch: Color Catch offers fantastic components, and unique logic challenges involving arranging tiles of lizards, frogs, and bugs to satisfy specific placement clues. The clues get extremely tough, and it's tricky to place the tiles to align with each clue!
Penguin Pool Party: This one is a fun and charming packing puzzle. You place the penguins on the board and arrange the "floating" ice pieces to fit. The pieces have a unique hexagonal shape, and the different number of penguins in each challenge can provide some surprising difficulty!
Plug & Play Puzzler: This one is brand new, and features an eye-catching white cube, with colorful pieces to remove. 48 challenges involve placing the colorful pieces back into the white frame to build the cube. This puzzle is so small, portable, and is the kind of game you can't help but reach for.
Trying out these new games, I could feel a difference immediately. I actually felt some of the stress dissipate and being able to play these games again felt cathartic. It was a mental break from the chaos taking place in the country, a true disconnect experience from the many screens that my eyeballs are glued to every day, and the challenges that a job search during a pandemic can bring. I honestly felt better after so many months of stress and anxiety. Working on these brainteaser challenges helped me feel centered, and temporarily relegate major life stress to the backburner of my mind, even for just a little while. For the first time, I realized how deeply I treasure these games, and how much they were helping me. Perhaps in the past, I didn't realize the extent of it all, but I sure did now. I decided that I should play these games every day, even if only for a little while. I know that will be a huge help even when life gets better - that kind of outlet will be amazing for my mind and wellbeing. I began to wonder, in the case of SmartGames, who is it out there making these incredible puzzles that are helping me so much? I soon discovered who it was. His name is Raf Peeters, and he lives in the beautiful country of Belgium.
Corresponding with the SmartGames Master Puzzle Designer
I found Raf's site by accident, through searching for the new SmartGames puzzle releases for 2019 and 2020. When I stumbled on his site, I was floored at his content. He talked about his process and inspiration for designing puzzles for SmartGames, and what went into the endeavor, from start to finish. I soon realized that Raf Peeters is THE designer at SmartGames, designing dozens and dozens of their most popular games. He is the man behind some of my family's favorite brainteaser puzzles over these last several years. His site is incredible – so much information about how puzzle games come to life, and his design expertise was stunningly impressive. It was truly jaw-dropping and fascinating reading to see the story of how some of my favorite puzzles have come to life – from conception to execution. It's amazing to be able to get a glimpse into Raf's head, to see how he figured out how to design the size of a certain puzzle, or come up with a certain number of challenges. Reading through Raf's site was a true glimpse behind the curtain, seeing how all these wonderful games came to be. It further boosted my excitement to dive headlong back into these games.
I decided to send Raf an email, just to let him know how much his puzzles have meant to me, and how his work has provided such joy to my family over the years. I told him how I discovered SmartGames, and how I'm going to follow his work more closely, now that I know he's the main mastermind! I felt compelled to let him know that his puzzle design genius has generated such happiness for me and my family. And most certainly many other families around the world. He responded with such a kind note, and I am ecstatic to see what he designs in the next year and beyond.
Take a Break From Screens and Dive Into Brainteaser Puzzles!
Thanks for joining me on this puzzle journey. If you are looking for a new hobby or a fun diversion that doesn't involve screens, I highly recommend checking out some of these puzzles from SmartGames, and other companies. There is truly something special about taking a mental break from the stress of life, even for just a few minutes. I'm certain these puzzles will help keep my brain sharp in later years, and perhaps it can do the same for you! We all face difficult times with COVID-19, and it's more important than ever to take care of our physical and mental health. Although it's a small piece of the "puzzle," I'm sure that having a fun, reliable, and stimulating diversion can serve as a helpful pressure release valve. I hope you take the time to check out these puzzles and feel free to comment below or reach out with any puzzle related questions or thoughts! Thanks for reading.
