Wriggle collection
As of December 2010 this page now hosts all the clickmazes puzzles that feature the wriggle rule. The wriggle rule is related to the restricted sliding-block rule (where all blocks are one-unit width and can only slide in the direction defined by their longest edge). Perhaps the best known version of this is the very successful Rush Hour range of puzzles invented by renowned Japanese puzzle inventor Nob Yoshigahara and published by ThinkFun.
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The wriggle-rule relaxes the classic Rush-Hour rule just a little, by allowing the blocks to bend (and thus wriggle). You still cannot drag an object side-ways, only backwards or forwards, from one end or the other. It turns out this modest modification to the rule has a big impact on the puzzle behaviour. Most notably very long wriggles are possible and many more states are reachable, which in turn means even more complexity and variety can be packed into a small area. Up until 2010 there had been no methodical search of the wriggle-rule puzzle space so exactly was was achievable on the smaller grid (such as 5x5) was an unknown. During 2010 Bob Henderson (USA) decided it was time to find out and discovered that there was a huge wealth of untapped complexity, even on the 4x4 grid. These puzzles truly reset the bar for puzzle complexity on a small grid. Explore Bob's amazing results on the Extreme TJ-wriggle page. |
Wriggle |
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Extreme TJ-wriggle
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TJ-wriggle
puzzles The now definitive wriggle variant. Co-developed with Tom Jolly. |
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Colour-wriggle
mazes Juggle the colours while you wriggle. |
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Original
wriggle puzzles This puzzle is a real can of worms. Can you detangle them? |
© Andrea Gilbert 2010
