For a puzzle with Bad in the name, it really is anything but.
Bad moon is the upcoming sequential discovery puzzle from industrious designer, Dedwood Crafts - AKA Dee Dixon.
Bad Moon is the latest addition to the Dedwood line-up
Once again, Dee wows us all by using and shaping exotic woods into an intricate puzzle shaped thing designed to amaze and frustrate.
Before I continue, the copy I received was made from white ash and cherry with a somewhat intimidating size of 250mm long x 130mm wide. I believe that subsequent copies that will be made available will be produced using the absolutely gorgeous Bubinga and Maple, creating a fantastic contrast of both light and dark woods. More information on the release towards the end of the post…
A close up of the white ash and cherry wood
Now for those already familiar with Dees work, this puzzle feels like a perfect follow up to both Angry Walter and Menace. It’s a true sequential discovery puzzle with lots of steps and tools to discover.
When I started to solve the puzzle it became very quickly evident why Dee had opted to go for a larger size puzzle than is typical for him - the larger size accommodates the mechanisms and intricacies of the puzzle without any compromises. Presumably he really wanted you as the solver to discover the treats that Bad Moon could, and does offer.
The goal of the puzzle is to find the maker’s mark. The Dedwood Crafts logo. The journey begins after short exploration of the puzzle. Just like Walter, the first step doesn’t give you too much troubles and helps lure you into the solve, immediately rewarding you with some nice progress where you get to finally see the wonders and craftsmanship of what lies within Bad Moon.
Dee's mark, finding this is the goal of the puzzle.
The difficulty ultimately starts to ramp up once the first few steps have been completed, and I have no shame in mentioning that this puzzle had one of the biggest metaphorical walls I’ve had in a Dedwood Crafts puzzle. The moment of clarification on what I needed to do AND doing it was ever so sweet, and of course, very satisfying.
BUT - whilst I was busy celebrating the fact that I’d progressed with one particular step of the puzzle (after roughly 4 hours of trying everything I thought was possible) Dee was busy laughing at me in his overlord high tower, knowing that I still had work to do. The Dedwood Logo was still nowhere to be found.
The underside of the 'moon'
It’s here where you just cannot help but commend the time that has gone into making sure the puzzle is layered perfectly. Every step forward feels like great progress, yet every subsequent step after this ensures you take a step back and look at what else could be possible. It’s this trait in Dee’s puzzles that has deeply rooted my affinity with them. I’d go as far as to say it may even be unrivalled.
After lots of exploration with what is and is not possible, something clicked and a wonderful rush of an 'aha' moment crashed over me. The final step had been staring me in the face all along, but the missing 'key part' of what was stopping me achieving it was finally addressed. This discovery felt like the end of the puzzle, and if it had been, I’d had been suitably happy whilst wearing an accomplished grin on my face.
BUT STILL NO DEDWOOD CRAFTS LOGO.
Bad Moon had me stumped numerous times, and is one of those puzzles that may take hours to understand and work through, but then can be repeated instantly once all the tricks have been discovered. That’s my kind of puzzle - and means that this latest offering by Dee sits in a high rank position within my collection. Of course I don’t know the exact rank, it depends on the time of day and how much sleep I’ve had, probably.
The Dee collection continues to expand, whilst the shelf space continues to deminish
Bad Moon will be made available over on Dee's website on 3rd January 2023 and will be $480.00 - perfect for adding to the pile of puzzles we hopefully all received over the festive period.
Keep an eye out on www.Dedwoodcrafts.com for more details.
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