London Larceny

[Yvonne]

I recently received London Larceny as an anniversary gift. I didn't even know about the new TroubleMaker puzzles, and was instructed not to look at the Stave web site ahead of time, so I had no idea what to expect. As a lover of trick puzzles, though, I knew it would be a special treat to play with a new class of trick puzzle from Stave!

The biscuit that comes with the puzzle describes three challenges, but it seemed to me that the real goal was to assemble the puzzle in two ways. First, the "easy" way, with the rooms put together as usual and the bobbies in the police car. Second, the "hard" way, with a bobby replacing one piece in each room, and those replaced pieces in the police car. Finding the second way to assemble the puzzle would provide the solution to all three challenges: (1) identify the thieves -- the pieces removed to make room for the bobby pieces; (2) identify the thieves' target items -- at which the bobby in each room would be pointing; (3) fit the thieves into the police car.

I did the first solution, thieves in the rooms, on May 15, the first night I had the puzzle. I also got the bobby in the top left room, which wasn't very hard because one bobby was the same shape as one of the other pieces, but I figured out that just swapping out the piece wasn't right because then the bobby was pointing at a person, rather than something that a thief would be looking to steal as per Challenge 2. I found another way to put in the pieces, so that the bobby WAS pointing at something.

At that point, I wasn't sure what approach to take, so I set the puzzle aside, which is very unusual for me! I usually like to solve my puzzles as soon as possible. I didn't work on London Larceny again until June 10, when I decided that it was time to finish the puzzle! The top right room was first, because one piece had a notch in it, which I was sure wasn't there by accident -- and it wasn't! I actually thought that notch was kind of a giveaway. Next, I decided to work on the bottom left room. I even thought I knew what bobby should go in there. But then, after rearranging pieces for a while, a space appeared that was the shape of the OTHER bobby I had left. Ooops.

That left only the bottom right room, and of course I knew which bobby had to go into it, so I thought that it wouldn't take that long. As it turned out, I think that room actually took me longer than any of the other rooms! I just couldn't figure out what to do with the really zigzag pieces (the deer head and the lady wearing glasses). After that, fitting the thieves into the police car only took a few minutes. In fact, I found two different ways to get them to fit. I don't know whether one way is preferred over the other.

Total time to complete the puzzle: ~ 4-1/2 hours (~ 2 hours on May 15, and ~ 2-1/2 hours on June 10).

I enjoyed the challenge of the puzzle, and I am glad that I had the chance to try a new type of trick puzzle, but I am not sure that I would get another puzzle in this style. Designs with a lot of straight-edged pieces, or that don't really form a complete image, are not my favorites, visually. I would probably choose a more interlocking puzzle or one where the pieces look more like they are supposed to go together.

[Erik]

@jennifer: My pleasure... again nothing about the current configuration will prevent you from finishing, it just may make it extra hard... looking forward to the fix.

[Jennifer]

Hey all you London Larceny puzzlers... we're working on the above mentioned 'fix' as we speak. We'll be sending stuff out next week some time so watch your mailboxes. These new pieces will prevent being able to find the alternate solution that Erik discovered. Thanks for keeping Steve on his toes, Erik!

[Kelly]

Sounds good, thanks! I have a feeling this will be a difficult puzzle to begin with, so I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to make this harder on myself then necessary.

[Erik]

It affects all London Larceny, it does not prevent a solution, but it means depending on how you approach finding a solution you might hit a dead end. I suspect the "fix" will be made available to anyone who ordered the puzzle + people who get them after it is implemented.

[Yvonne]

Kelly, I was able to complete the puzzle without the fix that Erik mentioned, and I received my copy before Erik posted about the glitch in the puzzle. So, even if it affects all copies of the puzzle, it may not necessarily prevent you from being able to solve it. Erik said that the problem was with the upper left room, so based on that, I would guess that it should not affect any of the other rooms in any case.

[Kelly]

Erik, I was just wondering if the "fix" is just for your copy of London Larceny or does it impact all of the copies cut to date? I have London Larceny and was going to start working on it, but if there is a correction for all them I may wait a bit.

[Erik]

Yvonne, need to "friend" each other to send a private message here. Happy to share if you friend me back.

This is my first time testing ever and arose out of my comments about London Larceny.

[Yvonne]

I saw your post that mentioned a glitch and I wondered about that. I would love to get a better understanding of what kind of problem you found. I am not sure if the blog is the best place to discuss it, if it's going to be a spoiler, so maybe private messages?

I agreed with a lot of the comments that you posted in response to Nate's post on Cabbie Conundrum. Lucky you, for getting to test puzzles for Stave! The only ones I have tested have been prototypes at puzzle parties.

[Erik]

I've been holding off on commenting on London Larceny since Steve has promised to send me a fix for the top left room (they are redoing a small part of the art and cutting). I got hung up on the top left room for like 1-2 weeks and then had my breakthrough in the upper right. My puzzling time was longer, but would have been less/comparable BUT FOR the "problem" in the upper left.

That said, I agree with a lot of what you have to say and I'm trying to provide Steve some feedback on a prototype he sent me that I'm testing for him that is another troublemaker about how to make more of a story around what is going on.