Moving Puzzle / Puzzles in Motion

MOVING PUZZLE

CD-ROM Puzzle Ravensburger Interactive GmbH 1997
Completely Updated and Re-released for the Mobile App World:
Download Cinepuzzle App Here

Each disc contains ten thematically linked video clips transformed into puzzles. Imagine a movie cut into “tiles” and scrambled — randomly rotated and repositioned. The picture never stops moving as you work to bring a coherent movie out of the chaos. Moving Puzzle challenges our visual perception of movement and orientation.

In 1997, Von Holtzbrink Interactive, a division of Scientific American, invited me to propose an interactive project for older children. I began by asking myself, “What are computers good at?” Computers are good a manipulating data – they are very good at taking A to Z and returning Z to A – and immediately displaying the results. I began working on a series of activities, ranging from simple ciphers to toplogical exercises, all based on simple inversions. The first version was titled, “UPSIDE DOWN, INSIDE OUT & BACKWARDS.” One of the activities was based on a wood and chain puzzle from the early 20th century; I saw the chain on the grid as a path and proposed making a video puzzle. David Steuer helped develop a prototype, our first test puzzle was a clip, shot from below, of Fred Astaire dancing on a glass table top.

Eventually MOVING PUZZLE was developed as a standalone project for Ravensburger Interactive GmbH in 1998. We produced a series of ten interactive CD-ROM puzzles distributed in Europe, Latin America and Japan. The Backstreet Boys and N’SYNC titles were distributed in the U.S. as Puzzles in Motion.

Moving Puzzle was awarded the MILIA D’OR at MILIA Festival in Cannes, 1998.

Solving a Video Puzzle is a Movable Feast, GAME THEORY, J.C. Herz, New York Times October 14, 1999

MILIA’DOR PRIZE Cannes 1998