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Letters In Boxes #13
This week's Letters In Boxes challenge was going to be themed around origami. And it was really cool too, because the last puzzle involved making a crane. Unfortunately, things didn't entirely work out, and that idea had to be scrapped. However, if you still want to have an official Letters In Boxes origami crane, here's what you do: Print out this week's puzzles on a square sheet of paper (we recommend 12"x12" scrapbooking paper so it has a cool background), then find instructions for making an origami crane and fold away!
Origami cranes are the least of your worries for this week though, as all you have to do here is solve four puzzles. Here's how to play: Below, you'll find your first puzzle. Click on it to open it up in a new window. When you think you've solved it, change the filename in your browser's address bar (in this case, "thirteenth") to your answer, using all lowercase letters and keeping the same directory and extension. (Note that there will be one two-word answer in today's puzzles; enter that as a single word without spaces.) If your answer is right, you'll fly through to the next puzzle. If you're wrong, you'll get an error message, but feel free to back up and try again.
This batch of puzzles contains four puzzles to solve. On the fourth puzzle, you'll find the email address for sending your final answer. We'll hand out a prize to the first correct entry we receive, plus one additional randomly-selected correct entry. Please include your Casual Gameplay account display name with your entry. You must be at least 13 years of age to enter. Only one submission per participant, please. Offer void where prohibited. Your deadline for submitting your answers is Monday, September 5th at 11:59 PM (GMT-5:00). Good luck, and happy solving!
Update: Congratulations to the following winners! :D
Both winners were given a choice of prizes. Congratulations and thanks for playing with us! Look for another Letters in Boxes again soon!
- fretty ...First!
- donhuando
Aw man. I'm pretty proud of my ability to fold an origami crane, and now you tell me my mad folding skillz are useless?
#1 - fairly easy
Hint:
A pair of scissors will help you
It has been mentioned in the email for the winners that the drawing for the big prize would be held around August 31st. But now that there's another LIB with a prize drawing, has the big prize drawing been postponed?
[No, it hasn't been postponed. We're still waiting on 1 of the winners of LIB #12 to confirm before we hold the drawing. We'll announce the winner soon in a special blog entry about it on the main JIG homepage. -Jay]
Okay Jay, but does this then mean that future LIB will be with prizes as well? I knew you were gonna continue having a weekly LIB after the big drawing, I just figured it would be without prizes.
[We're awarding prizes to 2 winners this week. Nothing is set in stone. We would love to continue to offer prizes, and even another grand prize drawing sometime. -Jay]
Got #1 really quickly, now stuck on #2.
I notice that if you take that bit dangling off the bottom (HING/ALLH/TO/GO), rotate it 90 degrees, and flip it upside down, it fits into a spot on the left. But that yields no real results that I can see.
I'm having trouble with #2 as well.
The only thing I've noticed is that all the bits sticking out are multiples of 2 squares in length and width.
#2 has me stumped too.
I'm thinking the text is a red herring and it is all down to the shape. Probably wrong though.
I'm stuck at #2 also.
You can read the text as one big advertisement for a house sale, but what does the shape have to do with helping determine which letters are important? That's got to be the key, right?
Whew, #2 is owning me. I've folded and contorted my printout enough this afternoon that I'll need a new one to take home with me to work on later.
Has anyone figured out #4 yet, i think I know what to do but can't make sense of it.
#2 - Here's a hint:
https://jayisgames.com/images/lettersinboxes/thirteenth.gif
Totally amazed I got that, BTW.
Done! I hope I was the first.
For #2:
You need to do a bit of tiling
Well done jiffypop / fretty.
More of a hint please? I am completely stumped.
There was a reason for giving you a clear outline of a shape in the first puzzle
@MdB
Notice any self-similarity in #1?
Thanks - On to #3
I'm still stumped on #2, even with the hints.
I'm thinking that I either need to cut the figure into smaller pieces and then assemble them like #1. But there are 37 2x2 squares so they can't fit together in a rectangle.
Or maybe I have to use parts of #1 where the holes are. But there are multiple options for some of the hole, and doing that doesn't seem to make any words.
#3 - Non Americans be ready to get google out to find the answer.
@ThemePark:
Your math skills are getting in your way.
@ThemePark:
As you say, there are 37 2x2 squares. Each triangular shape is 6 2x2 squares.
Without getting into floating-point division, what is 37/6? You get a quotient, but what else do you get?
#2 Hint
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation
The question is what shape to use?
You have come across it before.
Oh dear, doesn't it quite work? - I wonder if the bit left over is important???
Thanks for the hints, I wouldn't have noticed that in a million years.
After this, #3 and #4 were a breeze. But all the puzzles were very clever, so kudos to Steve for making what I consider to be the best LIB to date.
Hmmm. #4
Can somebody give me a hint before I'm off to bed?
I'm guessing it is an overlay of one of the previous questions and you just read the answer off. The thing is which one? The obvious one (the same shape) doesn't give anything sensible and I've been through the others rotating etc as necessary.
Stuck on #4 of all puzzles. Seems like there should be an obvious answer, but all I get is gibberish.
The exact orientation of the shape only occurs once in the previous puzzles, so I figured the solution would simply have been to pick out the letters from that section in order from 1-9. But that doesn't seem to spell anything.
#4:
Have you checked all 16 possibilities?
Thanks, OtherBill.
I think it was the fact that there was exactly ONE of the pictured orientations that kept throwing me off. And the fact that there hasn't been a lot of trial-and-error puzzles in the series so far.
I have now. Thanks OtherBill
If you are having trouble with #4,
consider breaking out Photoshop and the opacity filter.
I'm glad to hear Letters in Boxes will not end even after the grand prize drawing!
I also want to give some praise for puzzle #3. Even though it was relatively simple, I enjoy the puzzles that go a step beyond the simple .gif drawn in a paint program. I like the trend of slipping in one non-standard puzzle image in the group.
If I don't have a printer, how work-intensive is puzzle #2 to do by hand? Would I be able to manage with a paint program, or would that get hairy?
I'm stuck on #3. Can anyone help?
#3:
You should be able to get three common english words without too much trouble. Those three words together describe the answer. A google search may be in order. The solution is two words, no space between them.
Just to see if I'm on the right track with #2:
Am I going to be chopping this up into the same shapes I chopped #1 up into?
An Onyx Mouse:
Yes. After you're done, you should have a short word left over.
JIGuest, about #2:
You don't really need a printer; I was able to do it in MS Paint.
@JIGuest:
As long as you can recognize the shape, you can simply blot out the squares.
The important part is being able to identify the remainder.
Ah, got it! Thanks nerdypants (and all other hint-givers.)
Now on to #3...
What th-- What is this, Q-Bert?
Finished! I was approaching 2 completely wrong.
I was trying to assemble the pieces into some sort of answer. Pay close attention to what you are left over with.
The only origami I know how to make is a Fortune Teller...
Hints for all!
#1:
Cut on the line. (And remember the shape!)
#2:
One big shape? Or lots of little, identical shapes (with one tiny square left over)?
#3:
Left, right, top. Six letters each.
#4:
I hope you saved all those little pieces from #2. You can rotate them, but only one will fit!
Well, that was fun, as usual, but I have no idea what any of the prizes were so far. Any previous winners able to fill me in?
[We're giving away a choice of prizes: (1) a free game from Big Fish Games, or (2) a free game from GOG.com. -Jay]
Woo, got 3 and 4! :D Kudos for the kick in the pants I needed, Ryusui.
I think this is my favourite LiB so far! I think all the LiBs so far were all pretty tough and yet fun, but this one is my favourite style of puzzles :)
I barely started and I'm already done with #1 and #2 :D
Does anyone need hints / help for those two?
And done!
That was awesome. Though fairly easy, but the puzzles had great concepts.
Thanks for the hints everyone, mostly Ryusui who always gives some out for all puzzles :D
Good luck for the drawing, and see you next week.
Probably in the top 3 easiest LIBs, but still fun.
Once I deciphered the clue to #3, the answer was super easy. Then again,
I'm from Detroit!
@MdB:
I'm pretty sure there's a country other than America who will have no problem with #3.
Alright ray9na!!! Another "Winger"!
This edition of LIB did seem easier than most. Then again, I think anything would've looked easier after LIB #12. The first puzzle seemed too easy -
all you really need is a pair of scissors
#2 posed a bit of a hurdle for me since
I kept trying to fold the puzzle into a box, thinking "Letters in boxes"
#3 again seemed almost too simple because
you can read the clue right onscreen, then plug it into Google if you don't know the answer
And #4 gives the best hint/spoiler right on the screen
you just have to find the right group out of the eight you have from puzzles #1 and #2
Thanks again for a great game!
I like this week's puzzles.
The theme that runs through all of them makes them easier, but also more connected. If only the last puzzle wasn't so reliant on the previous ones, I think this weeks puzzles would be the best so far.
This is the first week I participated in the LiB contest. What fun!!! After working out these puzzles, I went back and worked through all twelve prior series of puzzles. Wow! I found most of them to be far more difficult than this week's series. Good thing there were lots of hints or I would have never gotten through all 50 or so puzzles.
Kudos to Steve.
I need help with #4
I have the 8 groups, but I can't seem to take a word out of it. Do I need to anagram the 9 letters?
@Rgandum
No need to anagram, just read them in order 1-9. Make sure you're holding the groups the right way.
Funny how these things work so differently for different people. I see a handful of commenters saying that this was the easiest ever, and that last week's was the hardest. Like I said last week, as a mathematician, I breezed right through those, but this week's stumped me. I looked at #2 for the longest time, read a bunch of clues, and even once I figured it out, it seemed too far-fetched. The last one completely stumped me, and while I see from the clues others have left behind that I was on the right track, I don't have the patience to finish this one in the end.
This was definitely the hardest week for me, but I still look forward to more!
How did you fare with this week's puzzles? Here are the answers:
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 1 Answer
To solve this first puzzle, you need to imagine cutting along that zig-zagging line through the middle of the grid. If you take the top piece and shift it to the right and down so that it becomes a wider and shorter rectangle, you get the message LETS STALL THE SOLUTION FOR A BIT THE KEY TO THE NEXT IS BAKE. BAKE is the answer to this puzzle.
Puzzle 2
Puzzle 2 Answer
This puzzle might look like a mess of blocks, but the key to solving it was already given to you in the first puzzle. Remember that staircase-y shape? It can be placed multiple times over the letters in this grid (rotating the shape for some positions). In the end, there are four unused letters near the middle of the grid that spell TIES. Also, keep an eye on that shaded staircase, as it will come in handy later.
Puzzle 3
Puzzle 3 Answer
This puzzle was a lot like the cut-and-paste puzzle featured a few LIBs ago, except I've already done all the work of cutting and pasting for you. If you looked at the shape (oh look, it's that staircase-y thing again!) from the left, right, and top angles, you'd find the words FAMOUS, HOCKEY, and TROPHY. If the STANLEYCUP wasn't already running through your mind, a quick Google search could solve that for you.
Puzzle 4
Puzzle 4 Answer
Finally, the fourth puzzle required you to revisit all the staircases you encountered before and discover which would give a word when the numbered letters are taken in order. If you remember that shaded shape from puzzle two, you'll see that the word FIREFLIES can be taken using the selected letters.
Winners will be announced soon!
Update