Tag Archives: space invaders

Puzzles Come to Life!

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A few years ago, I wrote about the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle, a 5 feet by 19 feet, 33,000-piece monster called “Wildlife,” which took a young puzzle enthusiast 450 hours to complete.

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That was a cool story in and of itself, but as it turns out, some other puzzlers have gone one step further, using the Wildlife jigsaw puzzle as their canvas for a stop-motion animation video.

This YouTuber, who goes by the name of Sky!, transformed the Wildlife puzzle into games of Tetris, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Mario Brothers, using completed sections of the puzzle as their gameplay elements.

It’s absolutely mind-blowing. Check it out:

Apparently, it took Sky! and a cohort over 400 hours to solve the puzzle and another 400 hours to animate the video. That is some serious dedication.

But that video got me thinking about other ways creative folks have used puzzly elements to tell stories.

And I was reminded of a video that’s been making the rounds on social media lately. It employs one of my favorite puzzle devices — a Rube Goldberg machine — to tell a story of three brothers who face danger and live to tell the tale. (They do use a bit of stop-motion animation at the start, but afterward, it’s all real-time motion.)

This is the story of a ball named Biisuke. Enjoy!

It’s adorable and even has a song! How could you not love that?

It just goes to show you there’s no end to the puzzly stories you can tell with a little creativity.

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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Light and Sheep edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And today, I thought I’d take a look back on classic video games that have found their way into the real world in curious ways.

Last week, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the puzzly video game beloved by so many, Tetris. And it was only after I posted our celebratory blog post that I realized I’d left out my favorite Tetris-themed video.

And Follow-Up Friday seems like the perfect opportunity to share it with my fellow puzzlers. So please, enjoy this video of skateboarders playing their own curious variation of Tetris while skating downhill:

Oh! That reminds me of another video-game-to-real-life translation I saw on the Internet a while back.

Did you know you can play video games with sheep? Oh yes! After some masterful choreography work, check out the work of these ingenious farmers:

And finally, I’m happy to present one of my all-time favorite Internet videos. It’s a stop-motion version of Space Invaders, played with real people in a movie theater. Need I say more?

These are not only incredibly intricate and well-executed bits of public theater; they’re a testament to what a puzzly mind can create with the time, the inclination, and a willingness to look a little bit silly. Sounds like a perfect combination to me.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!