It was back in the early 1970’s, about four years before the invention of Rubik’s Cube, the puzzle that would make the 3x3x3 cube ubiquitous worldwide. I had just solved an older puzzle – Soma Cubes – by assembling the seven puzzle pieces to create a 3x3x3 cube.
Rubik’s Cube
The “Aha Moment” occurred while I was holding up the cluster of cubes and admiring the elegance of this arrangement. I observed that one of the 27 smaller cubes was totally surrounded, like the core of an apple, leaving 26 exposed. I wondered: What would happen if you had 26 letter cubes – one for each letter of the alphabet, the same letter on all its faces – and you played the letter cubes into the cubicles of a 3x3x3 rack? Could you spell out words as a path between cubes that were adjacent on the surface of the rack? Thus the 3-D word game Quipto® was conceived.
Soma Cubes Assembled
I soon discovered that you can to spell out almost any single word in this way, and two players could compete to see who can spell the most words. But then I discovered an even more challenging puzzle: to spell out a whole sentence as one continuous path. While engaged in the process of developing a game rack that can securely hold Quipto® letter cubes, I created a two puzzle versions based on the game: Quip-Find™ and Quip-Bild™.
I have also worked with two friends to develop a mobile-friendly app version of the game: Quipzl™.