ABOUT BOXENTRIQ

It all started with a web puzzle

Back in October 2015 I launched the web puzzle Boxen, but it was only available in my native Swedish. It became popular beyond all expectations, and notorious for its difficulty. Only about 10 persons people managed to solve all 30 levels; the first Joel Eriksson, also known as the man who solved the mysterious Cicada 3301 puzzle.

Cicada 3301 was one of my biggest inspirations

I’ve always loved brainteasers. The combination of really difficult logical puzzles, and the various theories about who Cicada 3301 really are, caught my attention. I liked Cicada 3301 a lot also because it required not only technical skills to complete. I hadn’t been as fascinated since I read Gödel, Escher, Bach in my youth.

This led me not only to late nights of puzzle solving, but also to research hacker culture and other shadowy organizations. I thought I should do a puzzle game on this theme myself.

Much patience

Following the popularity of Boxen, I decided to create something bigger (and in English). I funded it through Kickstarter around spring 2016. My backers have shown extreme patience, because I was a big time optimist and thought I would be finished with the new game during that same year. Instead I kept getting new ideas, and at one point I even rewrote the entire game.

From Boxen to Boxentriq

I decided to change from Boxen to Boxentriq to make it more unique. The original name, Boxen, came from “thinking outside of the box” (or rather its Swedish translation). Boxentriq also contains the elements "eccentric", "iq" and "trick", which are words that I think really do represent the game.

An unusual game

I’ve seen many other puzzle games, with high to exceptional difficulty. However, they usually aren't much more than a bunch of puzzles, not related through any story or path. Many puzzles require too much guess work, and can be impossible to solve without heavy hints from others or the solution itself. That’s frustrating to puzzlers who enjoy the satisfaction of finding the answers themselves.

Boxentriq contains a varied mix of carefully balanced puzzles, which require a combination of witty reasoning, lateral thinking and technical skills to solve. All related through a storyline. It also contains many twists and surprises, awaiting those who dare to try it.

- Johan