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Singapore a puzzle hub? Another shoddy reporting by the state media

October 1, 2009 by admin01  
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From our Correspodent with tip-off by a reader, Benjamin

In an article published on TODAY by Kenny Chee, he claimed that Singapore is becoming a puzzle hub with “made-in-Singapore” puzzle games becoming a world hit. (read article here)

He used the example of a “Shady Puzzle” supposedly invented by a 40-year old SMU professor Dr Mark Nowacki to corroborate his claim:

“DOCTOR Mark Nowacki created number puzzle Shady Puzzle in 2005 to teach his students here logical thinking. But a surprise awaited the 40-year-old Singapore Management University assistant professor and founder of the LogicMills School of Thinking. So many students and their parents asked him for more puzzles that he decided to release a book of the puzzles here last December.

Shady Puzzle is one of several made-in-Singapore logic puzzles that have been developed in the last 10 months.”

Sub article on how to play:

[Players have to figure out how many squares in a grid they have to shade with the help of number clues.]

However, according to one of our readers, Benjamin who just emailed us, he had been playing this as early as 1996.

“Even the Nintendo has released several game titles of this puzzle concept when the NDS console was launched. Clearly this is not an original Singapore idea. This “shady” puzzle is actually called a nonogram,” he added. (read more here)

Benjamin also wondered if the “Mindstrat Puzzles” can be considered a “Made-in-Singapore” puzzle game as it was designed by a PR and not a citizen:

“It is also amusing to note that the article states a home-grown start-up company designed the cubedron.

“Mindstrat Puzzles” was founded by Mr Siva Subramaniam (PR) and Mr Pantazis Constantine Houlis (a Greek).
 
What is questionable is whether the cubedron was designed overseas then brought into Singapore via Mr Siva, or did Mr Siva really designed the puzzle in Singapore.

Either way, Mr Siva being a PR and all, clearly means the cubedron was not designed by a Singaporean.

Ergo, the title of the article “Made-in-Singapore Puzzle Game: A World Hit” is really misleading. Yes the puzzle was designed in Singapore. No, the puzzle was not a Singaporean born idea.”

It appears that in another attempt to suck up to its political masters, the state media has unwittingly scored another own goal again.

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20 Comments on "Singapore a puzzle hub? Another shoddy reporting by the state media"

  1. randomnessinmind on Thu, 1st Oct 2009 7:02 pm 

    I never heard of Shady Puzzle lol. Nonogram, yes, but shady puzzle? There’s a book on that?

  2. cy on Thu, 1st Oct 2009 8:20 pm 

    there was an article abt a vest with cooling function being invented by singapore. later, i saw in another news also a vest with cooling functions though of slightly different design invented in india.

    guess it is like the darwin/ wallace story abt who invented evolution first.

  3. jack on Thu, 1st Oct 2009 10:29 pm 

    The title of the referenced article is not (no longer?) what you mentioned in your post.

    Now, I wouldn’t be the first to credit local newspapers with the highest quality of article writing, though to suppose that the term “made in Singapore” is misleading when a product is in fact made/manufactured in Singapore sounds a bit like a stretch to me actually.

  4. Pantazis on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 1:11 am 

    Hi, my name is Pantazis Houlis. Just to clarify some questions, the puzzle is indeed manufactured in Singapore (and creating jobs), and I am the inventor and patent holder. I could do this elsewhere, but my love for Singapore has been existing for decades (my first visit as a toddler was in 1977). It is no coincidence that I chose Singapore as the place where me and Siva could combine our knowledge and achieve miracles. This puzzle has been hailed by many other great inventors (including Erno Rubik – I was in Hungary last month), and my goal is to use my connections and make Singapore an important place to the puzzle world. I am an IPP (International Puzzle Party) Member, and I plan one day to help bring the IPP in the city of Lions. Maybe the mind behind the puzzle is not Singaporean, but one of the reasons we are doing this, is to INSPIRE locals to be as creative. And the chances increase when they are surrounded by magical object like puzzles. Not only that, Singapore is known for the high quality of manufacturing. We could do this in China for very cheap, but I have high expectations when it comes to quality and IP protection. Nothing less, nothing more. And while the Cubedron prototype was made in Australia (where I live), puzzles like the Krystalledron, DoTS, etc, had their prototypes made in Singapore. Regards from Perth. :-)

  5. Siva on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 9:22 am 

    Hi, I am Siva the co-founder of MindStrat Puzzles. As Pantazis says, the puzzles are indeed produced in Singapore. We designed, produced, packaged, distributed from Singapore.
    We filed for Patent from Singapore. Further the design support or design director is a Singaporean. The only side that is not part of Singapore is raw materials. Hopefully in future we can source raw materials from Singapore. Hopefully with your support we can even acheive that. Then my goal of showing Singapore as an alternate centre for puzzles is near complete.
    Then it is up to fellow Singapreans to see if they want to develop this capabilities further.

    I am proud of our journey so far. I hope you too will be one day appreciate our efforts.

  6. Siva on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 9:38 am 

    To add further to Pantazis comments, yes the products are designed, produced, manufactured, packaged, distributed in Singapore. The patent is filed from Singapore law firm. The design director is Singaporean. We are evaluating to see if we can even source raw materials from Singapore.
    Pantazis is co-founder of MindStrat Puzzles.

  7. sheldon on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 10:14 am 

    siva

    so did you guys develop the concept from the nonogram? were you guys aware of the nonogram before coming up with the shady puzzle?

    just curious.:)

  8. Siva on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 11:07 am 

    Hi Sheldon
    MindStrat Puzzles are world first gravity based mathematical puzzles and fall under sequential logical/mathematical puzzles. Sequential puzzles are Rubik Cube, V-CUBEs, Pyraminx and etc. Nonogram are something like paint by numbers or gridlers or others and fall in other type of logic puzzles.

  9. Pantazis on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 11:14 am 

    Hi again!

    Well, we are not related to the Nonogram or Shady puzzles. We construct mechanical puzzles (actually not twistable like Rubik’s, but by using gravity), such as the Cubedron and other gravity puzzles. We plan to continue to expand into more novel ideas, and we will be delighted if more Singaporean minds can be involved. Moreover, the “Puzzle Ninja Meeting” we organised last month (30th of August) was a big success, and many Singaporean speed solvers demonstrated that they can be very fast (we also did 3×3x3, 4×4x4, and 5×5x5 competitions). I was amazed myself by their times! So far, we have invested many thousands of dollars using our own pocket money (we used zero Singapore government money) and the buzz we made is too big for any overseas country to fail to notice. So Singapore is already on the “Puzzle Map”. And always remember, we do not take away jobs, we create new jobs! ;-)

  10. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 2 Oct 2009 on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 11:32 am 

    [...] – The Temasek Review: MM Lee’s misplaced “optimism” about Russia – The Temasek Review: Singapore a puzzle hub? Another shoddy reporting by the state media – Temasek Hedge: S-chips: SGX wins, Singapore loses [Thanks [...]

  11. sheldon on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 12:53 pm 

    pantazis

    oh you are from another company. cool. my question should be directed to dr mark instead. sounds dodgy, don’t you think?

    gravity puzzles seems pretty neat! all the best to you guys!!! i might buy one if it’s reasonably priced.

    puzzle hub…hmmm….pretty relevant to human capital only singapura. niche niche!

  12. Benjamin on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 3:05 pm 

    Dear Siva and Pantazis,

    Thank you for taking your time to clarify things with us.
    It is good to know the concept was designed in Singapore and you guys are branding Singapore with your puzzles.

    It us just that the misleading article and inaccurate claims by the main stream media made me raise a few questions on the subject.

    First the journalist claims Dr Mark to be the creator of the nanogram. He then mentions the nanogram is a “unique concept crafted in singapore 10 mths back”. Which clearly is not.

    Due the top half of the article being dodgy, it made me question the reliability of the bottom half which mentions the cubedron.

    Again, thank you for clarifying with us.
    I wish you all the best with your future puzzles.

    -Benjamin

  13. cy on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 4:17 pm 

    these entrepreneurs are better than our officials,they are quick and clear in responding.

  14. Pantazis on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 7:33 pm 

    Many thanks to everyone for the kind words. Me and Siva are actually very excited that we have entered this puzzle adventure.

    And talking about mistakes, by completing a Doctorate in Engineering (and a Master’s Degree in Mathematics), I guess the article should be referring to me as Dr, not Mr! (I am just kidding here, as I do not expect everyone to know my qualifications!)

    Please refer to our website http://www.mindstratpuzzles.com (which will soon be professionally renovated) for future events or puzzles. We really have big plans! Regards from Perth.

  15. Ivan Loo on Sat, 3rd Oct 2009 1:44 pm 

    Hi Sheldon,

    My name is Ivan, and I am the co-writer of the Shady Puzzle book. I’d like to assure readers that the Shady Puzzle as a concept was independently created by Dr. Nowacki for his university logic course several years ago in late 2004. The Shady Puzzle name is a registered trademark here in Singapore and the creation of Shady Puzzles, as well as the printing and manufacturing of Shady Puzzle books are done locally.

    We happily acknowledge that nonograms, picross, paint by numbers, hanjie (also independently created themselves and with slightly different goals) had already existed when we created the puzzles. We were even about to apply for IP rights until we discovered these ourselves – imagine our own personal disappointment! So even though we won’t claim full originality over the concept, we still claim they were independently created by Dr. Nowacki right here in Singapore, for his SMU classes, because that’s true.

    You can read about the various many forms of these puzzles and how some of their creators invented them across the Internet. However, this Wikipedia page is a good place to start to check out many of the puzzle variants in this genre and their slight differences. Rest assured we will be including the Shady Puzzle’s Singapore story into that entry very soon as well.

    With puzzles based on logic, which is common standard across cultures, there are bound to be overlaps in thought and design every now and then. Despite our own disappointment at this not being a unique invention like we had initially thought, we are passionate about this being a great puzzle concept and will push it even further (with more developments instore over the next few months!) Our minions, erm sorry, ‘helpers’ (many of whom are students helping out part-time) have already started working on new shapes and more difficult concepts for puzzlers to master. So expect some crazy stuff soon!

    What Mark and I tell ourselves: Both Alexander Graham Bell and Antonio Meucci independently created the telephone – it’s just that Bell had better marketing! And we hope to do just that, with the Shady Puzzle! So if you want to find out more about what makes the Shady Puzzle distinct from all those others that came before, do check out some of our humble but fun marketing –> Blog here: http://www.shadypuzzle.com/ run by some university undergraduates. All help will be appreciated to make this big internationally!

  16. sheldon on Sat, 3rd Oct 2009 4:02 pm 

    ivan loo

    just one question. was dr mark aware of nonogram when he was developing shady puzzle?

  17. Ivan Loo on Sat, 3rd Oct 2009 5:14 pm 

    Hey Sheldon,

    Nope, he was not. In fact, neither of us had even heard of nonograms until late 2008 when while doing some publicity for our first book, someone mentioned to me a similar puzzle game called Picross. After that, we found a whole family of games similar to our creation, in a genre known as nonograms. We then adapted our direction slightly and continue to push forward with the Shady Puzzle. In a sense, it’s a bit easier for us now because there are communities of puzzlers out there who are already interested in these puzzles.

    Oh, I almost forgot, one of our adapted objectives was to help build the community surrounding these puzzles as well. We have been actively in contact with various nonogram and hanjie makers since discovering them and are always seeking to collaborate with them in helping this particular puzzle community grow. Our goal is to raise awareness for this family of puzzles, because as puzzle developers, it can only help us!

    So it wouldn’t look good if we even *try* to disassociate ourselves from them! =) Have a look at our twitter friends (connect from shadypuzzle.com blog), which include nonograms and griddlers (another form of the game) – we even included them in our description. The Twitter page is only just starting to grow though..

  18. sheldon on Sat, 3rd Oct 2009 6:17 pm 

    ivan loo

    thanks for the clarification. appreciated. :)

  19. anon on Sun, 4th Oct 2009 11:26 am 

    made in singapore doesn’t have to be done by a singaporean.

  20. Pantazis Houlis on Mon, 5th Oct 2009 3:42 pm 

    Hi again, I am glad that all is explained now. I believe that with a combined effort, we can prove that Singapore can be an ideal source for puzzles which can be exported to many places internationally. We know that our puzzles are good (especially after all those wonderful comments we received), but at the same time, it is a huge honor for us to be mentioned in top newspapers and websites. I would like to thank Straits Times, Asia One, My Paper, and all journalists who reinforce our effort to spread the word of usefulness of puzzles. Just like the cardio exersize is good for the body, puzzles are the perfect exersize for the mind. I know we made the best choice when we decided to start the company in Singapore. We love everything associated with multicultural Singapore, especially the kindness of the people, the laws, the strategical/geographical location, the passion when seeking for knowledge, and I must also say, the food! :-)
    Regards from Perth.