Alexander Magyarics: The Full-Time Puzzle Designer
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Quick answer: Alexander Magyarics spent years producing designs at a pace most people could not match with all day free, while holding down a job. He now designs mechanical puzzles full time, which almost nobody in this field gets to do. His packing designs are among the most admired being made today.
Best for: solvers who want a designer to follow rather than a single puzzle to finish.
Almost every great puzzle designer has a day job. Mathematicians, engineers, woodworkers, retirees. The designing happens in evenings and at weekends, which is why most of them release one or two things a year and why a good design can take years to reach anyone.
Magyarics had a job too, and it made no difference. The designs came out at a rate that would be impressive from somebody doing nothing else, and they kept coming.
He now does it full time. That is a job perhaps a handful of people on earth hold, and it did not come first. The output came first, and the job followed it.
Prolific Before He Had the Time
Kevin Sadler at PuzzleMad was calling him the unbelievably prolific Alexander Magyarics back in 2021, years before the job became the puzzles. That is the part worth sitting with: the word was already the obvious one to reach for while this was still something he did around other work.
MagneTeam. Pillar. Collator. 6L. Pedals. Sliders, and Sliders 2. Hydrant. Wishing Well. Con-Fusion. Gelateria. Jagsaw VI. Persistence of Memory. One Way or Another. That is a partial list, and most of it is packing puzzles, which is the form he has made his own.
Kevin's assessment after several years of them is short: these designs by Alexander just get more and more spectacular. Going full time has not slowed any of it down.
Designs With Enormous Numbers of Solutions
Here is the part that makes him an artist rather than a technician.
Most designers chase the unique solution. One answer, no alternatives, and the satisfaction comes from finding the only path. That is a legitimate goal and plenty of great puzzles are built that way.
Magyarics also works the opposite end, building puzzles with very large numbers of valid solutions. It sounds as though that should make them easier. It does not. It changes what the puzzle is: instead of hunting one answer you are navigating a space where many arrangements work and you still cannot see a single one of them from where you are standing. The pleasure is different, and it repeats, because the puzzle does not die the moment you solve it once.
Gelateria is the clearest expression of that instinct. A five by eight tray, ten tetrominoes, and a set of black blockers that drop into holes to close off squares. Move the blockers and the problem changes, and the sheet that comes with it sets forty-eight separate challenges. Kevin and a friend could not solve it between them in an hour.
The Ones We Carry
Alpacka 1 is a shallow frame with a recessed grid. Each of the six pieces is a flat bar carrying upright posts, and those posts stand proud of the frame, with a single empty cell to work in.
So pieces are routed rather than placed, past posts that block the squares you need. Our own description puts it better than I can: the puzzle acts as a maze, and most of the dead ends are not in the puzzle but inside your head. Alpacka 2 is the sequel, because he does not consider an idea finished when it works once.
Both are rated Hard and run one to four hours, and both reward the same habit: work out the route before you move anything.
Who Chooses to Make His Work
There is a test in this field that cuts through opinion, and Kevin states it plainly: you can tell the designs are really good when craftsmen like Brian Menold and Jakub Dvorak use them.
Both do. His designs go to Pelikan and to Wood Wonders, the same benches that cut Andrew Crowell's turning interlocking cubes, and Cubic Dissection has made them too. In 2026 his One Way or Another took a Jury Honorable Mention at the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition.
Kevin adds that Alexander has quite rightly earned his place attending an IPP, and that he is delightful to talk to. Having met him, I would put it more strongly than that.
Ours are 3D printed, which is how they stay affordable and in stock while the hardwood editions sell out fast. That trade-off is set out in 3D-printed vs wooden puzzles.
Which Magyarics Puzzle to Start With
Alpacka 1 first, because the sequel assumes you have met the idea. Everything of his we stock is in the Alexander Magyarics collection, the form is packing puzzles, and the wider category is mechanical puzzles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Alexander Magyarics?
A Slovak puzzle designer and one of very few people who design mechanical puzzles full time. He is exceptionally prolific, works mainly in packing puzzles, and his designs are produced by Pelikan, Wood Wonders and Cubic Dissection. His One Way or Another took a Jury Honorable Mention at the 2026 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition.
How many puzzles has Alexander Magyarics designed?
More than a list here would capture. MagneTeam, Pillar, Collator, 6L, Pedals, Sliders, Hydrant, Wishing Well, Con-Fusion, Gelateria, Jagsaw VI and Persistence of Memory are a sample. He was producing at that rate before he went full time, which is the unusual part.
What is the Alpacka puzzle?
How hard are Magyarics puzzles?
Both Alpackas are rated Hard, at roughly one to four hours. Nothing about them is physically tight or fiddly. The difficulty is in planning the order, and the failure mode is reaching a position that cannot be completed.
Are Magyarics puzzles good for beginners?
More than you would expect. Kevin Sadler at PuzzleMad made that point about Jagsaw VI: it is good for showing beginners that simple looking puzzles are not always simple. There is no dexterity involved and nothing to force.