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BoxUp Puzzles

BoxUp is a compact variation on traditional Sokoban, where all boxes are hollow and open on one side. Importantly they can be moved by pushing from the inside only (not the outside). There are two sizes of boxes, small and large, the aim is always to push the small red box inside the large blue box. Black boxes may help or hinder your progress.

Update April 2023: BoxUp the iOS app has finally been updated to support all the latest ipad and iphone devices. The app includes the original set of 110 puzzles hand-selected from the data provided by Bob Henderson (USA). Bob was the first person to exhaustively explore the puzzling potential of the BoxUp concept, back in 2012. To celebrate the relaunch the app also has a new backing soundtrack provided by Robert Adams.

In 2022 BoxUp was ported to PuzzleScript. A single app replaces the original java applets and offers all previously published levels, broken down as follows:

  • The original set of 12 puzzles by Andrea Gilbert, first published in 2003.
  • A sample set of 5 Nx2 puzzles by Don O'Brien, added the same year. The max is size 6x2 with solution length 108.
  • A sample set of 12 4x3 puzzles by Bob Henderson, added in 2012. The max has solution length 153.

Example puzzle

Development notes (April 2022)

Puzzlescript Plus (maintained by Auroriax) was adopted for this port in order to make use of the larger sprite size, resulting in a presentation more in keeping with the original applet. The Puzzlescript Plus inbuilt solver function also proved very useful in order to verify I had correctly transcribed the original puzzles. A hackable version of the app is available here.

Links & related pages

concept - © Andrea Gilbert - 2003 onwards
puzzlescript implementation - © Andrea Gilbert - 2022
puzzlescript plus fork - maintained by Tom Hermans (Auroriax)
puzzle designs - © Andrea Gilbert 2003, Don O'Brien 2003, Bob Henderson 2012