Castle Emberlock

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them,” once said Walt Disney. Sadly most childhood dreams are soon put on the bookshelf, next to a few favorite books, and perhaps an action figure, baseball or Rubik’s Cube. But not always. Benno Baatsen, who began designing puzzle boxes when he was around ten years old, has kept his dreams, and his limitless ideas, alive. It has been impressive to watch him evolve as a designer and producer, taking advantage of the modern tools that have become available to allow his ideas into the realm of reality. His newest creation is his most ambitious yet, with roots that took hold all the way back at the beginning.

“When I was around 14 I was already very into puzzles. One day my dad told me he was going to visit a friend from college who apparently had “a puzzle chest” with all sorts of compartments. I remember being hyped about it for days because it sounded like the coolest puzzle ever. When he finally went I came with him to try the puzzle chest.

The chest looked very fancy, decorated with engravings on the outside. Unfortunately it turned out to be a simple chest with little trays stacked inside like it was 3D tetris. It was quite the disappointment. Ever since I’ve wanted to make a big puzzle box which would feel like the puzzle I hoped to see that day. A puzzle with lots of compartments and secrets which you would keep discovering over and over again. I’ve made a lot of puzzles over the years, but I feel like this is finally a puzzle that truly captures the feeling I had in my head of the puzzle chest.”

Benno is not alone in having had that spark of excitement at the prospect of a chest full of secrets. Many of us who enjoy this hobby are familiar with that feeling, and are always seeking the extra secret. Maybe it feels like being a child again, on an adventure from a storybook or a real life mystery. We run our hands under shelves or along drawers, tap on walls and push on bookcases … just in case there is a secret button that no one else knows about. When we solve a puzzle box, we are always making sure there isn’t just one more space that seems like it should open, an encore that some might miss if they aren’t paying close attention. For example, when I suggested the ideas for what became the Turing Chest to Nicholas Phillips, he understood and agreed with the appeal of the “finale” - although there appear to be only 6 drawers, there are actually 7 secret compartments to find.

“The initial idea behind this puzzle started a few years ago right after I made the Chess box. I just got a laser cutter and I suddenly was able to make things I wasn’t before. I started working on my biggest project, a Castle. This idea originally started as a simple square with a tower in each of the corners. After some time I had to quit working on it because I wasn’t able to make everything work, but in my head my thoughts kept returning to it. Although I stopped working on it physically I kept working on the list of ideas and mechanisms in my head.

Early in 2024 I got a new 3D printer (A bambulab P1S) which was finally able to make good looking multicolor prints. After designing the Organ puzzle box I finally knew I would be able to make the puzzle I imagined. Castle Emberlock is designed to have a very explosive start. You will discover a lot of things in a short amount of time. Even friends and family members who normally don’t really like puzzling really liked this puzzle because there are so many things to discover that it feels like you're on a roll.

Then after the initial burst of discoveries, the time between new things becomes a bit longer while still giving a feeling of constant progression. Because there is a lot to discover I tried to make sure people know what they are trying to do before the puzzle gets really difficult. My biggest fear was overwhelming the puzzler with too many things they can do. My biggest fear for this puzzle is that people will get so overwhelmed by all the things they discover, that they might miss some kind of hint or tip.”

Benno seems to know just what to say to peak our imagination and excitement about his new castle adventure. Like exploring a real castle, full of many rooms, each with a new mystery. You never know where you might need to go next, or go back to. It can be thrilling to have so many options to explore, but also overwhelming. Thankfully Benno has been thoughtful about this as well, wanting the adventure to go on and on, and to give the adventurer a real sense of freedom, but not wanting us to get completely lost.

“I really love sequential discovery puzzles that give a pure form of discovery. Trying something that suddenly works is a great feeling. Because of this I didn’t want the puzzle to be too linear so there would be a lot of things to discover at the same time. However, I still want everything to come together in the end. In the Flying Dutchman I did this by combining multiple puzzles to get a code. However, I didn’t like leaning on a cipher lock, so I designed the castle around a central puzzle which requires 8 things. This really helped make the puzzle feel cohesive while at the same time giving me a lot of design freedom.”

Going on a treasure hunt for many objects which are all part of a larger, meta-puzzle grand finale, is an incredibly fun way to design a lengthy, intricate and enjoyable puzzle. It reminds me of other truly epic puzzle adventures, like the Secretum Cista chest by Jesse Born, in which many pieces of a meta-puzzle are hidden, and the Monolith by Felix Ure. These large scale chests may be epic, but they are also extremely rare and ridiculously heavy. Benno has succeeded in bringing this idea to life in a way that is much more accessible to many, and much more practical in scope and portability. His castle is still large, and dense thanks to the many mechanisms packed inside, but you can easily pick it up! Not that you need to, once you start exploring. Large puzzle chests require the designer to come up with mechanism that don’t require you to tilt or turn the puzzle over. Benno has thoughtfully included this same design concept, so you don’t need to worry about awkward manipulations of the whole castle.

All famous castles have names, derived from their locale, dynasty or lore. I was curious about Benno’s choice for his Castle, which he has given a fantastic name. “To be entirely fair, the most important part was that there couldn't be another castle with the same name. Besides that I liked the word Ember because I somehow associate it with castles. Might be because of games like Dark Souls. The word lock is more of a joke because in multiple European languages the word lock also means castle. In Dutch for instance the word "slot" means both lock and castle, which is very fitting for a puzzle Castle.”

Benno’s craftsmanship has evolved along with his designs, and his new printed puzzles are of extremely high quality. You will be impressed with this puzzle, which looks and feels like a factory produced toy. Embrace your inner child and storm the castle! Of course, the design and final appearance were developed over many years, and the current production model is incredibly complex and required a tremendous amount of effort to design, and similarly to build. If you are familiar with Benno’s prior work, you will appreciate that he makes really enjoyable puzzles, and you will marvel at the price point he has set for this incredible adventure. He told me about the process.

Castle Emberlock inspiration — Lego inspiration, courtesy of Benno Baatsen

“I started by making a frame to work with. This was based on a Lego model I built a long time ago. I made sure to change a lot of things because I don’t want to be sued by Lego. After making the frame I divided it in 6 parts to make it more manageable to work on. This way I could focus on 1 part without having to think about the rest. The parts are: The Tower, The High square, The East wing, The House, The Tub and The Frame.

The most important part was The High square. This part contains a puzzle which needs 8 parts to solve. This was fundamental for the design because it allows me to combine a lot of separate puzzles which can give you one of the 8 parts. This way I could make a lot of separate SD elements which come together in the end. Added on top of that, the tower also needs 3 other parts in order to solve. Because of this the Castle feels like 10+ puzzles combined in one.

The puzzle I used in the High square which uses 8 parts is a puzzle I made years ago. I’ve been wanting to use this puzzle in a puzzle box for a long time, but I was never able to make it work. It was very tricky to get this working properly and the most important part of the design. However project 5 (The Tub) was by far the most complex thing I’ve ever had to design on the computer. It has become an extremely detailed part. I think getting project 5 working properly took over 200 hours alone.

Castle Emberlock puzzle Benno de Grote — 100 hours but don’t sweat the incredible details just for the love of perfection …

Because the castle has so much going on I have made an insane amount of prototypes. I’ve made a picture of the discard pile. Seeing it layed out on the table makes my head dizzy thinking about how much work it was to get the castle working. 3D printing in multi color takes a lot of time because every layer of 0.2 mm it needs to switch color, which takes about 1 minute for each extra color. There is 1 part (A mural of some kind) which uses 8 colors. Because of this it takes about 75 hours to print that part alone. Fortunately if you can fit this part 72 times on the build plate it takes about 100 hours to print it 72 times. If you were to only print 1 castle it would take about 900 hours or so. After optimizing for production and combining the right prints it now takes 150 hours of print time for 1 castle.

The Castle uses 140 3D printed parts, 15 springs, 28 metal pins, 42 screws and over 200 magnets (I lose count every time). Totaling in 427+ parts. Assembly takes about 2 days for each castle. A big part of assembly is gluing all the magnets. In my next project I’m definitely going to use less magnets because I have to glue over 15.000 magnets which is driving me crazy even tho I can listen to audiobooks while doing it.

The most challenging part of production is keeping everything organized. I have a very small house and don’t have space for more than 4 3D printers, so I’m constantly juggling print files to make sure they are running 24 hours a day. I also have piles and piles of 3D printing filament and boxes with parts which are literally up to the ceiling. My work chamber is more densely packed than Ikea's Storehouse. I’ve included a picture of my work chamber to show my point.”

The video game industry is a half-trillion dollar business market that dwarfs other entertainment media. So it feels like a gift to have brilliant puzzle designers like Benno Baatsen who create self-contained, physical object adventures that play out like a video game. “One of my favorite writers, Brandon Sanderson, has written a quote in one of his books “there is always another secret”. I feel like that is the perfect way to describe this puzzle. Even when You solve the puzzle and find the gold you might have overlooked something. I hate the feeling of emptiness when you finally finish something and it is over, so for those who really crave that little extra there might even be more than gold… But secrets within secrets are extra difficult for those who seek it.”

Bastille cocktail Robert Weeks — The Bastille by Robert Weeks

Here's a toast to Castle Emberlock, for good fortune and fortitude before the siege, liquid courage while the battle rages on, and celebration after the victory is at hand. The cocktail recalls another infamous castle, the notorious French prison fortress which was liberated in 1789 during the French Revolution. A castle full of secrets not easily given up. It ideally features the French grape brandy Armagnac, the more colorful, unrefined and tastier cousin to Cognac.

Robert Weeks is a well known bartender and general manager at the Coldroom in Montreal. I recently featured another one of his excellent drinks, the Dragon Punch, which I paired with a fantastic dragon themed castle. Robert seems to like thinking about high adventure when creating his cocktails. I suspect he might enjoy these puzzles, too. The Bastille, one of the Coldroom’s signature drinks, is an “autumnal Old Fashioned / Manhattan twist” featuring a few of Week’s favorite ingredients. He mentioned to me that “Basically I love Benedictine and believe it makes pretty much every drink better. Aged Cognac and Armagnacs sometimes get these really good stone fruit, figs and date flavours. So just thought all worked really well together.” It just might be the perfect drink for storming the castle. Cheers!

Castle Emberlock puzzle and Bastille cocktail — keys to the kingdoms

The Bastille by Robert Weeks

1 ½ oz Armagnac

¾ oz Lillet Blanc

¾ oz Benedictine D.O.M.

2 dashes Black Walnut butters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass over a large cube.

continue the siege

Keys to the Castle

Castle Emberlock

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