Monkey Pod Games|Blog

Thanksgiving is the holiday of coming together with family and friends to give thanks. But what exactly does it mean to give thanks? At Monkey Pod Games, giving thanks is about looking at the past and how that past has helped us become who we are today.

Millions of us this Thanksgiving will give thanks to our parents for loving us, our friends for being there for us, or our favorite football team for scoring with two minutes left in  the game and everything on the line!  Keeping alive this tradition,we want to give thanks to some of the major puzzle makers who have inspired us beyond all imagine. To whom we are grateful to and to whom we wake up everyday to keep the dream of puzzle making alive.

– Sam Loyd (1841-1911): One of the best chess players in the world, author of Book of Tangram Puzzles (such as our Egg Tangram Puzzle), and creator of difficult brain teasers  such as the Trick Donkeys and Back from the Klondike. He was also a recreational mathematician!

-Piet Hein (1905-1996): Inventor of the Soma Cube, Hein was a Danish scientist, mathemetician, inventor, poet, designer, and author. He studied at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen and was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale in 1972. He invented the Soma Cube in 1933 during a lecture on quantum mechanics!

-Howard Garns (1905-1989): A former Captain of the US Army Corps of Engineers and native of Indiana, Garns was famous for creating the game known today as Sudoku. However, his fame was only gained sadly after his death. Until his game achieved worldwide fame as Sudoku, it was originally known as Number Place.

-George Howard Monks (1855-1933): Born in Boston, Massachuessets, Monks (a graduate of Harvard Medical School) created the game Halma with Mathemetician Thomas Hill. From Halma, the game Chinese Checkers was created – a modern and simplified version. He also created the game Basilinda and would go on to have a long and successful career as a surgeon.

Feel like saying thanks to someone and adding to our thank list? Just write in who you like in the comment section!

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Monkey Pod Games!