Balls by Gamezaur: an update

About a month ago I was playing Balls by Gamezaur.  It's a point scoring game.

When my high score was 1800, I couldn't believe that anybody could do much better. At the time I was # 7 or 8 on the Leaderboard.

I came up with a modified strategy and now I'm at the top of the Leaderboard with 5600.

My tips:
1. Whenever you have a choice, always opt to score points with the balls that are caged in place.
2. Whenever you score points with 4 in a group, it eliminates 3 of them and leaves 1 with wings that can go anywhere.  That winged ball must always be used to knock out another piece. Never put it in a blank space.
3. Always try to get a group of 5. 4 will be eliminated. The 1 that remains will be a bomb that will wipe out a 3x3 area.  Make sure the bomb is activated in the middle, not on the edges.
4. When things get very crowded - you're in trouble. You may have a choice to eliminate 3 reds or 3 blues.  Choose the color that is more in the center. If your last holes are on the edges, it's bad news.
5. Once you've cracked 3000, then you've done everything right. The game can theoretically go on forever.  Take breaks.  I'm looking forward to my high score getting smashed.

Pentacle Pentagram Puzzle by Yukang Wu $15

Pentacle Pentagram Puzzle comes from Yukang Wu.  The internal mechanism is a 3x3. However, there are no edges.

Also, in order to turn the puzzle, the circles have to be lined up along one of the lines.

Scrambling and solving this puzzle is slow going! You may turn the top face once, but every turn thereafter requires constant orienting of the circles.

So far, I've solved it once.

This puzzle is extremely well made.  I got mine for about $15 on ebay.  Search Pentacle Pentagram.

Kickstarter Project of an acquaintance

Jordan Gold is a magician whom I know from attending the Gathering 4 Gardner conferences.  He's got an interesting new product.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxtemkin/magic-puzzles?fbclid=IwAR25KkM4Mw_06xT7zJvpLjqjU8IpX5gAJedoy2oVnHvIpBZqvMvV1um4_v8

Shape Fold by Domas Kazragis FREE

Shape Fold comes from Domas Kazragis. The object is to create/discover the hidden images by revolving parts along the curved orbits. The first two images show finished image/solutions. The last image shows how each puzzle starts out.

 Many of the pieces are connected via hinges.  Problems arise very quickly when pieces crash into each other.

I was not expecting to like this game.  I've done 80 of the 300 levels.

Nice job Domas!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shape-fold/id1491412811