A West Midlands nursery owner has invented a puzzle app for mobile phones which uniquely allows players to compete for a jackpot of at least £2,500, and raise money for Alzheimer’s sufferers at the same time.
Tim Edwards, owner of Boningale Nurseries, in Albrighton, near Wolverhampton, has developed Cryptic Crystals, a 3D puzzle with a host of levels to suit all abilities of players.
It’s the first app to offer such a prize fund to the person who can unlock all the different levels to the game.
A percentage of the money raised from every sale of the app will be added to the jackpot – which is guaranteed to be at least £2,500 – and the same amount donated to the Alzheimer’s Society.
Mr Edwards says the puzzle will be a great way of giving your brain a ‘workout’ - a practice which has been highlighted and encouraged by Alzheimer’s campaigners.
“There have been reports suggesting that mental stimulation – such as puzzle-solving – can help stave off the onset of Alzheimer’s,” he explained.
“I chose the charity as there seems to be a natural fit with the puzzle.
"Alzheimer’s is a truly horrific disease for both the sufferer, and everyone around them, and if sales of the app can help fund more research then I will be delighted.”
The 49-year-old, who is married with three children, said the idea for the puzzle came to him during a train journey home from London. Though a horticulturist by profession, he has a lifelong love of maths and geometry, and a particular interest in shapes.
“I’d just done a Sudoku puzzle and started wondering what a three dimensional equivalent would look like.
“Not long after, I went off to France with the family and took with me some card, sticky tape and coloured pens and, to the family’s frustration, by the end of the holiday I’d worked out the puzzle.
“I thought at first of creating a physical game, but looking at how people now do puzzles, I felt developing an app would be the best way to go.”
