I know many users are still modding 1.17.1 and that this mod is fairly new, but would it be possible to backport to 1.17.1? I am making a modpack (not shared) and would like to include this, however my modpack runs 1.17.1.

You could try the current version of Puzzle on 1.17.1, there weren't any changes required to update Puzzle to 1.18, I just had to do it to support newer versions of certain mods.

Ok, will do. Thanks!

Update: using the 1.18 version does not work with 1.17.1, code needs to be changed to support Java 16 and minecraft 1.17.1

I just tried it and it worked fine, there might be problems with mod integration, as many 1.17 versions of mods aren't being updated anymore. For that reason I would strongly recommend you to update your modpack to 1.18, a lot of mods are already working in 1.18 and there are many new mods coming out for it everyday.

where can I find the 1.17.1 version of your mod? Just needing to test some features.

I used the 1.18 version