An Easter Egg Hunt With a Meta Puzzle

You’re probably familiar with the concept of a scavenger hunt. You might even know of the style of progressive scavenger/puzzle hunt, where one clue leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on. Folks that do puzzle events such as Puzzled Pint, Puzzle Boat, or the MIT Mystery Hunt are familiar with … Continue reading An Easter Egg Hunt With a Meta Puzzle

A Decoder-Ring Keychain

The last couple of years, I’ve made little Christmas gifts for my fellow Portland Puzzled Pint organizers. Last year, it was themed coasters. This year, I thought I’d make “code sheet” keychains. Or zipper pulls. Or lanyards. Or whatever the hip kids are calling them these days. It took a couple of design revisions to … Continue reading A Decoder-Ring Keychain

A puzzling business card

I’m going to a few conferences this summer, just for fun, not for work, representing myself. In social situations, I’ve always had “calling cards” or personal-life “business” cards with some basic internet contact info. Does anyone remember the Moo.com mini-cards that were popular back when LiveJournal was a big thing? I’ve been using some variation on … Continue reading A puzzling business card

A code sheet on every lock screen

During winter break, I typically pick up a new technology or programming language — to keep sharp and on the cutting-edge. In the past this has included 3D printing, 3D design, iOS programming, Ruby, and others. This past week, I spent a couple of days getting somewhat proficient at Processing and a couple of days … Continue reading A code sheet on every lock screen

Portland’s Escape the Room

About a decade ago, before smartphones and tablets, when Flash games were a big thing, there was a genre of Flash games known as “Escape the Room.” One of the first popular such games was The Crimson Room. I simultaneously love and hate the genre. I like the aspect of puzzling your way out of … Continue reading Portland’s Escape the Room

Puzzled Pint Portland heat map

In response to the previous post (Puzzled Pint surveys and metrics), someone had suggested building a heat map. I built a fairly primitive one with Google Earth and a short Ruby script. The radius of each circle is proportional to the number of attendees. The height is random-ish and only varies to help distinguish overlapping circles. … Continue reading Puzzled Pint Portland heat map

Introducing Puzzle Sidekick

When I last updated ARG Tools back in August, I alluded to an upcoming new version of the app called Puzzle Sidekick. I am pleased to announce that it is now available. If you are familiar with ARG Tools, you already know what it does and I suspect you will be quite happy with the … Continue reading Introducing Puzzle Sidekick