This is the final part in a series of three, describing the hardware behind the puzzle gadget I designed for Curtis’ birthday puzzle game.
Category: Puzzle Games
The Game, Puzzled Pint, puzzle trails, puzzle magazines, and related topics
Designing the Chubby Tricorder
Part 2 in a series. The story so far: a secret surprise puzzle game, a gadget that had to “contain” a piece of paper upon opening, the decision to make that gadget electronic with screen and keypad and to make that paper printed on demand by a thermal printer. Would it work???
The Chubby Tricorder Project: designing a digital puzzle box
Recently, I had the pleasure of building a puzzle-hunt gadget. The circumstances surrounding this particular device and hunt were extremely unique. The puzzle hunt was for an audience of one — a surprise birthday party for my friend Curtis.
The mystery of The Tragedy Series
After all the recent talk about comics on the blog, and with my love of puzzles, I thought I would shift gears only slightly and draw your attention to a webcomic I enjoy: The Tragedy Series. This is a great series from a local artist with beautiful design, a dark and twisted sense of humor, and the occasional … Continue reading The mystery of The Tragedy Series
Grep for puzzle designers (and solvers)
Grep is a tool for Unix-like operating systems that performs searching within files. It’s also a great tool for many word puzzles.
ARG Tools v2.1
I hit the App Store “release” button for ARG Tools v2.1, which means it should be showing up in your iTunes and on your devices shortly. This version adds a couple of new features as well as a few reference sheets, but the important news is that this may be the final version of ARG … Continue reading ARG Tools v2.1
The Portland Afoot game
This past weekend was the Portland Afoot game. This was a sort of transit scavenger hunt put on by Portland Afoot, Portland’s 10-minute newsmagazine on buses, bikes, and low-car life. The whole event was themed like a murder mystery (who killed Faire LeSequare — that name being an inside joke for local transit buffs) and involved … Continue reading The Portland Afoot game
Exploring braille ambigrams
Last week I posted “Use the best available braille” as an intro to an online braille generator I wrote. This sparked off a conversation with a friend about the possibility of interpreting braille upside-down. Writing an ambigram in braille sounded like a neat idea.
ARG Tools 2.0, now with more dictionary
ARG Tools, the iPhone app that gives you puzzle-solving tools and reference in your pocket just got a dictionary. You may already know of ARG Tools, but in case you haven’t, it’s an iPhone app that provides a set of tools, reference material, and links for anyone who plays Alternate Reality Games, participates in transmedia storytelling, … Continue reading ARG Tools 2.0, now with more dictionary
Dissecting puzzle design: Ballot
Warning, Spoilers Ahead Notice: This blog post is a peek behind the curtain to reveal the design of and thought process behind a Puzzled Pint puzzle. It contains spoilers about said puzzle. This is the second post in this series. If you find it interesting, you may want to look back at “Dissecting puzzle design: Dem Bones.” … Continue reading Dissecting puzzle design: Ballot