Month: January 2016

Announcing the Geodyssey Puzzlehunt

Geodyssey is a collection of puzzles with a bit of a geocaching twist, although you don’t have to be a geocacher to solve them.

There are three parts to Geodyssey:

The puzzles are completely free: there’s no cost to access the site, and there are no banner ads on it.

As part of the rollout, I’m also running a contest through the end of March 2016. Everyone who completes one of the three Geodyssey challenges by then will be entered into a drawing to win their own copy of the book Puzzlecraft. Details are available on the Contest page.

I drew upon two sources of inspiration to create Geodyssey. First, I wanted to create a sequel to the Puzzle Solving 101 series of geocaches that I created back in 2007. Second, I wanted to try my hand at creating some of the puzzles in the book Puzzlecraft: The Ultimate Guide on How to Construct Every Kind of Puzzle by Mike Selinker and Thomas Snyder, especially ones I’d never constructed before. The grand prize in the contest for each challenge is a copy of that book.

I started designing Geodyssey in the summer of 2015, and I’m really interested to know what you think of it. If you’ve got an opinion, suggestion, or question about Geodyssey (good or bad), please get in touch with me. You can reply to this message or use the Contact form on the web site.

I’ll be sending news updates about Geodyssey on this list as well as posting them on my blog at puzzlehead.org.

Enjoy the puzzles, and good luck to the contestants!

Alice, Bob, and the Puzzlehead Mailing List

My new puzzlehunt is just about ready to roll out. Launch date is National Puzzle Day – Fri Jan 29. You’ll see an announcement here, on my Facebook page, my Twitter feed, and elsewhere.

But if you join my Puzzlehead email list, you’ll get announcements about the release delivered straight to your inbox. I’ll bring the info you need straight to you, absolutely free!

Visit this link to sign up, or use the signup box on this page. I use Mailchimp, which makes it easy for you to manage your messaging preferences.

In the meantime, here’s a simple logic puzzle about the mail, which I found on the wonderful puzzle site MindCipher:

Alice and Bob live very far apart. Alice wants to exchange mail via the postal service with Bob, but they both know their mail carrier is corrupt and opens their letters.

Alice has a box that can be secured with one or more padlocks, and the mail carrier cannot open the box when it is locked. Alice and Bob each have a keyed padlock that can secure the box, but Alice’s key cannot open Bob’s padlock, and Bob’s key cannot open Alice’s padlock.

How can Alice send a letter to Bob without it being read by the mail carrier?

[su_spoiler title=”Solution 1″]Alice puts her letter in the box, locks the box with her padlock, and mails the box to Bob. Bob puts his padlock on the box and mails the box with both locks on it back to Alice. Alice unlocks her padlock and mails the box back to Bob. Bob unlocks his padlock, opens the box, and reads the letter. [/su_spoiler]

[su_spoiler title=”Solution 2″]Bob sends his unlocked padlock to Alice. Alice puts the letter and her unlocked padlock in the box, locks the box with Bob’s padlock, and sends the box to Bob. Bob unlocks his padlock, opens the box, and reads the letter.

He can now send a reply to Alice by putting his letter and his open padlock in the box, then locking the box with Alice’s padlock.[/su_spoiler]

A new puzzlehunt is coming soon! (Jan 29)

I’m putting the finishing touches on a brand new puzzlehunt which I plan to release to the world on National Puzzle Day – January 29. If you liked my Puzzle Solving 101 Series, I think you’re gonna like this new one.

It’s not going to be a new series of geocaches, but it’s got a fair bit of geocaching elements to it. But you don’t have to be a geocacher to enjoy it – it’s designed for the cachers and muggles alike.  Although there will be a local aspect to it for people who can get to South Florida, there will be something in it for you no matter where you live.

In the meantime, please enjoy this throwback to my 2 minutes and 50 seconds of C-list internet fame, thanks to the producers at Groundspeak: