(no subject)
WPC instructions are up now - rather early actually which is nice - and this year looks to be pretty tough. The long rounds are longer than I've experienced (2x2h - although bulgaria was worse with 4x90min I guess), and there are rounds that specifically have "false numbers" +/-1 for the actual clues and letters replacing numbers for clues. Those rounds use standard puzzles, and having constructed now for a couple years, that may give me some useful experience. However, I've never been good at crypto-skyscrapers so I hope the break-ins are more on things like the sudoku and fences where I always know what I'm doing. Using +/-1 false clues is not always very easy to do either as some past USPC/other experience has shown me. There are 4 team rounds, and they seem to be somewhat varied, with a couple dealing with assembly of pieces. The "observational" puzzles are exclusively in one of the team rounds - if ordering pictures in a story is truly observational - so spot the difference/word search practice will be meaningless this year. Let's hope the logic puzzles can all be approached satisfactorily (which is usually the case with Vlad's puzzle in past competitions, but not always the case in the tough ForSmarts puzzle books). My goal is to just have read and thought about all the puzzles before I land in Minsk, and given my current schedule, I doubt that will happen until after the US Sudoku Championship since I should focus a little on that when I have puzzling time.
The ARG is going well too. It's the Citizens of Virtue incidentally, if you were wondering, which makes it one of the first Christian ARG's (if also the only one I know of). as is usual for these alternate reality games, there are characters to interact with and puzzles hidden inside some of the webpages/phone numbers/livejournals/etc. you encounter. Overall, the puzzles have been incredibly well-designed to this point and the first musical clue as well as the humorous section at the start of the second video for Patience have really made the experience enjoyable. We have an overpowered group over at unfiction working through it now but its worth giving a look still as we are only 2/7 weeks into it.
Otherwise, I should finish some Mystery Hunt puzzle-writing before I head out in a week, but I really have a lot of "actual" work to do here - yes, puzzles are not my job - and that will have priority. I did give an interview for the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday and I expect their pre-tournament story featuring some of these comments to run tomorrow or Saturday.
The ARG is going well too. It's the Citizens of Virtue incidentally, if you were wondering, which makes it one of the first Christian ARG's (if also the only one I know of). as is usual for these alternate reality games, there are characters to interact with and puzzles hidden inside some of the webpages/phone numbers/livejournals/etc. you encounter. Overall, the puzzles have been incredibly well-designed to this point and the first musical clue as well as the humorous section at the start of the second video for Patience have really made the experience enjoyable. We have an overpowered group over at unfiction working through it now but its worth giving a look still as we are only 2/7 weeks into it.
Otherwise, I should finish some Mystery Hunt puzzle-writing before I head out in a week, but I really have a lot of "actual" work to do here - yes, puzzles are not my job - and that will have priority. I did give an interview for the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday and I expect their pre-tournament story featuring some of these comments to run tomorrow or Saturday.