Fever Dreams
Ugh, not much to say about this Hunt. I caught a cold and started getting syptoms on Saturday, which got worse as Hunt went on - I'm only now really recovered. Apologies to anyone I might have gotten sick; in retrospect I should have made the decision to stay away from people more. But Hunt...
Warning: Puzzle spoilers ahead.
Kickoff was presented in two locations with identical content, which was a nice solution to the logistical problems of getting everyone to be able to view and hear adequately. Apparently, this year's theme was a dog show, but there were some oddities in the presentation - misbehaving slides and a strange confrontation at the end (well, more "arrival of suspicious people and fleeing of the show's host).
These days, puzzles are typically released around 1. Around then, the writing team sent out an email saying things would be delayed until 2, and that this was not part of Hunt. Turns out there's a story behind that, though of course we didn't know it at the time. A bit later, It was announced that rounds would be unlocked all at once (as opposed to a more standard solve-to-unlock mechanism) and that answer submission would be done through Google Forms. Something behind the scenes had clearly melted down very badly, but the writing team managed to make sure the show went on.
Aside from having an entire round of puzzles dumped on us at once, I liked the first round's have-some-answers-you-figure-out-the-grouping's gimmick.
My first puzzle was Gaming the System - the first part was trivial, but it took us a little while to figure out where to get the second part of the clue from.
I then spent some time on Spot The Dog, which was fun for about a minute before it became tedious. J found a much better way to approach the puzzle involving screen captures, and the rest of us wandered off.
After that I think I helped (and by "helped", I mean "watch while other people") work on the mini-metas. We got to the runaround around dinnertime, and I decided to go with the away team as there wasn't anything else to do.
The runaround was pretty straightforward, though I didn't have a copy of the directions so there wasn't much to do. The only twist was that some words were replaced with "dog", increasing in frequency as the instructions progressed. We noted each replaced word, though it became more obvious as time went on that this was unnecessary. We finally got to the end location, but were very confused because there wasn't anything obvious to do. The final instruction wasn't helpful, either, being a sentence composed of only the word "dog". A few minutes later, a member of the writing team showed up, handed us a strip of paper wrapped around a coin, and left. In the background, a woman led a person in a large red dog costume down the stairs and past us, entering a room. Surreal, but it fit the theme well (even though it may have been another team coincidentally going to the Paddywhack puzzle). No, the Hunt theme wasn't really a dog show, of course. We were actually in a dream, Inception-style. And we had to go deeper.
I helped out with ASCII Characters, then Unimaginably Twisted Files. Well, to the extent of making a bit of progress, then getting frustrated at a lack of further movement and skipping to another puzzle. Similarly, I made small progress on It's So Obvious, Worldly Possession, and possibly others. I had a lot of trouble focusing on puzzles, and even the usual overnight shift (when other people have gone to bed and I can get a look at fresh puzzles without others quickly solving them) didn't help.
I think I was exhibiting some mild cold symptoms when I woke up that afternoon - probably a sore throat and runny nose - but I think they felt better after a little while and I decided to head back in. Maybe it was the trip, maybe it was getting too cold during the night shift (I need to remember to bring a sweater!), maybe it was something else. Saturday wasn't going great for me either. I looked at at least Puzzle Extravaganza,
Things got a little better during the Saturday overnight shift when the Sleeping Gypsy round opened - C and I very quickly recognized and solved All History Is Local, which was the first puzzle this Hunt I really felt like I fully solved. I then helped out with Triangular Intrigue, where we did most of the work and were staring at extraction for a bit before A looked at it and pointed out the correct thing to focus on.
Even though I was finally on a roll, it was also getting early. After checking that we had good staffing, I went back to my hotel to sleep.
My cold symptoms were worse Sunday afternoon, and I don't remember anything happening of note :(. I ended up feeling sick enough that I left a bit early (after attempting to tidy up a bit). Sorry if I missed saying goodbye (or even hello) to people, but this wasn't a good year for me.
I don't have much to say about the overall structure or plot or many puzzles because I missed a lot of it :(
One of the things I tried this year that did work out was getting some sandwich material - having real-ish food always at hand was nice, especially as I've forgotten to eat in the past.
Note to self: Stay warmer, bring a sweater or two. Don't get sick.
Warning: Puzzle spoilers ahead.
Kickoff was presented in two locations with identical content, which was a nice solution to the logistical problems of getting everyone to be able to view and hear adequately. Apparently, this year's theme was a dog show, but there were some oddities in the presentation - misbehaving slides and a strange confrontation at the end (well, more "arrival of suspicious people and fleeing of the show's host).
These days, puzzles are typically released around 1. Around then, the writing team sent out an email saying things would be delayed until 2, and that this was not part of Hunt. Turns out there's a story behind that, though of course we didn't know it at the time. A bit later, It was announced that rounds would be unlocked all at once (as opposed to a more standard solve-to-unlock mechanism) and that answer submission would be done through Google Forms. Something behind the scenes had clearly melted down very badly, but the writing team managed to make sure the show went on.
Aside from having an entire round of puzzles dumped on us at once, I liked the first round's have-some-answers-you-figure-out-the-grouping's gimmick.
My first puzzle was Gaming the System - the first part was trivial, but it took us a little while to figure out where to get the second part of the clue from.
I then spent some time on Spot The Dog, which was fun for about a minute before it became tedious. J found a much better way to approach the puzzle involving screen captures, and the rest of us wandered off.
After that I think I helped (and by "helped", I mean "watch while other people") work on the mini-metas. We got to the runaround around dinnertime, and I decided to go with the away team as there wasn't anything else to do.
The runaround was pretty straightforward, though I didn't have a copy of the directions so there wasn't much to do. The only twist was that some words were replaced with "dog", increasing in frequency as the instructions progressed. We noted each replaced word, though it became more obvious as time went on that this was unnecessary. We finally got to the end location, but were very confused because there wasn't anything obvious to do. The final instruction wasn't helpful, either, being a sentence composed of only the word "dog". A few minutes later, a member of the writing team showed up, handed us a strip of paper wrapped around a coin, and left. In the background, a woman led a person in a large red dog costume down the stairs and past us, entering a room. Surreal, but it fit the theme well (even though it may have been another team coincidentally going to the Paddywhack puzzle). No, the Hunt theme wasn't really a dog show, of course. We were actually in a dream, Inception-style. And we had to go deeper.
I helped out with ASCII Characters, then Unimaginably Twisted Files. Well, to the extent of making a bit of progress, then getting frustrated at a lack of further movement and skipping to another puzzle. Similarly, I made small progress on It's So Obvious, Worldly Possession, and possibly others. I had a lot of trouble focusing on puzzles, and even the usual overnight shift (when other people have gone to bed and I can get a look at fresh puzzles without others quickly solving them) didn't help.
I think I was exhibiting some mild cold symptoms when I woke up that afternoon - probably a sore throat and runny nose - but I think they felt better after a little while and I decided to head back in. Maybe it was the trip, maybe it was getting too cold during the night shift (I need to remember to bring a sweater!), maybe it was something else. Saturday wasn't going great for me either. I looked at at least Puzzle Extravaganza,
Things got a little better during the Saturday overnight shift when the Sleeping Gypsy round opened - C and I very quickly recognized and solved All History Is Local, which was the first puzzle this Hunt I really felt like I fully solved. I then helped out with Triangular Intrigue, where we did most of the work and were staring at extraction for a bit before A looked at it and pointed out the correct thing to focus on.
Even though I was finally on a roll, it was also getting early. After checking that we had good staffing, I went back to my hotel to sleep.
My cold symptoms were worse Sunday afternoon, and I don't remember anything happening of note :(. I ended up feeling sick enough that I left a bit early (after attempting to tidy up a bit). Sorry if I missed saying goodbye (or even hello) to people, but this wasn't a good year for me.
I don't have much to say about the overall structure or plot or many puzzles because I missed a lot of it :(
One of the things I tried this year that did work out was getting some sandwich material - having real-ish food always at hand was nice, especially as I've forgotten to eat in the past.
Note to self: Stay warmer, bring a sweater or two. Don't get sick.