May 19, 2003

Puzzle Hunt

I've been quiet for the past few days because I've been busy running a puzzle hunt at Microsoft for about 400 people. The event began Saturday morning at 10AM and concluded at 5PM on Sunday, for a total of 31 straight hours of puzzling (yes, most teams stayed through the night). There were 34 puzzles and 2 meta-puzzles, 3 filmed video segments, 3 live performances, nine organizers and 43 teams of up to 12 people each. Four teams "solved" the hunt, with about 5 more teams getting very, very close as time expired. The hunt was planned over a period of about eight months, although as usual with group activities much of the work actually got done near the end of that time period. I wrote six of the puzzles and both metas, and overall I'm pleased with the way things turned out. Players seemed to have a great time. I crashed at about 8PM last night and woke up at noon-- there's nothing quite so blissful as the long recuperative slumber after an all-nighter. Now I need to feed my body and catch up on various things that I've let slide while focusing on hunt prep.

Posted by Peter at May 19, 2003 1:32 PM
Comments

Well, at least this answers the question of what you do for Microsoft all day... :-)

Sounds fantastic and I bet you did a great job! I'd love to hear more about it and I bet I'm not the only one. Will there be anything about it in the next TGR, please, or do you intend to repurpose parts of the hunt for another event which readers might eventually participate in? Is there a web site about it accessible to the public at all?

Posted by: Chris M. Dickson on May 19, 2003 7:00 PM

These are all fine questions Chris has asked. Answers, please. And perhaps... a URL or two with a little taste of what went down..?

Posted by: Dave Arnott on May 19, 2003 11:03 PM

As a participant, let me stress that Peter and his crew did a fantastic job. This was my fourth hunt; I've both solved and created with Peter before. This time I solved with another team (and I only got to use insider information once, dammit!). He works like a man possessed on these things, and it shows in the way it all hangs together and the feeling of fun that scores of participants report on at the end.

Posted by: Mark Lambert on May 20, 2003 10:40 AM