In the past ten years or so, I've participated in a LOT of puzzle events: 9 MS Puzzle Hunts, 5 Puzzle Days, 3 Puzzle Safaris, 1 Iron Puzzler, 6 full-length Games, 4 half-day Games, 1 SNAP and a couple other local walking hunts, at least 7 other treasure hunts at various places, and probably some things I'm forgetting. That body of experience has given me a certain adeptness at recognizing how a puzzle will deliver its final answer. Once upon a time, realizing that a message was in Braille or Semaphore was a deeply rewarding insight. Now it's second-nature. Any matrix with a 2x3 aspect ratio suggests Braille now, and any angular configuration screams Semaphore. Likewise with all the other standard encoding systems-- Morse, binary, ASCII, etc. It's old hat, and recognizing these schemes is second nature to most players of similar experience unless they're craftily obfuscated. Shinteki: Decathlon II had a particularly fresh encoding of 5-bit binary, mapping colors in national flags to the corresponding Olympic rings, and making that connection was satisfying. But that's the exception more than the rule these days.
This represents a big dilemma for puzzle event designers. The Game and Puzzle Hunt communities both have a core group of dedicated, experienced teams and a large field of less experienced ones. How do you create a satisfying event for both groups? How do you use the familiar language of puzzle encodings in a fresh enough way that it's challenging and satisfying for veterans while still approachable to newbies?
Innovation in puzzle design is one answer. But creating entirely new paradigms is hard, and a lot to ask of people who put together an event in their spare time. Perhaps the answer is to change what we think of as a puzzle. More physical manipulation puzzles, interactive locations, computerized challenges. Puzzles where you're given the answer in exchange for accomplishing a task. Maybe we need to shift out thinking away from the traditional paper-and-pencil puzzle mold.
Maybe there is no answer. Perhaps it's a natural life cycle and eventually veterans become so well-versed in the language of event puzzles that their interest in the entire genre dies, extinguished in a kind of puzzler's Carousel ("Renew! Renew!").
I'll be reflecting on these and other mysteries, particularly those of the ancient Maya, for the next two weeks on the sunny Yucatan peninsula.
Posted by Peter at February 20, 2007 5:54 PM