The Puzzler Blog

Zap!, Gift Subscriptions, High Score Lists

2008-06-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

As you might have noticed, there is a new math game on The Problem Site. This game is called Zap!. It's a combination of a sliding-tile puzzle and an arithmetic function test. This is a game in which you're racing against a clock to solve each level.

I also wanted to mention, Quote Puzzler currently has a special on gift subscriptions; if you buy a gift subscription for someone, and they activate it before July 1st, 2008, their gift subscription is good for TWO years instead of just ONE. This is an incentive to encourage students (particularly teenagers) to keep their brains active during the summer months. (But the special is available to all ages).

Finally, I made a small change to the High Score Lists at The Problem Site. The Today list now shows high scores from anonymous players (people who aren't logged in). Only logged in members can have their scores appear in the overall high score lists.

The Golden Ratio, Writing Prompts

2008-05-26T08:31:00.001-07:00

It's a quiet day today...for a Monday. It's Memorial Day here in the US, which means well over half of The Problem Site's traffic is on school vacation.

For teachers who are looking for some enrichment activities to help round out the school year, I have a couple interesting things for you.

The Golden Ratio
This is a series of pages which explore some of the fun mathematical properties of the number which is often referred to as The Golden Ratio, The Golden Section, or phi (φ). Take some time to browse the pages yourself, and see if you have students who would find it valuable and interesting to explore the concepts on these pages.

Alphabet Soup
Over at Fifteen Minutes Of Fiction, the weekly writing prompts are going to be "easier" than usual for the next few months. Each week writers will be given a different letter of the alphabet, and they will have to select a person, place, or thing beginning with that letter to write about.

This is very open-ended, and will be great for students (and adults!) who want to do a little bit of writing each week, but don't have a lot of time to spend on it during the summer months.

Slick Math

2008-05-15T05:11:00.001-07:00

The day before yesterday I was driving to Massachusetts, and since I had time to kill (I really hate driving long distances) I got thinking about some really fun and interesting math problems with really "slick" solutions. By "slick" I mean, simple and elegant solutions.

I decided it would be nice to have a place on The Problem Site for problems like that, so last night I created a new resource for the site: Slick Math!

If you enjoy math problems with surprisingly easy solutions, you'll enjoy these pages.

Games and Quizzes for Younger Children

2008-05-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

A month or two ago I started work on The Problem Site: Junior Edition, a section of The Problem Site specifically designed for younger children. The games in this section deal with topics like estimation, attribute comparison, and spelling.

Since the last post here, two more games have been added to this section of the site. They are Guess It! (an estimation game) and Spell It! (a spelling game).

The spelling game is brand new; the programming was just finished this morning. So if you experience any glitches or problems with the game, please drop me a comment!

Thanks,
Doug

Games For Young Children, Browser Update

2008-04-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

Good morning! There are two purposes for this post. One is to tell you about a new section on The Problem Site, and the other is to tell you about an available browser update for Internet Explorer users.

The Problem Site: Junior Edition
Over the years that The Problem Site has been online, many people have commented that they wished there were games designed for younger children - a little bit "flashier", and addressing more simple thinking skills.

As response to that request, a new section is being added to The Problem Site. It is The Problem Site: Junior Edition. This section is still in its infancy - although there are several games under development as I write, only one is available for play: Colors, Shapes & Sizes. This is a game which helps children recognize attributes of shapes they see.

Several more games will be added by September 2008.

Browser Update
If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you are probably aware that a couple years ago Microsoft had a legal battle which resulted in them having to change their browser to include a "Click To Activate" feature on all plug-ins like Java and Flash applications.

This was a serious annoyance. Many sites used javascript and other means to bypass this restriction. I chose not to do so on any of the puzzler sites, for a variety of reasons. Primarily because, unlike other sites which had flash animations scattered willy-nilly throughout their site, making their pages look like a virtual minefield of unactivated content, the puzzler sites only had flash applications on its game pages, and one extra click was not a serious inconvenience for people who were going to have to click the game anyway.

The good news is, Microsoft has obtained the necessary licenses to remove this annoying feature from their web browser. So if you've still got the "Click to Activate" message, you should seriously consider getting the Microsft updates.

Updated Sidebar - New Easter Egg

2008-04-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

Not much to say today, except the right-hand sidebar at The Problem Site has been updated again. A little bit nicer graphically, and I went back to displaying all the games, so once again the sidebar functions as a site map.

In addition, I made a minor tweak to the styles of links, which will make it easier for people to recognize which games they have and have not played.

Finally, in the process of updating the sidebar, I did add a new Easter Egg, so if you've been on a quest to find all the Easter Eggs, there are now twelve on the site.

And if you want hint where to find the new egg...

...all the hint you need is right here in this post. :)

Game Level Editor - Fizziks Tilt

2008-03-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I posted that the Fizziks Tilt game was available to play. This is a game in which a marble is rolled around a maze, following the laws of Physics, including friction forces and gravitational forces.

At the time I mentioned that there would eventually be a "Level Editor" which members could use to create their own levels. Then I sent out emails to a few members, inviting them to try out the level editor.

What I discovered was very interesting; for most people, figuring out how to create an interesting and challenging level was not intuitive. It took several tries for most people to come up with a level that was good enough to post on the site.

It's a whole lot different than Tile Puzzler, in which creating a difficult puzzle is easy.

Since then I've been debating how to handle the editor. After all, I don't want to spend all my time telling people "No, this is not challenging/interesting enough."

Finally I've opened the level editor to the public. EXCEPT - in order to use it, you first have to demonstrate that you're familiar with how the game works and good enough at it that you can solve several of the hardest levels on the site. Once you've done that, you can begin creating levels.

GIVE THE LEVEL EDITOR A TRY!

Planning Ahead, New Games

2008-02-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Good problem solvers plan ahead, right? They anticipate potential problems and head them off at the pass before they even happen, right?

Yeah. So, when I created the Trio Match, I didn't do that. The game gives the player a series of 25 colored blocks to drop into a well. Under certain circumstances the players can earn "bonus" blocks, and the longer you can keep the game going, the more blocks you earn.

How long can you keep a game going? Well, it never occurred to me that anyone would keep the game going long enough to earn 200 or more blocks - that's a pretty long game! And since I didn't think anyone would keep a game going that long, I didn't allocate enough space in the game for blocks.

Bad Doug!

So, a couple weeks ago MrDuctTape40 emailed me and asked "How come the game stops working after you hit 35 thousand points?"

Well, I had no idea that was happening. So I went back to the drawing board to fix the bug. It appears to be resolved now. If you have any problems with the new version of the game, let me know.

Oh, and I also reset the high score lists...which I felt kind of bad about, since Debby finally hit the top of the high score list, and then I deleted all the scores.

On another subject, there are two new games on the site: The Telephone Game and The BlackBerry Game

Tile Puzzler, Adders

2008-02-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

Good morning,

Updates on two other segments of the Puzzler family of sites...

Adders! got an overhaul this week, and the new version was posted last night. There were a few bugs which have plagued the game since its beginning. One of these bugs was the ability (under certain circumstances) to run your snake right through walls. There were a few other similar issues. I don't know that I've resolved all of them, but some should be taken care of now.

And, FYI, for all the "addermaniacs" out there...the new version of the game has a feature that has been requested several times. I hope you like it.

If you have any problems with the new version of the game, please use the site's contact form to let me know!

Tile Puzzler had some minor tweaks this morning. When you create puzzles, each puzzle piece must be made up of at least three blocks.

Once again, if this change causes any problems, please let me know!

Fizziks Tilt - A Physics Game

2008-02-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

Good morning, everyone! Normally I don't post information about games on the Puzzler sites until they are completely finished, but I'm making an exception here.

I've just added a game called Fizziks Tilt to The Problem Site. It is a game in which you use your keyboard to navigate a marble through mazes. But the press of a an arrow key does not move the marble in that direction; it applies a force in that direction. The result is a game which functions more like "the real world".

In addition, there are some interesting things to deal with in some of the levels, like planets, which create a gravitational force, or clouds, which produce a one-directional force, and there are also "Tilt" triggers, which - if you hit them - cause the entire maze to tilt, so one direction becomes downhill.

All these forces: planets, winds, tilts (and even friction!) are properly calculated using the appropriate equations, to provide a true "Fizziks" experience.

The game is not completely finished, but I have some other things I need to work on for awhile, so I thought I'd post what I have done for you to enjoy!

Fizziks Tilt

Note: If you want your scores to appear in the high score lists, be sure to LOGIN at The Problem Site!

The Problem Site Updates

2008-01-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks have seen some changes at The Problem Site. Some of those changes you might not have noticed.

I began to notice a while back that The Problem Site has been having some "slow down" issues. As I've had time I've been studying the code behind each of the games and resources on the site, trying to find the culprit that's bogging down the server.

It turns out, the culprit was not any of the games at all; it was the database server. So one day last week I made a copy of the database and moved it to another web server. Presto! Problem solved!

In the process of making these changes, however, I took another look at the layout of some of the pages, and realized that with the number of games and resources on the site, listing them all on the right-hand sidebar was getting truly cumbersome. So I limited the sidebar to showing only the most popular games and resources. Everything else is accessed by clicking 'View More' under the different headings.

This led me to re-evaluate how the main pages (Math Games, Word Games, Miscellaneous, etc) appear. With the large icons and descriptions next to each resource, people have to do a lot of scrolling just to view the different games. So, I'm trying something new. If you visit the Math Games page, you will see that all the games are listed by title, with a small icon, right at the top of the page. Then, for those who want more details, you can scroll down through the page for game explanations.

Over the next day or two I will be working on the other main pages to make them match this format.

One more feature which was just added; at the bottom of most pages you will see a heading that says "If you liked [game name], try one of these...", followed by a few icons for games that are similar to the game you just played.

If any of these changes cause problems for you, or you find any broken links, please send me an email to let me know: dtwitchell@virtu-software.com. Or you can just post a comment here.

Thanks,
Doug Twitchell

Hangman That Cheats

2008-01-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted a notice that the dictionary used by Hangman has been updated. What I didn't tell you is that I was working on a brand new version of Hangman.

A game of Hangman that CHEATS!

This is a game idea I built several years ago, which I used to torment friends and relatives. But I didn't put it on any of my sites, because I'm not quite mean enough to want to torment complete strangers with a game that cheats.

But someone reminded me of the game recently, and I decided it would be okay to put it on the site, with appropriate notification that the game was cheating, so no one would get too frustrated with it.

So I redesigned the game to go on The Problem Site

Really, the challenge on this game is to figure out how the game cheats. Once you think you've figured it out, go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of the game page to find out if you're right!

Here's the game: Cheater Hangman

Enjoy!

Hangman Game Update

2008-01-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

Hangman is one of the very oldest games on The Problem Site; it has been on the site almost since the very beginning. It has also undergone changes a couple times.

One thing that hasn't changed is the dictionary on which the game is based. At the time the game was created, I found a 17 thousand word dictionary which was about the best I could find.

However, that the word list was not very accurate; it contained a variety of misspellings, which were (of course!) very frustrating for hangman players.

Since then, I have switched to using the Enable2K dictionary for new word games, but never took the time to update hangman.

That change, finally, has been done. Hangman now uses a word list containing not 17 thousand but 170 thousand words.

Play Hangman!

Announcing: Subtraction Triangles

2008-01-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

The last time a new game made its appearance on The Problem Site, my niece scolded me a bit, saying: "Uncle Doug, how come you didn't put up an announcement about the new game?"

So, Annie, this is for you.

ANNOUNCING: SUBTRACTION TRIANGLES
Many students are returning to school tomorrow (around here most students started back to school on Thursday, but I know not everyone runs on the same schedule as we do up here in the cold northern reaches of the US), so just in time to kick off a new week and a new year, and get the brain in gear, I'd like to direct your attention to the new game on The Problem Site: Subtraction Triangles.

Subtraction Triangles are like upside down and backwards Pascal's Triangles. I won't explain any more here, since it's explained on the game page. I will just say this: Even though the puzzles are divided into "Easy" and "Difficult", don't think that the "Easy" puzzles are going to be so easy that you can do them with your eyes closed. They're not that easy!

I hope you enjoy the new game!

New Round Of Brainfood Puzzles

2008-01-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

This post is just to let everyone know that there's a new round of Brainfood Puzzles that'll start tomorrow. From September to January, the Brainfood high scorers were yoi55 and VICKY, with 50 points each...followed closely by lewanj with 48 and AlphaSigChainsaw with 40. Nicely done everyone!

During the winter and spring months you will see some recurring themes in the Brainfood Puzzles. These recurring puzzle types include:

Hinky Pinky - In which you are given a clue, and you must figure out two rhyming words that fit the clue. For example, if the clue was: "A Much Nicer Restaurant", the answer might be: "Finer Diner"

Word Ladders - A game invented by Lewis Carroll, in which you must get from one word to another by changing one letter at a time. Example: to get from HATE to LOVE, you might use the following Word Ladder: HATE/RATE/RAVE/CAVE/COVE/LOVE.

Word Equations - A word equation is an addition of two words to create a third word. Here's an example: SLENDER + RULER = PONDERING. The reason this equation makes sense is, SLENDER = THIN, and RULER = KING. THIN + KING = THINKING = PONDERING.

I hope you enjoy this new round of word puzzles!

Merry Christmas, and a Contest!

2007-12-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! This is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge posting; please read through to the very end, because this post includes a contest for you to enter, in which you could win a subscription to Quote Puzzler.

First, though, in honor of the Chrismas season, I thought some might enjoy a couple pieces of Christmas writing. One is a very serious and true Christmas story, the other is an amusing series of letters to and from Santa Claus.

Second, I'm working on a new puzzle game for The Problem Site, however, I just got a contract to write a series of 90 math competition problems in the next few weeks, so the game is going to have to wait. Combine Christmas with 90 math problems and doing a wholescale upgrade of Quote Puzzler next weekend, and I'm sure you can imagine, I'm going to disappear from view for awhile!

The Contest
Creating new games and puzzles for The Problem Site is a lot of fun. The greatest challenge is not programming a puzzle, but coming up with a puzzle idea. Do YOU have ideas for educational games/puzzles?

If you do, write up (in detail) how your game/puzzle would work, and explain why it is educational, rather than "just entertaining". Then email it to me at: dtwitchell@virtu-software.com.

The very best game idea will receive a six month free subscription to Quote Puzzler. Other game ideas may (or may not) be awarded free subscriptions, at my sole discretion.

All puzzle ideas submitted will become the property of The Problem Site.

This competition will remain open until January 31st, 2008.

Important Note: Do NOT send your puzzle idea as a file attachment. For security reasons, I do NOT open file attachments from people I don't know! Your puzzle idea MUST be in the main body of your email.

Popular Games

2007-12-05T00:51:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago Mike asked for a listing of all Entrapment Puzzles which had never been solved. I had planned to do that, but several other projects got in the way, and by the time I did get to it, the issue had become a moot point, because all the Entrapment Puzzles have now been solved at least once.

Back in August I made the following statement about Entrapment: I suspect that by the time the school year is over, this geometry game is going to prove to be one of the favorites on the site!

My prediction has already turned out to be correct, long before I expected it to. Within the last couple weeks the popularity of this game has skyrocketed, until it has reached the point where more Entrapment games are played each day than any three other games on The Problem Site put together. Several thousand Entrapment games are played each day now.

I was recently asked which are the most popular games on The Problem Site, and that is a slightly different list than the one I posted back before school began. So I thought I would post that list here.

The top games, in order of popularity:

6. One To Ten*
5. Picture Word Game
4. Trio Match
3. Hangman
2. Adders
1. Entrapment

* The popularity of this game fluctuates wildly from week to week depending on what math units elementary school students are studying; whenever schools are studying order of operations, One To Ten becomes one of the most played games on the site.

Monty Hall's Game - A Probability Question

2007-11-29T09:11:00.000-08:00

This post is particularly for math teachers and those who enjoy mathematics. The Treasure Hunt makes use of a mathematical riddle called the "Three Door Puzzle" or the "Monty Hall Game" - this is a puzzle that inspires some controversy among people who like to ponder the weighty matters of the universe (like: how can I win a million dollars in a game show?)

The Puzzle/riddle/game is explained here: The Monty Hall Game. Visit that page not just to learn about the game, but also to play it online, and find out the truth about it!

There is also an explanation of the puzzle here: Choosing The Right Door. Yesterday someone visited that page and posted an argument that the correct solution is, in fact, not correct. Since he signed his name "Monty Hall", I wasn't sure whether he was trying to be funny or serious. But I decided it would be a good idea to have this simulation online for anyone who wants to try it out.

Also, for math teachers, it might be a good discussion starter to have your students read both the article linked above and the dissenting opinion on that page. Then, when they've read and discussed and argued, let them play the simulation.

This Week's Brainfood Puzzle

2007-11-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd drop just a quick note here to say...check out this week's BrainFood Puzzle.

Last week's puzzle had a lot of solvers, but this week...not so many! Can you figure it out before the solution is posted on Sunday?

Christmas Shopping - Puzzles, Games and Educational Resources

2007-11-23T03:16:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. In my family we had 22 people gathered around one table (okay, it was actually a couple tables put end to end!) Five generations together in one room.

And the food was great, too. :)

There are a couple reasons for this post. First, to remind everyone that with Black Friday upon us, Amazon has Black Friday Deals, which you can take advantage of without ever leaving the comfort of your own internet connection.

Second, you'll want to check out the new look to The Puzzler Store home page. This page will be especially useful if you're looking for ideas for Christmas gifts!

A year ago I had the idea of providing a place where members at The Problem Site, Quote Puzzler and Tile Puzzler could share their favorite puzzles, games, toys and educational resources.

How better to get good recommendations than to ask real puzzle enthusiasts for their favorites?

Initially, the site used Amazon's a-store as a framework, but while the a-store was good for displaying a lot of products, the setup was not conducive to getting the real puzzle enthusiasts (you!) actively involved.

So, starting last night, there's a new structure to the site. A few selected members at Quote Puzzler and Tile Puzzler have the ability to write reviews of products they enjoy. If you are a member at any of the Puzzler Sites (QP, TP, or TPS) and are interested in testing out this new feature by writing your own product reviews, send me an email telling me which site you're on, what your display name is, and I may add you into the list of testers for this new feature.

Picture Word Game Addition

2007-11-15T16:24:00.001-08:00

Mike recently requested a couple new features on The Problem Site. I haven't had a chance to do them both, but I have done one.

Mike observed that it would be awfully nice to have definitions of the words used in the Picture Word Game. Since we only have a word list, rather than an actual dictionary, this is accomplished in the same way as it's accomplished in the Hangman Game: by paying a visit to Dictionary.com

When you finish your "Picture Word Game", whether you figured out the word or not, a link titled "Definition" appears next to the word. Click this link to pop open the definition in a new window.

You'll learn a lot that way, because this game uses some very obscure words!

Thanks for the suggestion, Mike!

Games, Games, More Games...

2007-11-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

Sunday I was visiting with some of my young nephews and my niece, and one of them said to me: "Why didn't you post a notice about the new game on The Problem Site?"

My mistake. :D

So, in case you didn't notice it, you'll want to check out this game: The Picture Word Game - Find the secret word to uncover the secret picture.

I wanted to let everyone know that with three thousand Entrapment Puzzles on the site, people have been working very hard at solving them. As of today, there are only 73 Entrapments which have never been solved. Keep up the good work, and lets see if we can bring that number down to ZERO!

(And for those who were skeptical that they could all be solved, I hope you're starting to believe now!)

Finally, I wanted to let everyone know, if you are not yet a subscriber at Quote Puzzler, or your subscription is scheduled to expire before Christmas of 2007, I strongly encourage you to subscribe (or resubscribe, as the case may be) before December 1st.

Why? Because on December 1st, I will have a special treat that will be available to subscribed members only.

Am I going to tell you what it is? NOPE! I'm not! :D

High School Math Problems

2007-11-10T04:40:00.000-08:00

I know some of you have been chomping at the bit for Graeme's new High School Math Problem for the month of November. You'll be happy to know Graeme is back, and has a brand new math challenge for you! Be sure to stop by and check it out!

Picture Word Game

2007-11-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't noticed it, there's a new game at The Problem Site. The game is kind of a Reverse Hangman game- instead of a picture being revealed as you make incorrect guesses, a picture is revealed as you make correct guesses.

There are approximately 22,000 words in the game (but not nearly that many pictures!), so you won't run out of words to play for a very long time.

Here's the game:

The Picture Word Game

Enjoy!

Christmas Gifts And Word Games

2007-10-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

It's almost November! Which means, of course, that Christmas is right around the corner. I know, it's tough for a lot of people to think about Christmas before Halloween is over, but Quote Puzzler is already starting to get in the Christmas Spirit.

There are two ways in which that Christmas Spirit is expressing itself. Are you ready?

#1: Between now and December 25th, you can get a Full Access subscription to the site for only $9.95. Throughout the rest of the year this is the price of a Limited Access subscription. It is 33% Off our regular price for a year's subscription to the site. So if you were planning to subscribe to the site, now is the time to do it. And if you weren't planning to subscribe, now is the time to change your mind!

#2: Between now and December 25th, Quote Puzzler will help you out with your Christmas Shopping. If you have a friend who enjoys word games, instead of buying them a book of crossword puzzles and word searches, you can get them a Gift Subscription to Quote Puzzler...for $7.45, which is 50% Off our regular Gift Subscription price.

To subscribe yourself, or to buy a gift subscription for someone else, just create an account at Quote Puzzler and once you've logged in, click the "Subscribe" link (it'll be easy to find, because it's BRIGHT RED!)

A Merry Christmas to everyone!