Tag Archives: About Us

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Nice Round Number edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And today marks my 200th blog post for the PuzzleNation Blog.

Now, two hundred of anything is a big number. That’s the average number of seeds in a strawberry, and the average number of lights on a Christmas tree. Two hundred miles a day was the average daily distance covered by the Pony Express.

It’s a landmark. You pass “Go” in Monopoly, you get $200. Not that many television shows made it to 200 episodes. (The Office and The Cosby Show each had 201 episodes, The X-Files 202.)

While I’m well behind Gunsmoke’s 635 or Law & Order’s 456, or the thousands of episodes attributed to soap operas, game shows, and talk shows, I still think it’s a pretty neat milestone.

And I’m grateful. Writing for PuzzleNation Blog has introduced me to all kinds of new puzzles and solving styles. I’ve had the opportunity to interview fascinating people both inside and outside the puzzle community, and I’ve explored how puzzles have influenced and participating in both important historical moments and the world of pop culture.

It has been both a blast and a privilege, and I look forward to celebrating many more milestones with you, my fellow puzzlers.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Get Your Puzzles Here! edition

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And after talking with Leslie Billig yesterday about puzzle magazines and puzzles by mail, I wanted to do a quick post talking about the many ways modern solvers have access to puzzles.

For some people, puzzling starts with the newspaper. Once you’ve caught up with local and world events, had a few chuckles over the comic strips, and perused the classifieds for the tag sales you want to check out this coming week, the crossword is part of their daily ritual.

And then there’s the bread-and-butter of our pals over at Penny/Dell Puzzles, the puzzle magazine. On the newsstand and in racks at bookstores and shops all over, puzzle magazines (and independent puzzle books) are some of the most recognizable brands in publishing, and it’s rare that I ride the train without seeing at least a few of these being enjoyed on a daily basis.

Of course, you can get puzzle magazines by mail as well, signing up for subscriptions for your favorite titles, as well as buying bundles to keep you puzzling through a long winter or an agreeable summer.

This brings me to the next avenue for puzzlers: Puzzle of the Month programs. Subscriptions like The Uptown Puzzle Club and The Crosswords Club deliver puzzles right to your home every month, in case you’ve already plowed through your puzzle magazines and the daily crosswords in the paper.

Naturally, these days, anything you get by mail, you can get by email, so there are also puzzle of the day/week/month programs online. The American Values Club Crossword offers individual puzzles as well as weekly puzzles, and many constructors (like friend of the blog Robin Stears) have subscription programs as well to keep you busy.

And, of course, there’s an ever-expanding field of puzzle games and apps for the modern solver. Your phone, e-reader, or tablet are now optimal puzzle-delivery systems, locked and loaded with puzzles anytime you’ve got a free moment or some downtime, whether it’s waiting at the doctor’s office, being stuck in traffic, or playing a round of Words with Friends around the dinner table.

It’s never been a better time to be a puzzle fan, with so many ways to enjoy your favorite brain teasers and mental challenges.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Word Search Edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

Today, I’d like to update you on what’s going on in the world of PuzzleNation apps and puzzles!

I’m happy to announce that we’ve just launched our latest puzzle game for the iPad, Classic Word Search!

With all sorts of delightful themed word lists, this is the word search solving you know and love, made easy with the touch of a fingertip! Just drag your finger along the words in the grid to loop them, and watch as they’re crossed off the word list one by one!

Accompanied by trivia for each themed word list, the puzzles in Classic Word Search are suitable for all ages and just waiting to be solved!

Classic Word Search joins the terrific lineup of apps and puzzle iBooks from PuzzleNation and Penny/Dell Puzzles, and we’re so excited to add another world-class puzzle to our mobile library.

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation Blog today. Stop in again soon for the latest puzzle news, app announcements, and all sorts of puzzly goodness!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: TableTop Day Edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And today, I’m following up on all the International TableTop Day goodness we got up to this week.

The PuzzleNation offices weren’t open on April 5 for the actual TableTop Day, so we celebrated a few days late with an event on Tuesday, and we invited our pals from Penny/Dell Puzzles to join us in all the puzzly game activities we had planned.

Here’s the table of available games for play that day! Everything from one-player brain teasers from ThinkFun (like Rush Hour and the Sudoku-inspired Chocolate Fix) to bigger group games like Apples to Apples and Scattergories, and everything in between! (Including previously reviewed games like Castellan, Pink Hijinks, ROFL!, Fluxx: The Board Game, and Loonacy!)

Here, fellow puzzlers partake in a spirited round of Apples to Apples, the perfect way to blow off a little steam at work after a long morning of puzzlesmithing.

Furiously contested games of Bananagrams and Qwirkle were conducted at either end of our play area, and both were big hits with attendees.

I even had the opportunity to test my mettle against Penny/Dell’s well-traveled Corin the Puzzle Bear in a few rounds of Jenga.

While he beat me handily in two straight games, the tide soon turned against him in round three.

We had a pretty decent turnout overall, and everyone who attended had fun. What more can you ask for, really? (Other than more excuses to play games during work, that is…)

I hope your International TableTop Day was just as enjoyable. As Wil Wheaton says on his YouTube show TableTop, play more games!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

PuzzleNation & Penny/Dell apps, iBooks, and games!

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Check out our ever-expanding library of puzzle games for your mobile devices!

Classic Sudoku

With four levels of difficulty (easy, medium, hard, and expert), a touch-to-scroll feature for entering numbers, and a timed option for competitive scoring, Classic Sudoku is available for the iPad and ready for solvers of all skill levels.

Plus, with our Candidates feature, you can list possible solutions in a box without jeopardizing your score or your time!

Penny/Dell Crosswords App and Jumbo Crosswords App

Featuring 150 all-new crosswords, Penny/Dell Jumbo Crosswords has several difficulty levels and all the topnotch features in the original Penny/Dell Crossword app!

The original Penny/Dell Crossword App is available for iPad and iPhone. It features smart navigation to move you to partially filled-in entries and an alternate-clue option to help you solve!

Classic Word Search app and iBooks

The perfect word search experience is at your fingertips with Classic Word Search!

With all sorts of delightful themed word lists, this is the word search solving you know and love, made easy with the touch of a fingertip! Just drag your finger along the words in the grid to loop them, and watch as they’re crossed off the word list one by one!

Also available for Android tablets and Kindle Fire, Classic Word Search puzzles are appropriate for all ages and come complete with interesting trivia for each themed word list.

And don’t forget that Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 are all available as iBooks for the iPad’s eReader app! With plenty of puzzles to keep you busy, Classic Word Search is a terrific way to pass the time!

And stay tuned, fellow puzzle fiends. We look forward to adding new puzzles to our library soon!

App announcement time!

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Hello puzzlers and PuzzleNationers!

One of the most exciting developments for PuzzleNation has been our move into the mobile puzzle-game market with our apps and iBooks. You can take PuzzleNation puzzles with you wherever you go!

And we’re proud to introduce the latest addition to our mobile lineup: the Penny/Dell Jumbo Crosswords App!

Featuring 150 all-new crosswords, Penny/Dell Jumbo Crosswords has several difficulty levels and all the topnotch features in the original Penny/Dell Crossword app!

There’s also the original Penny/Dell Crossword App, available for iPad and iPhone. It features smart navigation to move you to partially filled-in entries and an alternate-clue option to help you solve!

And of course, we have our marvelous Classic Word Search iBooks! Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 are all available for the iPad! With plenty of puzzles to keep you busy, Classic Word Search is a terrific way to pass the time!

Classic Word Search is also available for Kindle Fire through the Amazon App Store!

And stay tuned, fellow puzzle fiends. Coming soon, a certain number-based puzzle will also be available for your mobile devices!

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Tumblr, download our puzzle iBooks and apps, play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!