Tag Archives: games

New Puzzle Bundles for the Penny Dell Crossword App!

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That’s right, it’s a bonus Wednesday post!

I know we covered all the newest puzzle sets available for the Penny Dell Crossword App last week, but guess what? We’ve got so much great content available that we’re offering special deals on puzzle bundles for both our Android and iOS users!

For the prolific puzzlers and savvy solvers among you, we’ve just launched the perfect puzzle bundle. Collection 18 offers 150 easy, medium, and hard puzzles designed to satisfy and challenge any puzzler!

But maybe you need more. Maybe you’d like to grab every monthly deluxe set from 2016 in one convenient package at a very special discounted price. Well, we’ve got you covered with our 2016 Deluxe Complete Set, assembling 420 puzzles for your perusal and puzzly enjoyment!

Now, 420 puzzles is a great, solid number of puzzles. But can we go one better?

You bet we can.

Our Double Deluxe Complete Set offers the best value with 840 puzzles, spanning both our 2015 and 2016 Monthly Deluxe lineups, and ensuring that your 2017 gets off to a fantastic start with the best puzzles at your fingertips at a special low price!

And today is the perfect time to pick up some more puzzle sets, as we’re running a Big Bundle Flash Sale! Be sure to hustle, because the sale ends soon!

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You can’t go wrong with these amazing deals! PuzzleNation is dedicated to bringing you the best puzzle-solving experience available, with topnotch puzzles right in your pocket, ready to go at a moment’s notice! That’s the PuzzleNation guarantee.

Happy solving, everyone!

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You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

Puzzles for Progress!

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[Image courtesy of The Odyssey Online.]

No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, there’s no doubt that we’re living in uncertain times. And in uncertain times, people come together in the spirit of cooperation. They reach out to one another, and remind them they’re not alone.

I’m proud to say that the puzzle community is no different. I’ve detailed several wonderful charitable programs in the past spearheaded by puzzlers, and today, it’s my pleasure and my privilege to bring another to your attention, my fellow PuzzleNationers.

Constructor Francis Heaney has assembled a who’s who of top constructors for a project called Puzzles for Progress. And, like all great ideas, it’s very simple.

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Once you’ve donated to one of the worthy causes detailed here — including the ACLU, the NAACP, The Trevor Project, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and others — you can send a copy of your charitable receipt to puzzlesforprogress@gmail.com.

And in return, you’ll receive a PDF loaded with 20 pages of original puzzles by great constructors like Erik Agard, Patrick Berry, Patrick Blindauer, Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon, Amy Goldstein, Joon Pahk, and more.

It’s a little extra incentive to do a bit of good in the world, and I applaud everyone involved in this venture.

[You can click here for full details on Puzzles for Progress.]

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

New Puzzle Sets for the Penny Dell Crosswords App!

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It’s been a little while since we updated you on all of the great new content for the Penny Dell Crossword App, so we decided to dedicate today’s Follow-Up Friday post to sharing all the newest puzzle sets and deals available for both Android and iOS users!

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Let’s start off with our new Deluxe Fun Set! It’s loaded with 35 puzzles — easy, medium, and hard, with 5 bonus themed puzzles!

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And check out other Deluxe Fun Sets for more great puzzles!

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There’s also our January Deluxe Set! You get 30 easy, medium, and hard puzzles, plus 5 January-themed bonus puzzles to keep you on your toes!

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And for a little more bang for your buck, check out the January Deluxe Combo Set, which offers double the puzzles at a special low price! That’s right, 70 puzzles awaiting you, crafty solver!

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(You can also snag our December Deluxe Combo Set while you’re at it, complete with another 70 terrific puzzles!)

And today is the perfect time to pick up some more puzzle sets, as we’re running a Big Bundle Flash Sale! Be sure to hustle, because the sale ends soon!

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With these outstanding puzzle sets to choose from, we proudly continue our efforts to match the lofty standards we’ve set for ourselves in terms of puzzle quality and variety! PuzzleNation means terrific puzzles right in your pocket, and when you nab these puzzle sets, we know you’ll agree!

Happy solving!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

An Excluded Solver Strikes Back!

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sculpture

Many people find crossword puzzles daunting.

For some, it’s the crosswordese, those obscure or curious words that you only encounter in crossword grids. Whether it’s European rivers or needlecases, these entries never make casual conversational appearances.

For others, it’s the pop culture that often feels dusty and out-of-touch. It’s not like many silent movie stars are household names these days.

Thankfully, many current outlets and constructors have moved away from this stodgy approach to grid construction and cluing, working hard to keep cultural references fresh and up-to-date, and striving for fluid grid-filling entries that remain both accessible and interesting.

Unfortunately, the reputation of crosswords as behind-the-times is still prevalent in many circles, including among younger solvers.

But I was amused to find one younger solver who sought to balance the scales a bit by taking matters into her own hands.

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Tumblr user Greater-than-the-Sword created and shared her own crossword. (Well, technically a criss-cross to puzzle aficionados like ourselves, but the average person would call this a crossword.)

In her own words:

Tired of your parents always doing better than you at crossword puzzles just because they’re old and get the ancient pop culture references? I made this Millennial’s Crossword Puzzle™. Guaranteed to make your parents feel old and less smug.

Sample clues included “is either white and gold or blue and black” for DRESS (referencing the optical illusion that took over the Internet for a day or two) and “Popular Youtuber” for PEWDIEPIE.

Although the puzzle didn’t make me feel old or less smug, it did make me laugh, since I found several of the entries completely baffling and impenetrable. It also reminded me of how amazingly fast cultural references emerge and vanish in the age of the Internet. I got about half of the reference in the puzzle, many of which applied to memes and pop culture from the last few years.

(Though I must confess that it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the clue “bendy cabbage patch” meant BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH.)

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I was unable to reach Greater-than-the-Sword to ask her what sort of feedback she received on the puzzle — either from millennials or from older solvers who accepted the challenge — but I found it to be a delightful response to lazy crossword construction.

You’re welcome to try your luck against the puzzle here.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

Do you accept the Cryptiq challenge?

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Normally, this would be a Follow-Up Friday post. But since Follow-Up Friday is all about continuing or expanding upon previous topics we’ve covered, and I suspect today’s post will be something we’ll return to in the future, it gets the nod this week.

I’ve written about puzzle contests plenty of times in the past, whether they’re single crosswords to solve or elaborate multi-step puzzle suites to unravel. Constructors are constantly innovating, and we’ve reached a point where you can tackle amazing puzzly challenges without even leaving your favorite chair.

So if you’re looking for a diabolical new puzzle series you can sink your teeth into from the comfort of your own home, Cryptiq fits the bill nicely.

http://imgur.com/lCOFscW

Cryptiq is a collection of puzzles — available both on their website and in book form — designed to test your puzzly mettle. There are dozens of logic, deduction, and visual puzzles involved, and the designers have clearly set a very high bar for solvers.

From the Cryptiq website:

To win the game you must solve all the puzzles on the given pages on http://www.cryptiq.com or in the book Cryptiq. Once you solve the puzzles you will be left with a code that has 6 values. Be the first to enter these 6 values, in the correct order, on the code input page and you will be moved forward to the verification step. The game can only be won through skill.

After you have entered the correct code, you will be prompted to supply a written solution showing that your solve of the puzzles was not by chance. Once your solve is verified as skill, you will be declared the winner and receive the prize.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a puzzle contest that requires written explanation of the solve in order to prove your skills, but when you consider that the winning purse is $5,000 — and there’s a chance that prize could increase — the team at Cryptiq wants to be sure that someone EARNS that prize, rather than getting lucky.

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[Kind of Cunning, one of Cryptiq’s many mind-bending obstacles.]

Best of all? There is no purchase necessary to enter or to win the game. Everything you need to play is right there online. (The book version costs $20, but has all the same information as the website.)

So, fellow friends and PuzzleNationers, will you accept the Cryptiq challenge? Let me know if you do! I’d love to hear about it!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Gems from 2016 edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to revisit the post listing our favorite crosswords and clues from 2016!

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[Image courtesy of blog.dictionary.com.]

At the end of the post, I asked readers and fellow puzzlers what their favorites from 2016 were, and several top constructors and puzzle personalities reached out to share the puzzles that caught their eye!

The Crosswords Club editor and friend of the blog Patti Varol shared four crosswords she really enjoyed last year: one from The LA Times, one from The Crosswords Club, and two from Andrew Ries’ Aries Xwords puzzles.

Both The LA Times Daily puzzle and the 21x Crosswords Club puzzle were created by constructor Ed Sessa, and Patti considered them two of “the cutest crosswords I’ve solved in a very long time.”

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[Image courtesy of Dunkin Donuts.]

The Crosswords Club puzzle, “Made to Order,” had different donuts as themed entries, complete with the all the O’s circled, so that there were actually a dozen donuts in the grid. It was a clever visual gag executed with style.

I enjoyed that one, but I preferred the LA Times puzzle from October 6th, which offered four clues in all caps: OREO, ORE, OR, and O. Those were your themed entries, and the revealer explaining the all-caps entries? ME EAT COOKIE. That was great.

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[Image courtesy of District of Calamity.]

The other two puzzles were a double-header from March 12th. “Can You Read Me?” was constructed by Andrew Ries and “Copy That” by Jared S. Erwin.

“Can You Read Me?” was a solid puzzle with a three-part quotation (I CAN’T WRITE FIVE WORDS BUT THAT I CHANGE SEVEN) and the speaker (DOROTHY PARKER) as the featured entries.

But the fun really began when you solved “Copy That,” which featured the same quote, but cited TIMOTHY PARKER as the speaker. And there were seven words in total changed from “Can You Read Me?”

This one-two punch of puzzling is a savagely clever reference to the crossword plagiarism scandal we covered in detail in the blog. Very well played, Andrew and Jared.

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[Image courtesy of Jake Silverstein’s Twitter.]

We’ve got one last puzzle to highlight, recommended by constructor and friend of the blog David Steinberg. It was the absolutely monstrous puzzle pictured above, a 50×50 puzzle by Frank Longo that appeared in the special Puzzle Mania section in The New York Times.

I haven’t had the pleasure of tackling this one yet, but David said, “I’ve never solved such a big puzzle before, and it was amazingly smooth and entertaining!”

And with that, we wrap up our look at 2016 and look forward to all the puzzly creativity and inventiveness coming in 2017!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!