Hey there, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! We’ve got a brand new Penny Dell Crossword App puzzle pack for your solving pleasure, and this one is for all the avid TV watchers out there!
This is the 35-puzzle Classic TV deluxe set, featuring 5 themed bonus puzzles in addition to the high quality puzzles and inventive clues you’ve come to expect from PuzzleNation!
And you don’t need a genie in a bottle or any nose-twinkling magic to nab this terrific puzzle set! It’s available for in-app purchase for both Android and iOS users right now!
You can’t go wrong with this one! PuzzleNation is dedicated to bringing you the best puzzle-solving experience available, with world-class 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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Welcome to 5 Questions, our recurring interview series where we reach out to puzzle constructors, game designers, writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, and puzzle enthusiasts from all walks of life!
It’s all about exploring the vast and intriguing puzzle community by talking to those who make puzzles and those who enjoy them! (Click here to check out previous editions of 5 Questions!)
And I’m excited to welcome Christina Aimerito as our latest 5 Questions interviewee!
Christina pulls double duty as both the creator and host of Girls’ Game Shelf, a YouTube series all about board games and card games. As the host, Christina introduces the game and explains the rules before she and a rotating panel of female players put the game to the test.
It’s the perfect one-two punch to learn about new games and classics alike, as you get the one-on-one how-to at the start, followed by a strong sense of what the actual gameplay looks and feels like. Couple that with insights from the other players, and you’ve got a recipe for a terrific show that highlights the best of both games and communal play.
Christina was gracious enough to take some time out to talk to us, so without further ado, let’s get to the interview!
5 Questions for Christina Aimerito
1. How did you get started with games?
I played games when I was younger, but the normal fare: Taboo, Scattergories, Stratego, MasterMind, and other classics. I’ve always had a fondness for games. But I started playing more modern games a little later in life. My husband wanted to get me into it, so he introduced me to Dominion, which was a pretty wise choice. I’ve always liked collecting things and had never played a deck-building game before. So yeah, that got me hooked and opened the door to the world of board games.
2. What, in your estimation, makes for a great gaming experience? What separates a good two-player game from a good group game?
I enjoy games the most when there’s a good mix of strategy and conversation. A good two-player game and a group game still require those elements for me since I play games to interact with people.
The difference for me in two-player vs. large group games is more of a personal one. When I play a 2-player game, it’s usually to play with folks who are competitive and like strategy games. But in the group I play with, we have a pretty big variety of gamers. Some of them enjoy RPGs, some like heavy strategy, and often we have a newcomer to the table.
The unifying element I’ve found is a game that forces people to interact with others during their turn. Games that lead people into analysis paralysis aren’t ever as exciting, and when there’s a group game we like to keep the energy up. Social deduction games, or games like Cosmic Encounter or Sheriff of Nottingham, are great because they involve everyone around the table.
3. You have a film background and a theater background. How do those aspects of your experience contribute to the process of making GGS, either in terms of production or in terms of being an on-camera personality?
Those aspects absolutely help me behind the scenes. In fact my background in film and theatre are what led me to create the series. I wanted to create a show so that I could get back in that creator headspace. I’m happy when I make things. Choosing a show about board games was a no-brainer because it was marrying the two things I loved most.
While my experience helped me off-camera in terms of producing, editing, and crafting the episodes, it surprisingly didn’t help me one bit in front of the camera. Playing a character is VERY different than being yourself. It was a terrifying experience for me at first. The whole first season I think I was just learning how to be comfortable with being myself instead of “getting it right.”
4. What’s next for Girls’ Game Shelf?
Well, we just started a podcast, so that’s the new baby right now. If that goes well, I’m very eager to start working on an RPG series with the girls. Whatever the case, Girls’ Game Shelf will certainly continue to make the original series, and hopefully down the line we’ll have the means to release more than one episode per month.
5. If you could give the readers, writers, aspiring YouTubers/podcasters, and game fans in the audience one piece of advice, what would it be?
For me, the first and most important thing is to be a good listener. Putting your voice out there takes guts, but listening takes discipline. It separates the good content from the stuff that feels heavy handed or forced. Truly listen to your peers, people you agree with, and people you disagree with in regards to the content you’re creating. This is part of doing your due diligence, but it’s also part of being a strong voice and a good host. I am constantly working on this for myself. Luckily, playing board games is usually a good training ground for it.
And secondly, be completely yourself. THAT is what people want to see. And if you’re trying to be anything but that, it will be so obvious. If you’re going to be podcasting or YouTubing, and feel anxious about this, then I highly recommend recording yourself in a few private episodes, just so you can gain that comfort before you share your voice with the world.
A huge thank you to Christina for her time. Be sure to check out Girls’ Game Shelf on YouTube, and to keep up on all things GGS on Twitter. To support this terrific show, you can check out the GGS Patreon page, which is loaded with bonus content, raffles, and more!
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Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has greenlit development for new mystery movie, The Crossword Mystery starring Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott. The movie is co-created by Will Shortz, crossword editor of The New York Times, puzzle master for NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday,” editor of Games magazine and founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott are no strangers to Hallmark themselves, having starred in three movies together since 2015: All of My Heart, A Christmas Melody, and All of My Heart: Inn Love.
Now, they’ll reunite for a new puzzly mystery.
Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect from the film:
A brilliant crossword puzzle editor (Chabert) finds her life turned upside-down when she is pulled into a police investigation after several of the clues in her recent puzzles are linked to unsolved crimes. Proving her innocence means leaving the comfort of her sheltered world and working with a tough police detective (Elliott), puzzling through clues together in order to crack the case, as the two are fish out of water in each other’s worlds.
As far as we know, there’s no airdate scheduled yet for the film, but we’ll keep you posted when we know more.
Perhaps Will himself will have more details for us by the time the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament rolls around in March.
Still, what an unexpected bit of news for puzzlers everywhere. 2018, what other surprises are lurking up your sleeve?
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Hello hello, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! It’s National Puzzle Day (aka International Puzzle Day), and we hope you’re having a fabulous time!
As you might expect, we’re overjoyed to be celebrating this puzzliest of days with you, and we’ve got a few things going on today in honor of the holiday!
And that’s not all! We’ve organized an online puzzle hunt for you as well! Step 1 begins below, so why not take a few minutes and see if you can unravel an app-fueled puzzly challenge!
How are you celebrating National Puzzle Day, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments below!
National Puzzle Day Puzzle Hunt: Step 1!
To complete this leg of the puzzle hunt, you’ll need to solve today’s Daily POP Crosswords App free daily puzzle.
Once you’ve solved it, keep the grid handy, because we’re going to test your anagram skills! Ready? Here we go!
Add and subtract letters from the Grid Words to form answers to the Clues. Start with the first Grid Word, subtract 2 letters, and rearrange the remaining letters to form the answer to the first Clue.
Carry over the letters you subtracted to the blanks on the next line. Now add them to the second Grid Word, subtract the number of letters indicated, and rearrange the remaining letters to form the second answer. Continue solving this way until you’re left with your final answer.
That’s right, puzzle fans! The World Puzzle Federation, international arbiter of many puzzle competitions across the globe, invites you to test your puzzly skills from home against the world’s top solvers!
Today marks the first of eight rounds in the Sudoku tournament that will determine the rankings for the Sudoku Championship held later this year.
And although only members of the WPF are active competitors for those rankings, you can still solve each round’s puzzles and see how you fare against the best in the world!
All the logical puzzles and Sudoku fans can take part and compare their results with the world’s top players without leaving the comfort of their home.
You can expect first class puzzles prepared by the top puzzle authors from all over the world. Most of the authors contributing to the GP have also prepared puzzles for the past World Puzzle / Sudoku championships. The puzzles in the Grand Prix will be designed for all the players with different solving skills, for beginners as well as for the world’s best players.
The Netherlands team have prepared the Sudoku puzzles for Round 1, which will be available from noon on January 26, 2018 (GMT + 1 hour) to 11:59 PM on January 29, 2018 (GMT + 1 hour).
So what do you say, PuzzleNationers? Do you accept the challenge of the Sudoku Grand Prix?
Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you!
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Who can resist participating in a real-life treasure hunt?
I certainly can’t. I’ve organized them in role-playing games and as part of birthday celebrations, creating maps, riddles, and puzzles in order to challenge friends to locate hidden loot in both imaginary and real locations over the years.
From The Goonies and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to National Treasure and the Indiana Jones series, treasure hunts are a part of our collective cultural imagination. People hunt in their attics for forgotten antiques and prowl flea markets and thrift shops for unexpected bounties.
So is it any wonder that a few intrepid souls out there are still pursuing treasures hidden over three decades ago as a publicity stunt?
In 1981, when author Byron Preiss launched a puzzly scavenger hunt to promote the release of his new fantasy book The Secret, he had no idea he’d just fired the starting pistol on one of the greatest unsolved puzzles in history.
Twelve plexiglas boxes were hidden around North America, each protecting a ceramic container that, in turn, held a key to a safe deposit box containing an actual gemstone.
The book contains twelve paintings and twelve poems. Solvers were expected to figure out which poems to pair with which images, and then decipher them in order to reveal the locations of the keys.
Preiss believed that all twelve boxes would be found relatively quickly.
Only two have been recovered in the thirty-plus years since then, one in Chicago’s Grant Park and the other in Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens.
This image is believed by some treasure hunters to point to one of the boxes being hidden in Milwaukee’s Lake Park, but thus far, no box has been recovered there.
There are entire forums online dedicated to parsing the various poems and images in The Secret, plumbing them for hidden clues and vetting theories from fellow treasure hunters.
Unfortunately, the cleverness of Mr. Preiss isn’t the only opponent for these hunters. Time itself is against them.
It’s safe to assume that the missing ten boxes are also buried in public parks and other spaces open to the public. But parks get renovated. Landscapes change. Hell, some parks are repurposed and paved over!
So how many of those prizes are no longer within easy reach of a shovel’s blade, even if you do unravel the mysterious clues available? How many were tossed aside as curious garbage by disinterested work crews during renovations?
As The Secret and the treasure hunt it inspired fade into history, so too do the chances of anyone recovering those keys and claiming those gemstones for themselves.
[My thanks to friend of the blog Darcy Bearman for reminding me of this marvelous puzzly mystery, as well as Josh Gates and his Travel Channel show Expedition Unknown for reminding her.]
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PuzzCulture 