Tag Archives: PuzzleNation

I spy with my puzzler’s eye…

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007 AcrossYou know, it occurs to me that many of the skills in the standard puzzle-solver’s arsenal would serve you well in the high-stakes cutthroat world of Hollywood-style espionage.

Now, I’m not saying that a facility with sudoku means you can avoid rockets in your Aston Martin or that mad crossword skills will help you foil a supervillain’s million-strong chocolate soldier army preparing to overwhelm Switzerland and secure their private banks for him/herself.

But there is definitely some overlap in the mental dexterity department.

Think about it. Beyond the numerous trivial bits and bobs of information that are squirreled away in the heads of puzzlers that could prove utterly essential in a pinch — the capital of Burkina Faso? Why that’s Ouagadougou! — there are plenty of spy-centric situations that call for a puzzly knack.

There’s nothing like a Rubik’s Cube to teach you patience and spatial reasoning. A facility with anagrams wordplay suggests strong alternate thinking and deduction is at work (and no doubt helps with timely quips and tension-defusing asides).

Who better than a cryptograms whiz to crack the villain’s secret code? Or a Cut the Rope/Angry Birds fan to quickly puzzle out where to throw an apple to topple a ladder that then catapults a ficus into the air that hits a nameless goon square on the noggin and who then hits the giant red release button on your cell door and sets you free?

While neutralizing a bomb with a timer steadily counting down to destruction might seem tense, it’s nothing new to the iron will and sure hand of a person who has navigated the harrowing “you’re near the top of the screen” escalation of music in a high-level game of Tetris. If your nerves can take that, you’re ready for anything.

I don’t know about you, but I’m thoroughly convinced. In fact, I might just stop the blog entry right here and start penning the whimsically thrilling adventures of Trent Puzzlington, Agent of PuzzleNation. First installment: The Rebus of Doom!

But until then, keep calm, puzzle on — the puzzle community, heck, even the world might need your services one day! — and I’ll catch you next time.

Now can you dig that?

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There are a lot of great puzzle games out there, but only a few have characters to go along with the puzzle solving.

Several PuzzleNation games have characters that drive or contribute to the actual solve of the puzzle — Crossword Raiders and Tanglewords among them — but my favorite is easily Diggin’ Words, our timed anagram game, because of the Diggin’ Dogs.

In the game, the dogs dig up seven letters, and it’s up to the solver to assemble as many words as they can (from 3 to 7 letters) from those seven in the time allotted.

It’s up to the Diggin’ Dogs to dig up those letters and cheer you on as you shuffle and noodle over the numerous possibilities.

But other than a friendly demeanor and a penchant for amateur paleontology, what does the average solver know about the Diggin’ Dogs?

Precious little.

So, it’s my distinct pleasure to introduce the seven lovable pooches who make Diggin’ Words possible.

From left to right: Stormy, Barkley, Copernicus, Sam, Veronica, Lorenzo, and Kana.

Stormy

The elder statesman of the pack (Stormy’s 3 months older than Lorenzo, the next oldest), Stormy assembled this elite team of expert hole-diggers from a wide range of friends, colleagues, and confidantes he’d made over the years. He’s wise beyond his years and proud of his fellow Diggin’ Dogs.

Barkley

The troublemaker of the group, Barkley is mischievous and playful, always ready with a joke or a squeaky-toy prank to lighten the mood. He also participates in a howling barber shop quartet every Saturday night around midnight behind the farmers’ market.

Copernicus

Alert, attentive, and all around excitable, Copernicus (Nicky for short) is enthusiastic enough for a dozen Diggin’ Dogs. Of course, if letter-inscribed bones rocketed out of the ground in your owner’s backyard, you’d probably be the excitable type too.

Sam

You may recognize him from the famous Dogs Playing Poker painting. Sam has since retired from the professional circuit and now spends his time panting expectantly while players try to anagram on the fly under his watchful gaze. He also enjoys barking at passing cars, birds, and sometimes, nothing at all.

Veronica

Veronica is a former Iditarod champion who stepped down after four consecutive victories. Now enjoying a peaceful lull before her next adventure, Veronica joined the Diggin’ Dogs for some much-needed R & R. Digging up these bones and shuffling the letters around is the perfect way to stay in fighting trim.

Lorenzo

With his love of quoting Shakespeare and coloring suggestive of the Phantom of the Opera, Lorenzo is the mysterious one. No one quite knows what breed or mix he is, and he’s happy to keep them guessing.

Kana

The sweetheart of the group, Kana is the affectionate one in the pack, with everyone’s best interest at heart. She keeps bowls of water offscreen for any of the dogs that start panting too heavily, and makes sure everyone sits far enough back that the bones won’t hurt anybody. You can also thank her for the lack of visible drool.

Without these adorable pups, Diggin’ Words wouldn’t be nearly as fun to solve. Thanks, guys and gals. There’ll be an extra MilkBone for each of you tonight.

And thanks for reading. As always, keep calm, puzzle on, and I’ll catch you next time.

Welcome to the new PuzzleNation.com blog!

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Game of Hounds and Jackals

Game of Hounds and Jackals.
Ancient Egypt’s answer to “Angry Birds.”

There’s never been a better time to be into puzzle games than right now.  There are thousands of them available online, on your mobile device, available for your XBOX, PlayStation or Wii…  No matter where you find yourself or what type of puzzle game you’re interested in, you can usually get your fix pretty much at any time and any way you want it.

But.

There are thousands of puzzle games out there.  The Apple’s iOS App Store sports over 13,500 games in the puzzle category and there may very well be 10 times that number online in the form of Flash and Facebook games.  And let’s face it… Maybe not all of them qualify for the “puzzle game” category, have the highest production qualities, or are even all that fun.

For the puzzle lover looking for something fun and challenging this is a puzzle in and of itself. How to cut through all the dross to find the gold?

That’s where our new blog comes in! As a new feature of PuzzleNation.com, our blog’s goal is to bring you relevant news, opinions, and reviews from the puzzle solver’s point of view to help you find what’s new and interesting in the world of puzzles.

In addition to upcoming topics such as “What the #&!% is a puzzle game, anyway?”, we’re really looking forward to discussing and analyzing some great (or perhaps not so great) puzzle games, new or classic, regardless of whether they’re the traditional word-style games like Diggin’ Words, Classic Word Search or Bookworm,  physics puzzlers like Where’s My Water or Cut the Rope or visual/logic puzzles such as a Myst or Machinarium.

So that’s what we’re doing here — and we’re just getting started.  We hope you like the idea and come along with us for the ride.  Check back often by subscribing to our Twitter Feed or Liking us on Facebook.  And always feel free to comment on our posts or let us know if there’s something you’ve seen in the puzzle world that you’d like us to write about!

The PuzzleNation crew!