Tag Archives: video games

The 2025 Conference on BIPOC Game Studies

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The 2025 Conference on BIPOC Game Studies convened this past weekend, bringing together students, game designers, college professors, and influential names in the games industry. It was organized in part by the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

The goal? To share research, showcase games, and discuss the future of game studies through the lens of BIPOC experiences (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

Here is a bullet point list of themes the conference was designed to explore:

  • Representation and Identity in Video Games
  • Digital & Analog Games as Cultural Artifact
  • Games By & About Black and Indigenous Communities
  • Decolonizing Game Development & Design
  • Integration of Indigenous & Black Knowledge Systems
  • Afrofuturism in Gaming
  • Cultural Preservation & Digital Heritage
  • Social Impact & Activism Through Games
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Playful Technologies

Both board games and video games were topics of discussion across the three-day event, with panels and presentations covering properties as varied as Yu-Gi-Oh!, collegiate Esports, The Last of Us, murder mystery games, Dragon Age, virtual reality, the cultural value of arcades, and more.

Lindsay Grace, co-chair of the Conference and Knight chair in Interactive Media at the University of Miami, eloquently explained to WXXI News why this conference was not just necessary, but invaluable:

“I think one of the most important things to recognize about games is that they are kind of a cultural artifact. And being a cultural artifact, it’s important to ask questions about what these things mean in society, or what these things mean to the people who make them.”

“… One of the things I think is really interesting in game studies is we have the opportunity to think critically about the kinds of problems we’re solving and then also the kinds of solutions we’re offering. So a lot of what people talk about in, say, decolonizing games is about reinvestigating those two questions, what’s the real problem here? What’s the source of that problem? Similarly, how are we solving the problem?”

For years, I have discussed in this blog how the world of puzzles and games not only reflects our culture and choices, but why that’s important. But I can only examine those things through one particular lens, that of a white cishet male. There are blindspots I’m unaware of and experiences I simply don’t have, despite my best efforts.

That’s why it’s so important to have other voices included in the discussion, and events like this are crucial to the health of the games industry and our understanding of why we play games at all.

While I wasn’t in attendance, I have read through the various studies and papers associated with the conference, trying to better educate myself on these topics.

And the topics presented are fascinating.

How the experiences of Black users suffer in virtual reality due to whiteness as a default in so many games.

How the roles of Black and Latinx characters in games like Overwatch and Marvel Rivals contribute to not just representation, but reinforce perceptions of particular ethnic groups only in violent situations, not those of support or providing nonviolent solutions.

How video games are being used to preserve Latinx culture and the artistic legacy of the Hmong.

I learned about topics like Quare Theory and Misogynoir (how racist and anti-Black depictions affect the public perception of Black women), explained through the medium of video games.

But the article I found myself returning to several times over the last few days was “Decolonizing Play: Exploring Frameworks for Game Design Free of Colonial Values.”

It was startling to realize just how many video games are foundationally built on the values of Colonialism, and how easy it would be to NOT reinforce those harmful cyclical patterns.

From the paper by Elaine Gomez: When the topic of colonization arises, many game developers often hesitate to get involved in meaningful and constructive design conversations around how to mitigate values that are heavily ingrained in game theory and player expectations.

Some of the conversations broached by these panels and papers are uncomfortable, but difficult conversations are worth having. Challenging the biases and preconceived notions that games are often built upon is worthwhile. (I’m hoping to reach out to some of the Conference’s participants for more details in the coming weeks to follow up on these enlightening discussions.)

In the meantime, I encourage everyone to read the proceedings from the event and take some time to really ponder the topics presented.

The world of puzzles and games is big enough for everyone, and only gets better when everyone feels included. The 2025 Conference on BIPOC Game Studies is proof of that.

Happy gaming, everyone.

Nominees Announced for the World Video Game Hall of Fame!

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Rochester, New York is the home of The Strong National Museum of Play, and they have a very important mission: to chronicle the history and importance of play.

Child development, social interaction, imagination… all of these key features in a healthy individual are facilitated by play, and the staff at The Strong help us not only understand that process, but celebrates it by hosting both the National Toy Hall of Fame and the World Video Game Hall of Fame under its brightly-colored umbrella.

As you might have guessed, puzzles and games play a significant role in The Strong’s work, and they’re represented in both Halls of Fame. Clue, Chess, Scrabble, the Rubik’s Cube, and Dungeons & Dragons are all inductees in the National Toy Hall of Fame, while Myst, Tetris, The Oregon Trail, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? are among the puzzlier inductees on the video game side of things.

And The Strong have recently announced the nominees for this year’s class of video games to be inducted in the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

This year’s finalists for the 2025 class run the gamut from 8-bit classes, modern phenomenon, and games that took play to surprising new places, and they represent different genres, play styles, and aspects of gaming across decades.

The 2025 finalists are: Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Defender, Frogger, Golden Eye, Golden Tee, Harvest Moon, Mattel Football, Quake, NBA 2K and Tamagotchi.

What a field! Everywhere from arcades (Frogger) to pocket games (Tamagotchi) are on display here, as well as social gaming both in person (Golden Eye) and online (Quake).

The nominees were chosen from thousands of nominations online. The field was then narrowed by staff members at The Strong based on “longevity, geographical reach, and influence on game design and pop culture.” Only a small handful of these finalists will be selected by an international committee of experts as this year’s inductees.

Everyone has an award show that they geek out over, and you’re probably not surprised to discover that these Halls of Fame are two of my favorite awards given out each year. I love seeing deserving games and puzzles get the spotlight they deserve for helping change how we play and interact with each other.

You can check out the full list of National Toy Hall of Fame inductees and World Video Game Hall of Fame inductees at these links. Do yourself a favor and take a stroll through not only your childhood, but the childhoods of generations past. It’s a real treat.

What toys and games would you like to see inducted in the future? Let us know in the comments below!

5 Questions for Twitch Streamer and YouTuber Rachel Howie

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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 Rachel Howie as our latest 5 Questions interviewee!

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Whether she’s exploring the verdant expanses of Breath of the Wild or slaying overpowered monsters in Dark Souls, Rachel Howie is an established force in the Twitch video game community. Wielding years of experience as a YouTube presenter and a lifetime of video game fandom, Rachel entertains and informs across Twitch and YouTube under the handle “DontRachQuit.”

As both onscreen performer and video editor, Rachel is a one-woman multimedia content creator, bringing humor, enthusiasm, and some wicked button-mashing skills every time she picks up a controller and live-streams her gaming exploits.

And this month, she’s even raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through their Play Live program!

Rachel 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 Rachel Howie

1. How did you first get into video games? What genres or styles of games most appeal to you?

Growing up, I was always obsessed with Nintendo. My older cousins had a SNES, and then later an N64, and I was just absolutely obsessed with it. Because I was far too young to play much more than Jungle Hijinx on Donkey Kong Country without screwing up all my cousins’ progress, I’d beg and beg them if they would play so that I could watch and learn all the secrets. Perhaps a prelude to my future career in streaming!

So I have my cousins, or I suppose, my uncle, to thank for getting me interested in video games. He had a 120 star save file in Mario 64 and my little eyes just lit up with admiration every time I started it up.

When the Pokemon anime started on TV, I begged for my first console to call my own, and my parents got me a little yellow game boy pocket with Pokemon Blue. I must have been around… 6 years old? I had to ask my Dad for help because I literally couldn’t figure out how to exit Blue’s house. Good times.

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[She even named her dog after a Pokemon!]

Nowadays, the genre I am most invested in is Action/Adventure and RPG. I love anything that offers me the ability to create a custom character and just get lost in a world full of people who need my help. Throughout the past 15 years, I’ve played copious amounts of World of Warcraft, and I do enjoy MMOs, also. However it is hard just to nail myself down to one genre, as I do enjoy all sorts – Dark Souls, The Legend of Zelda, WoW, Pokemon, The Binding of Isaac, Okami, Portal, the Ori games, Kingdom Hearts, and I’ve been super into Beat Saber lately on the Oculus!

2. Puzzles are frequently an integral part of a video game, either as obstacles or as the entire focus of the game. What’s one example of a game that utilizes puzzles effectively and a game that fails to do so?

I absolutely love puzzles. The first thing that springs to mind is probably because I’ve been playing the recently released Resident Evil 3 remake, and that is last year’s Resi 2 remake. The very idea of having enjoyable puzzles inside a horror game may seem pretty strange, but in Resi it just works. It’s a great change of pace from the ‘shooty shooty zombie, run run run Mr. X is comin’, regular gameplay. So I’d definitely put the Resident Evil series as a whole forward as a game that very effectively incorporates puzzles.

If we wanna talk entire focus of the game, Portal 2 is king. Seriously. What a game.

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I find it difficult to think negatively so nothing springs to mind immediately when thinking of a game that tries puzzles but falls flat. The obvious answer I suppose might be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time‘s water temple on the N64, but this is purely linked to the Iron boots being equippable from the start menu – something fixed perfectly in the 3DS remake.

3. Visuals play a huge role in several of your endeavors, as editors are visual storytellers who help illustrate a given narrative and Twitch streamers provide a sort of visual performance art alongside their gameplay. What’s the key to accomplishing both styles of storytelling effectively?

If we take video editing first, it really is quite simple. An edited video will be made to fulfill a brief, it has a purpose – what it will be used for and whether it’s supposed to invoke a certain emotion, or response from people. The key is knowing exactly what you are making and keeping that in mind with every single cut, every title card, every sound effect or piece of music. Watching back your work is also important, and trying to visualise how it might be perceived by a third party.

Twitch streaming, I feel, is even simpler. Live content is natural, or rather, it usually is. There are plenty of streamers who put on high-production value shows or perform as a character during their streams. I honestly just wing it! I’m a naturally pretty expressive person who tends to have 150% emotions and this just seems to work so well for streaming.

I also love, and try to encourage, mascots and channel memes into things like alerts – so the visual style ends up very lighthearted and fun, full of hype to celebrate when people are kind enough to financially support. When I was creating my branding, I wanted something that people could identify with me that also described my vibe, and the kind of content I create. So I went for bright colours, and yet a strong, sharp edged font – the perfect marriage of fluffy dogs and Dark Souls!

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4. What’s next for Rachel Howie?

The tail end of last year was a bit of a roller-coaster for me. I was forced into a corner and had to give up on a job with a team I loved with all my heart, and leap into something that I wasn’t exactly ready for. I had been streaming on Twitch and creating content in my spare time for three years previously, and it was borderline sustainable income, so giving up a reliable salary was absolutely terrifying. However I have not regretted it in the slightest. My Twitch channel got partnered, my YouTube is steadily rising, supported by Patreon, and I’m exploring new avenues like podcasting. Heck, I went out and got a puppy! Life is pretty scary at the moment, but it’s also never been so exciting.

I’m going to continue working hard on my channels, and continue to try and help everyone through this uncertain time with my goofiness and relatability. I’d love to start going to more events, such as Insomnia and Comic Con, as ‘DontRachQuit’, and slowly carve my name across the industry. Also it would be really great if I could manage to finish this deathless run of Dark Souls before I grow old!

5. If you could give the readers, writers, gamers, content creators, and puzzle fans in the audience one piece of advice, what would it be?

The most important thing I’ve learned over the past 6 months, is that life is too short not to try and follow your dreams. You are the most important thing, and your happiness is paramount. It’s all fine and well putting others before yourself, but if that’s just going to make you unhappy, I’m afraid it’s not worth it. Just be yourself, treat yourself, and do what makes you happy. Never stop trying, never stop learning – failure is just another opportunity to learn. Keep trying, you can do it!

A huge thank you to Rachel for her time. You can follow her on Twitter (as well as Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch) for updates on all things “Don’t Rach Quit,” and if you enjoy her videos and streams, please consider joining her Patreon! I can’t wait to see what video game she conquers next!

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!

Puzzles Come to Animal Crossing for May Day!

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[Image courtesy of Nintendo.]

The latest edition of the video game franchise Animal Crossing — New Horizons — has been out for a few months now. But recently, they ventured into the world of puzzles as a special promotion.

Thankfully, friend of the blog Jennifer Cunningham — puzzler, artist, musicologist, and former Tabletop Tournament Champion — has returned to the blog with the lowdown on the recent May Day event.

So, without further ado, let’s turn things over to Jen for her piece on Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Possibly one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year, Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrived at just the right time, hitting Nintendo Switch consoles at the end of March.

The latest installment in the Animal Crossing series finds its players arriving at a beautiful island paradise. There are multiple goals in the game including expanding your home, gaining wealth, collecting insects and fish to donate to the local museum (or to sell for profit), and of course improving your island’s appeal so that popular singer/songwriter K.K. Slider will play a concert for you and the other residents.

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[Image courtesy of VG 24/7.]

Players across the world have gone wild for this game, making it their entertainment of choice while stuck at home at this uneasy time. The social aspect of the game, which allows players to virtually invite their friends to their islands, share gifts and resources, and even to chat, has helped many feel less isolated.

And the makers of Animal Crossing are doing their part to keep the game interesting and engaging for players who have likely been obsessively playing since the release date. As months change, so do your island’s insects and fish, and special events ensure players keep coming back. An Easter-themed event called Bunny Day saw players collecting eggs to build themed objects, and more recently an environmentally centered event called Nature Day encouraged activities related to planting trees and flowers.

May Day on May 1st was part of the Nature Day celebration. Starting on this day, everyone’s favorite raccoon/tanuki mogul Tom Nook gave players a special ticket for a May Day Tour on a special getaway island via Dodo Airlines. Unlike other island excursions that players may take, this particular tour package had an unusual surprise. Players were transported to an island with a puzzly secret: a maze!

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[Image courtesy of Jennifer Cunningham.]

Normally Animal Crossing doesn’t involve much in the way of problem solving — it’s a pretty straightforward collect-and-build-style game — so to challenge players with a puzzle was a surprise.

The entire May Day Tour island is composed of a hedge maze, blocked off in spots by boulders, trees, and shrubs. Using a simple shovel supplied at the maze entrance, players must collect resources such as fruit, wood, and iron ore to build more tools and make their way through the maze.

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[Image courtesy of Newsweek.]

In addition, players could collect “Bell vouchers” which can be traded in for Bells (the game’s currency). At the end of the maze awaited the main prize as supplied by a mysterious returning character popular to fans of the game’s previous generations. (I admit as a new fan, this wasn’t a big draw for me, but for die-hard fans, this was a very big deal.)

The maze was intuitive, and it didn’t take long for me to figure out how to navigate it, although it does involve a lot of backtracking to meet the necessary steps in the correct order.

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[Image courtesy of Super Parent.]

That said, the maze did offer some challenges. I completed my first attempt fairly quickly, but failed to maintain enough fruit in my stores to remove three boulders and access a group of bell vouchers. (For a bit of context, consuming fruit boosts players’ strength, allowing them to dig up whole trees or break boulders).

Thankfully the maze offered a reset option. It took me about three attempts to finally perform every necessary action in the correct order to collect all of the maze’s prizes.

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[Image courtesy of Animal Crossing World.]

Overall, while not the most challenging of puzzles, it was refreshing to do some problem solving in a game that can admittedly get a little repetitive. There was a hint within the game’s dialog that there may be more islands of this sort, and I do hope that is true. Likely these will be included in future events to keep players coming back for more.

If you haven’t jumped on the Animal Crossing bandwagon yet and want to try your luck at the maze before it’s too late, the May Day event runs through May 7.

Thank you Jen for that marvelous report!

Will you be participating in the May Day Animal Crossing event, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

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!

Crosswords: Scourge of Society!

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Study history for any length of time, and patterns will emerge. One of the most curious patterns is how new forms of recreation are embraced, then inevitably sensationalized, stigmatized, and finally vindicated when cooler heads prevail. You see it over and over again in pop culture across the decades.

Video games continue to suffer from periodic demonization, accused of instigating violence in children. Harry Potter books are still banned by some schools and communities for spreading occult ideas. Not so long ago, one of my favorite pastimes — Dungeons & Dragons — was maligned as Satanic and damaging to young minds.

All of these panics were (and are) patently ridiculous. After all, you can go back through history and find other examples that are absolutely ludicrous in retrospect.

For example, check out this excerpt from The San Antonio Texan from August 26, 1858, about the dangers of overindulging in reading:

A whole family brought to destitution in England, has had all its misfortunes clearly traced by the authorities to an ungovernable passion for novel reading entertained by the wife and mother. The husband was sober and industrious, but his wife was indolent and addicted to reading everything procurable in the way of romance. This led her to utterly neglect her husband, herself and her eight children.

One daughter in despair, fled the parental home, and threw herself into the haunts of vice. Another was found by the police chained by the legs to prevent her from following her sister’s example. The house exhibited the most offensive appearance of filth and indigence. In the midst of this pollution, privation and poverty, the cause of it sat reading the last ‘sensation work’ of the season, and refused to allow herself to be disturbed in her entertainment.

That is proper nonsense.

And yet, it should come as no surprise to you, fellow puzzler, that crosswords also received this kind of treatment. Yes, crosswords were the focal point of a moral panic.

Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross” first appeared in The New York World in 1913. Simon & Schuster published The Cross-Word Puzzle Book, edited by Margaret Farrar, in 1924. 1924 also marked the first time a UK newspaper, The Sunday Express, would publish crosswords. By that point, crosswords were officially a fad, inspiring fashion trends (black and white patterns), hit songs, and musical revues on Broadway.

Ah, 1924. It was a strange year for crosswords. Because 1924 also saw some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled at the simple pencil-and-paper puzzles.

In November of that year, Canadian Forum referred to the spread of crosswords as an “epidemic obsession.”

The paper went on to psychoanalyze crossword solvers, claiming that crosswords were, at heart, a regressive and childish pursuit:

It is obvious from the similarity of the cross-word puzzle to the child’s letter blocks that it is primarily the unconscious which is expressing itself in the cross-word puzzle obsession.

The same year, The London Times went so far as to call America “enslaved” by the puzzle:

[The crossword] has grown from the pastime of a few ingenious idlers into a national institution: a menace because it is making devastating inroads on the working hours of every rank of society… [people were seen] cudgeling their brains for a four-letter word meaning ‘molten rock’ or a six-letter word meaning ‘idler,’ or what not: in trains and trams, or omnibuses, in subways, in private offices and counting-rooms, in factories and homes, and even — although as yet rarely — with hymnals for camouflage, in church.”

That church reference was particularly notable, as there were church sermons decrying the negative influence of crosswords on society. Sermons! Imagine crosswords being treated like heavy metal in the ’80s. It’s mind-boggling.

Much like that hyperbolic story about a family decimated by reading, newspapers published dubious tales of familial collapse sparked by crosswords:

Theodore Koerner of Brooklyn asked his wife for help in solving a crossword. She begged off, claiming exhaustion. Koerner shot her (superficially) and then shot himself (fatally).

And The New York Times, bastion of puzzles for the last 75 years? Yes, even the Gray Lady had harsh things to say about crosswords:

Scarcely recovered from the form of temporary madness that made so many people pay enormous prices for mahjongg sets, about the same persons now are committing the same sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words the letters of which will fit into a prearranged pattern, more or less complex.

The paper went on to call crosswords “a primitive form of mental exercise” and compare their value to that of so-called brain teasers that should be solved by schoolchildren in 30 seconds or less.

Crosswords wouldn’t debut in the New York Times until 1942.

But could there have been a hint of truth buried beneath all the sensationalism? Perhaps.

There were reports that overzealous solvers, desperate for an edge over other puzzlers, went so far as to desecrate books at the New York Public Library in order to prevent others from utilizing the same resources. A sign, circa 1937, firmly stated that “the use of library books in connection with contests and puzzles is prohibited.”

Those darn crossword addicts, always getting into trouble. Can’t trust ’em.

So, the next time someone tells you crosswords are boring and passe, you can tell them that crosswords were as cool and as dangerous as rock n’ roll, once upon a time.

Heck, they still are.

[Thanks to The Atlantic, The Senior Times, Historical Nonfiction on Tumblr, The 13th Floor, and CommuniCrossings for images and quotations.]

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!

5 Questions with PuzzleNation Programmer Mike O’Neil

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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!)

For the entire month of August, I’ll be introducing the PuzzleNation readership to many of the members of the PuzzleNation team! So every Thursday this month, you’ll meet a new name and voice responsible for bringing you the best puzzle apps on the market today!

And I’m excited to kick things off with Mike O’Neil as our latest 5 Questions interviewee!

Mike is part of our dynamite programming team, maintaining the high level of quality we know PuzzleNationers expect of us and helping push us into new puzzly arenas. A musician and long-time video-game fan as well, Mike is enthusiastic, sharp, and immensely capable, part of the well-oiled machine that makes PuzzleNation a brand to watch!

Mike was gracious enough to take some time out to talk to us, so without further ado, let’s get to the interview!

5 Questions with Mike O’Neil

1. How did you get started with puzzles and games?

I’ve been a video-game addict my whole life, so when I got to college I eventually decided to make them for a living. Puzzles and puzzle solving have always been a part of being a big-time gamer, so I’ve been puzzle solving since I got the gamer bug as a kid, though my favorite magazine-type puzzles are word searches.

2. Programming, puzzles, and music all demand a strong sense of balance and flow to create an immersive and productive experience. As a musician, does that ever influence your work in unexpected or insightful ways?

I would say that it’s more of the opposite, where programming has influenced my musicianship. The biggest common feature of all three is patience, so growing up solving puzzles was good training for practicing guitar.

Also, working on a piece of music can actually be like solving a puzzle because every person is different, so I often need to “solve the puzzle” to figure out exactly how I’m going to be able to pull off a particular riff/lick/lead/etc, which could be radically different from how the next person would do it.

3. What do you do in your off-time? What helps you relax or mentally recharge after a long week of puzzling?

My biggest off-time activities are video games and music, though those can all be a bit mentally challenging and not often the greatest unwinding activity. If things get really heavy I often do some urban hiking around NYC. It’s very stimulating and can last for hours (I once walked all 33 miles around the perimeter of Manhattan. My feet hated me for a week.)

4. What’s next for Mike O’Neil?

What’s next is working with the PN team to get more and more types of puzzle apps out there. Crosswords are great, but we have so much potential with our tools and team that the sky’s the limit. I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with.

[Crosswords ARE great! Have you checked out the Penny Dell
Crosswords App for both iOS and Android devices? /shameless plug.]

5. If you could give the readers, writers, programmers, aspiring game designers, and puzzle fans in the audience one piece of advice, what would it be?

One piece of advice is to make sure that the solution you come up with for your current problem is the best one, not necessarily the fastest or most slick. When I was mentoring students back at the Electronic Arts Academy, my main goal was to make sure that they don’t start implementing solutions for simple tasks with the super fancy, super complicated-type things you do in school. A good general rule is to imagine someone has to take over your work the next day, so make sure it’s easily understandable.

A huge thank you to Mike for his time. I can’t imagine a better way to introduce a month of PuzzleNation-fueled interviews and content!

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!