Wednesday 14 December 2011

Guerrilla Crosswording

UPDATE: The project was a smashing success. The grids were nearly all filled (and I saw a lot of different handwriting), and a metric fuckton of pagehits from mobile devices rolled in, thanks to the QR codes on the clue sheets. Pics and further thoughts to follow...

ORIGINAL POST:
You'd do well to expect surprises round these parts. A new puzzle will still drop next Tuesday, right on schedule, but I've got a blog-promo project on the go that I'm too stoked about to forego an interim post.

If any of my fellow Reginans have peeped the newly renovated Lab Cafe at the UofR, you'll have surely noticed the ginormous (expect that word in a puzzle soon) Sudoko boards on the wall. Now, I think that's a great idea, but I'm not much of a Sudoko guy, so I couldn't stop my mind from wandering in the direction of alternative uses of those boards. Thusly, guerrilla crosswording was conceived. To kick off a trend that I hope will sweep the nation (and to promote the site), I'm going to be swooping in under the cover of dark at the ungodly hour of 7am on Thursday to comandeer all 3 boards for my own cruciverbal ends. For the occassion, I've prepared 3 spiffy 9x9 puzzles, tailored to the campus crowd and of graduated difficulty (to suit the boards labeled 'easy' 'medium' and 'hard'). On a personal note, this was also a great exercise for me, as designing grids to suit a particular market is an important skill for the budding constructor. Also, setting the difficulty through cluing is a real weak spot for me, so this presented itself as a tidy little etude.

If you're around the UofR campus on Thursday, stop in to the Lab Cafe, throw a couple answers on the guerrilla grids, and snap a few pics while you're there. Everyone who sends me a picture of themselves or others solving the puzzles will receive one piece of free swag (in the style of BEQ, likely something from my place that I don't want anymore), delivered right to your door. If you prove yourself loyal to the cause by interfering with any staff that try to remove the grids, I'll buy you lunch (I may limit the number of lunches I buy, if there is a lot of response).

Can't make it? I got you covered - all 3 puzzles available below. (**NOTE: the 'easy' puzzle is easy partly because of the inclusion of local trivia. Other solvers may find it rather difficult).

Metaphorical Difficulty: Varies
Rating: XW-MA

Download PDFs (all 3 in a ZIP file) here

Download PUZ files (all 4 posted so far on this site - sorry I didn't have this available earlier, but remember you can download the .puz files through the Java applets) here





No comments: