Puzzles, and hunting and writing.

[gwillen]

In the aftermath of the KGB puzzlehunt (which my team "won"!) I have written an essay about puzzle-solving, and how information theory pertains to search space when solving puzzles. Problem: It's 1623 words and desperately needs editing before I can post it. Solution: Remind me to edit it tomorrow, and your reward/punishment will be getting to read

Comments

[platypuslord]

I'm interested, mr willen.

Here is what I know about solving puzzles:

• Every puzzle, from time immemorial, hath mapped to an English word. Therefore the solution to every puzzle must be converted into a word.
  
• If thy solution hath a bunch of words in it already, generally it means thou must taketh one letter from each word.
  
  • Look for a number which thou canst use as an index into each word. Doth each word have a number associated with it?
    
  • Sometimes it sufficeth to taketh the last letter from each word.
    
  • Thou mayst be required to sorteth the words, ere thou taketh letters as above.
    
    • If thy words were not in alphabetical order, try sorting them into alphabetical order.
      
    • If thy words hadst alphabetical order already, thou might need to sorteth by something else.
• If thy solution hath no words or letters at all, it means thou must interpret thy solution as a code.
  
  • The codes are thus: Numerical, Binary, Ternary, Morse, Braille, Semaphore.
  • Many hunts will generously give each team a code sheet, to remind of the codes and to aid in decoding.
    
  • If

[gwillen]

This is a pretty good list. My essay is more about the general structure of puzzles, and less about specific tricks for puzzlehunt puzzles. I am editing it now.

[lindseykuper]

I'm so used to seeing "gwillen" that Glenn's last name looks naked sitting there all by itself.

[aleffert]

His name is Gwillen Willen