Phurther Fantom Phlummoxing

Added another Halloween-themed puzzle last night: Ghostly Presents. Funny how you can spend ages trying to mull over a new idea, but then a completely different one just pops into your head, ready to go. I call this "the voice of the hidden setter" and am off to Tikitiki to track it down and bottle it.

 

New puzzle: The Monstrous Magic Square

With the demise of Perplex City and Alice is Lost, I've been a little detached from on-line puzzlers recently. So I was delighted when the esteemed Bookmore pointed me to the We Love Puzzles Halloween Haywire Puzzle Competition. (WLP is what remains of PXC for those not in "the know".)

There are some great little puzzles already submitted which I'm looking forward to going through at some point. I got back to grips with the temperamental WLP puzzle-creation system to come up with "Monstrous Magic Square".

Even though it's Halloween, I didn't feel like being too demonic, so this one's more treat than tricky. Enjoy!

Competition: They think it's all over... It is now!

Well, it looks like my last round of hints did the job - we have a competition winner! The first to figure out what convoluted contortions to go through was Lysithea, so big congrats, global parcel delivery and a strange, monochrome photo to her...



Rather than posting the answer here, I've decided to put up a separate page with details of how to solve it. If you don't want to know, then look away now.



Big thanks to all who entered, and anyone that even had a look at it. Hopefully there'll be another giveaway (less PXC related) some time in the future...

Blatant Clue, Blatant. (Competition Time again)

So it looks like my previous assistance didn't help too much. The competition is still on, and sounds like some of you are getting a little desparate now ;)

Firstly, gargantuan sorries for not updating it sooner - those of you running on term times will know how frantic it gets around this time of year. Still, that's no excuse. (Really I've just been playing Super Monkey Ball, but shhhh.)

Secondly, it's time to start giving the game away some more. Reminder: first one to mail me the correct answer (brute forcing it won't count) gets the goodies as promised. Now, I'm not sure which part people are stuck on, so here's a handful of hints: Key order is key. If your collection isn't up to scratch, this site may help. Ignore the middle ground - the edge cases will give you the 'initial' clue, but you may need to fill in the gaps a little.

Practically speaking, if you're not adept with photoshop or the gimp, there's nothing wrong with a little paperwork to get things in line.

Tick-tock...

First come, first served.

It's Wednesday, I haven't seen any correct answers, so first one to get it right gets the stuff from now on. I'll post a hint later - probably tomorrow as I have no net access at home at the moment :( I'll probably also add a card or two to the stash.

In the meantime, enjoy xkcd's Labyrinth Puzzle.

Competition: Extension. And Some Help.

It's time - high time - for an update on the PXC competition from last week. Tomorrow's the ultimate deadline, and a few entries have been winging in, but alas either I've made a mistake, or you've all been guessing.

So as nobody's got the correct answer yet, I'll offer some hints. "Fortunately" (for some), the PXC Stories site has been delayed until June, so the urgency of sending out keys doesn't have quite the same.. um... urgency. As a result, I'll keep the competition open for another week and a half before turning it into a "first correct solve wins" effort. That means the deadline is now Sunday 15th April, giving you Easter and a weekend.

A hint then? Hmm, ok. Well, the puzzle's a 2-parter (as I hope some of you have worked out...), and some graph paper may help you to expand upon the 2nd part. On one level, you will need to ignore what you see. Finally, if you're new to PXC, the wiki may be of use for identifying characters...

I'm far too kind. Go forth and solve.

Competition Time! Win a PXC Key and other random bits

(Update 3: It's all over! See this post for the winner and the solution.)

(Update 2: Two sets of hints have now been added: see the first and the second.)

(Update: Oops, forgot to set up the e-mail address for entries. Looking through logs, I can only see one entry, but if you sent me mail and I haven't got back in touch, then pleeeease send it again. Sorry about that... [goes off to weep] )

There's nothing better than a bit of altruism, except perhaps for some altruism that's been passed through a puzzle filter and made into a sweaty competition of brains and scissors. So, in celebration of season 1 of Perplex City, the start of season 2, and my feeble attempt to clean out my house before moving, I've decided to hold one of these adrenaline-filled contests. Think 300, but with more clothes and (hopefully) less pits.

This started out as a way to give out a spare key, as inspired by AgentLex, but in the true spirit of "I have too many things", I'm throwing in some other bits that newbies to the ARG may not yet be enjoying. Thus, the list for successful winning is as follows:

• 1 Perplex City Key, for use very soon over at perplex city stories


• 1 CD of the Viard album, The Silver City


• "24 hours in Perplex City", a short tourist's pamphlet introducing you to the city


• 1 lot of 4 stickers with the now outdated legendary "Lost. The Cube. Reward..." message on


• 1 copy of "Perplex", volume 0 - "the magazine of Perplex City", with all kinds of fun and games in


• Most importantly, 1 photo of Coxtin, Idlemichael and Dragonscales DJing at the recent end-of-season-1 party. Take it with you and get it signed by everyone you know!

Oh, yes! I can hear you leaking in anticipation already! So we need a puzzle to get things moving... OK.

Of all the fine people that have appeared in the first season of PXC, which one do these keys hold the key to?

There, that's all you're getting for now. Some handy rules to help you along:

1. E-mail your answer to ihavethesecret@exmosis.net on or before Wednesday 4th April Sunday 15th April.


2. You can e-mail me more than once, but only your latest answer will be used.


3. I'll do a random draw thing on the 16th, and the first one out will get the stuff.


4. If nobody's e-mailed me the right answer by the Monday, I'll post a(nother) vague and cryptic clue, and make it first-correct-wins, although any random guessing/brute force will be frowned upon...

Right. It's not that difficult. Stop reading, and go get on with it.

New Puzzle number 2

I decided to give the Perplex City "Create-a-puzzle" engine another spin, so this new puzzle is up over there. It's rated a blue:

Countdown to...?

New Puzzle

Have put a new, fairly simple riddle up over here: Three of a Kind. No prize, no points, just for fun.

It's the third in a series, in case you want to catch up :) More to come soon...