Since the Escapist is running a puzzle issue, as well as a totally sweet game, I thought we could get together and discuss some of our favorite puzzle sites online.
There are a lot I like, but I thought I'd point out a couple different ones that some people might not have come across.
First, a fantastic piece of art as well as a clever, unique puzzle arrangement, Planetarium [http://www.beholder.co.uk/planetarium/].
This site is actually a game you can only play over a series of 13 weeks. Each week a new chapter is revealed to you, and you will need to be on your guard as, after 13 weeks is over, the ultimate answer is revealed and you are unable to solve any more puzzles. Initially the reason for this was because of a contest that the site was holding, and though it is long since over, the site and its bizarre universe persist. The art is fantastic, the puzzle range from teasers and riddles to complex story-driven bits interwoven in every page. Additionally, there is a TON of interesting text to read through, sometimes helpful, sometimes a red herring, but always keeping you interested. Almost anything that you can click on in a picture or text leads you to more things to read to draw you deeper into this fantastic, non-linear world. The answers all serve to give a small nudge to the meta-puzzle, which will then help you answer the underlying question of just what is going on here anyway! Definitely a must see for fans of both puzzles and artistry.
Also, if you like this, I can't help but recommend their other projects, particularly The Concuspidor [http://www.beholder.co.uk/concuspidor/index.html], which has a lot of little details and is overall just a neat little tale that has a lot of computer and internet references, back when the internet was just a budding flower of BBS's and MUD's. Part of its intention was to push the possibilities of the web to the limit, and it was, and is, a unique piece of the online world.
Another site is tied actually part of a PREVIOUS puzzle site that sadly no longer exists, The Stone. The site I am pointing you towards is The Stone Unturned [http://www.thestoneunturned.com/].
The Stone was a large set of puzzles with an eventual goal of solving one ultimate meta-puzzle, as well as offering interesting real-world incentives. Locations were marked and visual clues were given to hint at where items might be hidden (sort of like geocaching with pictures, and, uh, no coordinates), and gatherings were often held, as well as prizes for certain special events that may occur. Additionally, each player (at first) had their own little piece of The Stone, as it were: a rock tied to a string with six symbols on it, that was both their login and their possible connection to another player. Each stone (probably) had a duplicate somewhere in the world, though whether it got purchased or not was down to pure luck. Once you had it, you could log in to The Stone website and solve puzzles mostly based on graphics, hidden text, secret codes, and a LOT of internet searching. The idea was that each puzzle was usually based on some apocryphal piece of knowledge which, occasionally, one might know, but usually you'd have to look up. For instance, do you know what the prophecy of 2012 is actually called? Or perhaps you'd like to unscramble several clues leading to Dr Seuss stories, and tie them to world events that happened when the book was released? It was usually not quite so obvious even what you were looking at at first, but eventually, with a couple search engines by your side, you could work it out.
So why tell this story? Well, the community was a fairly tight knit one, but the site had some internal troubles with the creator and his financial/technical backers. With frequent down time, we needed puzzles to entertain ourselves, and so was created The Stone Unturned [http://www.thestoneunturned.com/]. A whole bunch of user-generated content in the style of The Stone to keep us occupied while the legal battles raged on. While the site kind of petered out, eventually releasing the final puzzles but without any real conclusion to the mystery, the community decided they needed to keep their side. Even that died down eventually, but the site still exists, and you can still answer all these puzzles.
OK, I gave way too much of a story there, but I got a lot out of that site. It was a good time for puzzling.
Last, I'll leave you with a fun one that I've been working on lately - The Roomz [http://www.theroomz.yoyo.pl/].
A conglomeration of a lot of different puzzle styles in a unique Flash setup, with a more ambitious sequel (The Roomz: Eclipse [http://theroomzeclipse.org/] in progress right now. I'd work on finishing the first before moving on, as updates for the new version seem few and far between, but I still enjoy the complexities of this. Also there are several secret rooms in the game as well, so if you think you're done... sorry.
What else is out there that you have enjoyed puzzling over in the past?
There are a lot I like, but I thought I'd point out a couple different ones that some people might not have come across.
First, a fantastic piece of art as well as a clever, unique puzzle arrangement, Planetarium [http://www.beholder.co.uk/planetarium/].
This site is actually a game you can only play over a series of 13 weeks. Each week a new chapter is revealed to you, and you will need to be on your guard as, after 13 weeks is over, the ultimate answer is revealed and you are unable to solve any more puzzles. Initially the reason for this was because of a contest that the site was holding, and though it is long since over, the site and its bizarre universe persist. The art is fantastic, the puzzle range from teasers and riddles to complex story-driven bits interwoven in every page. Additionally, there is a TON of interesting text to read through, sometimes helpful, sometimes a red herring, but always keeping you interested. Almost anything that you can click on in a picture or text leads you to more things to read to draw you deeper into this fantastic, non-linear world. The answers all serve to give a small nudge to the meta-puzzle, which will then help you answer the underlying question of just what is going on here anyway! Definitely a must see for fans of both puzzles and artistry.
Also, if you like this, I can't help but recommend their other projects, particularly The Concuspidor [http://www.beholder.co.uk/concuspidor/index.html], which has a lot of little details and is overall just a neat little tale that has a lot of computer and internet references, back when the internet was just a budding flower of BBS's and MUD's. Part of its intention was to push the possibilities of the web to the limit, and it was, and is, a unique piece of the online world.
Another site is tied actually part of a PREVIOUS puzzle site that sadly no longer exists, The Stone. The site I am pointing you towards is The Stone Unturned [http://www.thestoneunturned.com/].
The Stone was a large set of puzzles with an eventual goal of solving one ultimate meta-puzzle, as well as offering interesting real-world incentives. Locations were marked and visual clues were given to hint at where items might be hidden (sort of like geocaching with pictures, and, uh, no coordinates), and gatherings were often held, as well as prizes for certain special events that may occur. Additionally, each player (at first) had their own little piece of The Stone, as it were: a rock tied to a string with six symbols on it, that was both their login and their possible connection to another player. Each stone (probably) had a duplicate somewhere in the world, though whether it got purchased or not was down to pure luck. Once you had it, you could log in to The Stone website and solve puzzles mostly based on graphics, hidden text, secret codes, and a LOT of internet searching. The idea was that each puzzle was usually based on some apocryphal piece of knowledge which, occasionally, one might know, but usually you'd have to look up. For instance, do you know what the prophecy of 2012 is actually called? Or perhaps you'd like to unscramble several clues leading to Dr Seuss stories, and tie them to world events that happened when the book was released? It was usually not quite so obvious even what you were looking at at first, but eventually, with a couple search engines by your side, you could work it out.
So why tell this story? Well, the community was a fairly tight knit one, but the site had some internal troubles with the creator and his financial/technical backers. With frequent down time, we needed puzzles to entertain ourselves, and so was created The Stone Unturned [http://www.thestoneunturned.com/]. A whole bunch of user-generated content in the style of The Stone to keep us occupied while the legal battles raged on. While the site kind of petered out, eventually releasing the final puzzles but without any real conclusion to the mystery, the community decided they needed to keep their side. Even that died down eventually, but the site still exists, and you can still answer all these puzzles.
OK, I gave way too much of a story there, but I got a lot out of that site. It was a good time for puzzling.
Last, I'll leave you with a fun one that I've been working on lately - The Roomz [http://www.theroomz.yoyo.pl/].
A conglomeration of a lot of different puzzle styles in a unique Flash setup, with a more ambitious sequel (The Roomz: Eclipse [http://theroomzeclipse.org/] in progress right now. I'd work on finishing the first before moving on, as updates for the new version seem few and far between, but I still enjoy the complexities of this. Also there are several secret rooms in the game as well, so if you think you're done... sorry.
What else is out there that you have enjoyed puzzling over in the past?