Alchemy What's old is new again. AI is the new Alchemy, and the world has gone mad, as little workshops spring up all over the benighted web. Let's ignore the doom and gloom. Instead, we will poke around in the, now venerable, ChatGPT-3.5 and leverage
As puzzle designers, our creativity can be stifled when digital workspaces become chaotic jumbles of files. Each new puzzle book project introduces elements, fonts, graphics, templates, and countless versions—all of which can overwhelm your system and your creative process. Without a thoughtful organization that follows the natural lifecycle of
As part of my puzzle design journey, I have joined several groups, mostly on Facebook. I've learned a lot of things and have now become a teacher of things. One of the things, of course, is puzzle design. Long-time readers may recall my essays from Substack. (Someday, I&
When you spend a lot of time constructing word-based puzzles, a mathematics of letters emerges. The most basic example is word length. Let's build a toolkit of more advanced mathematics and use it to gain an appreciation for different puzzles. For brevity, the term dataset refers to a
The mighty spreadsheet is a canvas for a puzzle constructor. Rows and columns are merely suggestions to someone who sees a vegetable garden. If you work professionally with Excel, you may have seen eye-popping dashboards that make you think Excel had run into a phone booth for a quick change
Have you ever had a flash of inspiration and checked to see if anyone else had ever thought of it? If you did an online search, chances are high that you'll find someone else who had the same idea. However, that doesn't change the fact that
As we move through November, many folks around the world are enjoying fall festivals and harvest celebrations that bring people together. Here in the USA, Thanksgiving is one such gathering--though of course, there are countless meaningful ways that different cultures and communities mark this season of gratitude and reflection. In
Simon Tatham has an incredible collection of puzzles that you can play online. Inertia is a challenging maze-like puzzle that requires you to collect gems while avoiding bombs. Finish this one, if you can (link) This puzzle is a great example of a mash-up of multiple puzzles. It has a
If you're creating puzzle books to sell on Gumroad, Etsy or Amazon KDP, you probably wonder whether using AI will affect your creativity. Let me show you how to use AI as a helper while keeping your puzzles unique and fun. Tools You'll Need 1. Your
Every puzzle book tells a story - not just through its challenges, but through the unique creative touches that make it distinctly yours. As a puzzle designer, you might sometimes wonder how to make your books stand out in the growing digital marketplace. The answer lies not in following trends,
A Journey of Uncertainty and Discovery 100% written by Claude--except this line--at my request Executive Summary What began as a simple discussion about puzzle prompts evolved into a deep exploration of prompt engineering principles, AI behavior, and the limits of human control over language models. This conversation revealed fundamental questions
Mini-crossword puzzles are small grids, usually with easy clues. The New York Times features a daily game. The online version has a nice, interactive layout. I really enjoy creating these 5x5 puzzles. My favorite part is coming up with clues. I try not to make them too easy! The hard