PUZZLE #36: Themeless 16

       





Two announcements today. First, you have one more week to enter the contest for Patrick Blindauer’s Space Puzzlefest, a series of 13 interconnected mini-meta puzzles that lead to a final meta answer. I solved it this past week and it was tough but fun. It’s $17 for the set and there are hints available if you need them.

Second, I might as well make this official: I will be publishing a new Devil Cross puzzle every Saturday. And I’m just gonna keep going until I tell you otherwise.

When I started this website last year, I wanted to keep my publishing schedule relatively modest at one puzzle every two weeks. I figured that would be tough enough to handle with my school schedule. But then I saw plenty of other indie constructors pumping out a puzzle every single week while having busy schedules of their own, and then I wondered, shouldn’t I try to keep pace? As of this past December, I’d been publishing once a week just as an experiment to see if I could do it. I can and I’m still happy with what I’m producing so far.

So what will this change, specifically? If you’ve been coming back here each week since December, not much. However, it may mean that a larger proportion of my upcoming puzzles will be themeless. There’s a simple reason for that: I find them easier to create than themed puzzles. Or rather, I find it easier to start a themeless puzzle and build it from scratch than to design an original, well-executed theme. The latter requires you to take some time combing through various lists for possible theme entries before you can actually begin building the puzzle, and those answers have to be funny and consistent for the theme to work. With the former, you can just start in the grid right away. A themeless grid may be tougher to fill smoothly than a themed puzzle, but with no theme to worry about, the name of the themeless game is easier: just fill the grid with as many kick-ass entries as you can and limit the crap. That’s all there is. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

What time will these puzzles be published, you ask? I can’t give you an exact to-the-minute time right now, but I usually aim for a morning time posting around 10 am ET. If I can’t post it by 10 am, I’ll let you know. I’ve updated the FAQ to reflect these changes. And as always, you can catch Devil Cross updates on both Twitter and Facebook.

Enjoy today’s tough puzzle, and the Oscars (if you’re into that sorta thing). There will be a new puzzle on February 28.