Yearly Archives: 2012

I guess the trite phase about third time being lucky may be appropriate here For the Tortuga event in 2009 I wanted to make sure the puzzle was accessible and fun. I wanted as many people as possible to have a go but it be difficult enough to make the real puzzle enthusiasts still enjoy it. I opted for a hunt for buried treasure (of sorts). The puzzle was given out early as usual but only two weeks before the event. It came in two parts. A reference map of the Caribbean and a letter. The map was painted on a large board so it could be available for people too peruse on the day (It was also little clearer in the flesh too which helped) This is probably one of my favourite Tortuga puzzles. It had a excellent balance of fun and challenge. Plus, having lots of pirates looking at the map in the middle of a tavern table, tracing out ideas while trying not to give away what they’re doing or thinking made for some great moments.

More pirate themed puzzles. this time the puzzle from Tortuga 2008 This time the aim of the puzzle was to extract the order of 7 words that formed the instructions for the next part of the puzzle. Those seven words have now been lost, but this part of the puzzle still works just fine The puzzle from the previous years had been given out a month before the event, to get people excited and give them a bit of time to mull over various possible answers. In previous years, the puzzle had often fallen in a few days or weeks. So I made this one a little bit harder. turns out I may have made it a little too hard. It was solved, but not by many  

Who doesn’t love pirates? I imagine the number has dropped a little since they now seem to be everywhere. I liked them before they were cool *put on hipster glasses* For many years I provided the games and puzzles (and a lot of nonsense) for a pirate themed gathering amongst 40-50 of my friends. I recently rediscovered the lost image files for most of the puzzles that featured in each one and thought it would be fun to share them with the wider world (not that my website readership is all that wide). First off is thise one from 2007. The aim was to work out the numeric combinations of three tumbler locks that were all attached to a single chest. This is a reasonably tricky puzzle. Sadly I fell a bit flat when one of the (far too cheap) locks seized up on the day and the hinges of the chest had to be removed for the treasure to finally be won I still have the chest; and it still has a broken lock attached to it.  

To replace the drab colours that I originally did for HippyLizard I created these  Download Desktop Version as with many of my personal projects, the rest of the work on the site coding itself is ‘onging’

As ever, updating my website ends up at the bottom of my to-do list for months on end. Well, I’ve got a pile or stuff sorted and ready to be uploaded, so expect light flurries of random artwork and other nonsense over the next few days and weeks. The long term forecast is still of significant dry patches, but we’ll see I guess. It helps that I know that at least a few people actually look at this rubbish. Here’s a sneak peek

Even if I pick up my ‘iO’ project again, these character concepts will probably never be used. So, rather than let them be forgotten I thought I’d upload them on here. Some are obviously better than others and I do have favourites (depending on the day). It’s been pointed out a few times that they’ve got a little bit of a pokemon feel to them. It wasn’t intentional but I wanted fun accessible characters which all look colourful and different. With those criteria pokemon pretty much draw themselves