​ Heidi Erwin Cartoon Sun Drawing
heidi erwin
Brain Ticklers
Variety puzzles and riddles for NYT.
What: I create weekly variety puzzles and riddles for The New York Times Gameplay newsletter. Here are some samples.
When: 2022 - Present (Last Updated May 2025)
Skills: Puzzle Design, Wordplay, Figma
Overview
I have been making variety puzzles for The New York Times Gameplay newsletter for several years. Read more about the process of making these puzzles in my NYT Open blog post.

The intro of the first newsletter in which one of my puzzles ran:
Gameplay newsletter where Heidi discusses the magic of surprise in puzzles. Full text: By Heidi Erwin Ms. Erwin is a digital puzzle designer on the Games team. Beginning this week, she will also be creating the Brain Tickler riddles. I love when puzzles remind us that things aren’t always what they seem (and that they’re often better than they seem). When a puzzle poses a simple question, we might assume the answer is obvious. Once we start solving, though, we learn that our instincts are wrong. Being wrong is not a bad thing: Now that we know one thing that won’t work, we can challenge our assumptions and get creative. When we discover the solution, we may even feel thankful to have been initially misled. (It makes the solve all the sweeter.) Challenging puzzles are one way I’ve built confidence over the years — achieving something that once seemed out of scope shows me that I’m not always the best judge of my own abilities. In one of my favorite puzzles from the Professor Layton series, you’re shown a labyrinth of pipes and are asked to plug holes to help a friend manage the garlic scent moving through the container. Examine the labyrinth and it seems impossible — the correct solution has you plug your friend’s nostrils. The puzzles that stick with me have solutions that are clever beyond what I could’ve anticipated. Being right can be satisfying, but being wrong can be magical.


I've selected some puzzles for this page, arranged by type. Happy solving!
Microcrosses

Mini puzzles riffing off of crosswords!

Synonym / Anagram / Rhyme

Each of these puzzles presents the solver with the following goal: Fill in the empty bubble with a word that rhymes with one of these three words, is a synonym of another one of the three words, and is an anagram of the last of the three words.

Likes this but not that...
Anagram Sets

For each of these puzzles: Fill in the blanks to create English phrases, where all of the words in the blanks are anagrams of each other.

March Matchsticks

In March of 2023, I ran a series I called "March Matchsticks" (like March Madness), which consisted of one variety matchstick puzzle for each week in March.


Matchstick puzzle description TODO

These matches represent the roman numeral for 7. Move just one match to represent the number 1.

Matchstick puzzle description TODO

These matches represent the roman numeral for 10. Move two matches to multiply their value by 100.

Matchstick puzzle description TODO

Here, 18 matches spell out the word “sled.” Rotate one thing to ‘make friends.’

Matchstick puzzle description TODO

These matches depict Mark’s bank balance. Move two matches to help him withdraw all of his money.

Matchstick puzzle description TODO