What: I create variety puzzles and riddles for The New York Times Gameplay newsletter.
When: 2022 - Now
Skills: Puzzle Design, Wordplay, Figma
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:
Mini puzzles riffing off of crosswords!
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.
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.
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.
These matches represent the roman numeral for 7. Move just one match to represent the number 1.
These matches represent the roman numeral for 10. Move two matches to multiply their value by 100.
Here, 18 matches spell out the word “sled.” Rotate one thing to ‘make friends.’
These matches depict Mark’s bank balance. Move two matches to help him withdraw all of his money.
