Day after day we deliver recommendations for worthwhile casual gameplay experiences—and while we don't always hit a home run, we do get it right most of the time—and the directional flow of all this goodness is predominantly from us to you. You Are Games is our attempt to balance that equation, to put you into the role of producer and challenge you to create for us.
For this week's You Are Games, we want you to put on your green leotards and level design tin foil hats and dial them to "R-I-D-D-L-E". Then sit back and let your eyes roll around to the back of your head to see the mental images that your brain displays across its high definition widescreen display. We want every brilliant idea that you see, so be sure to take notes! We don't want to miss even one usable puzzle.
If you're unsure of what we mean by a "riddle game", just take a look through other riddle games we have featured here at JIG. Some are better than others, so be careful what examples you allow to inspire you. Many of you have already played riddle games and know the kinds of things that don't work very well. There are plenty of examples of those. In fact, we featured a riddle game recently that started out pretty good, but soon diverged into the Territory of the Obscure. We want to avoid that territory, instead keeping to the Domain of the Universally Understood.
What we are looking for are one-panel riddle puzzles that yield a solution that can be typed in with standard ASCII printable characters on a keyboard (case insensitive—all solutions will be converted to lowercase before being checked). We have even provided a few examples in the prototype below to help you envision how things may work once we get all the ideas compiled:
Once you have your idea(s) jotted down (images, sketches, text explanation, or even a FLA file if you're talented with Flash), send them to the address on the right with the subject "JIG Community Riddle". Sign your entry with your JIG handle, or, if you don't have one, with the name you'd like to be listed in the credits inside the game if we use your riddle(s). The deadline for puzzle ideas is Wednesday evening, the 2nd of December, at midnight Eastern Standard Time.
We also have 25 prizes to give away in the form of coupons good for free games and even some t-shirts, too. If we receive more than 25 usable ideas, then we will draw names at random. Please include a statement that you're at least 13 years of age or older if you wish to win a prize. Offer void where prohibited. T-shirts will be shipped to US residents only.
If you have any questions at all, fire away and we'll try to address anything that comes up. Let the brainstorming begin!
The entries are in, the puzzles selected and now available to play online here: JIG Community Riddle Thanks to everyone who contributed (even if yours wasn't selected)!! :)
I suddenly am having trouble thinking of any sort of riddle.
This is a great idea! Unfortunately I spent far too long in the Labyrinth so I now have no brain cells left to think up any new ideas :(
In fact, I think I'm still stuck in Labyrinth 2...
*disappears for another 3 months*
Ha,
The end is not the end of all.
What are the prizes? You said coupons and t-shirts. What kind of coupons and t-shirts?
I'm very curious, as I don't exactly want to enter, win, and then win a pink Mrs. Pacman shirt!
What is this, write a game for me day? Are you going to credit submissions? Are you going to split the ad revenue generated by the page this amalgamation riddle game is located? Interesting that this comes right after the IF competition announcement...wouldn't it be better to encourage people to develop their ASCII (read: TEXT) riddles into TEXT adventure games for the competition, rather than give all their good ideas away for free?
hmm i just gave my ideas away :D
go with the flow...
@Cutty
As it says in the instructions, people's names will be credited if their ideas are used.
I think it's rather odd to start talking about splitting ad revenue etc, when access to this fantastic website is completely free. I would be very pleased to have my idea included as I can't imagine ever having the time the create my own riddle game (which would also never reach the same size of audience).
One of the best things about JiG has always been the community, and I'm pleased that we get these occasional chances to give something back. To be honest, I wouldn't even have expected there to be prizes.
Finally, the type of riddles that I would imagine being included in this feature are completely unsuited to an IF game, so your final point makes no sense.
Don't mean to be too negative, but for a number of years there have been web sites catering to just this kind of riddling.
Thanks, jimbog. ^-^
Prizes will most likely be Big Fish game coupons as they are the easiest to buy in bulk and hand out via email. I'll give them away to anyone not in the US or who doesn't want a t-shirt instead. T-shirts are JIG/Casual Gameplay limited edition (only a single printing was done).
And if you're turning your nose up at the prizes or the community spirit of this project, then perhaps this just isn't something for you.
Damn... I've been doing these for years but they're mostly Lost-themed. But I'll take a stab at doing a few normal ones.
(As foolhardy as this may be, all things considered... ahaha.)
I'm no good at this. If I entered, this is what I'd choose:
It's brown and sticky.
a stick
Ok, here's my entry:
[snip]
[Edit: Please send your ideas to the email address in the instructions above. :) -Jay]
I couldn't figure out the answer to the example riddle. Oh well.
Cool idea! I'm terrible at riddles, but I always play them. I love the idea of playing something created by the community. Naysayers aside, Jay (and how ungrateful can you be, people, really?), I love that you have started inviting the community to be a more integrated part of the site.
having trouble with example 2. tried
ipod
but that didn't work...
Ooh, are people complaining here for the sake of complaining? Mind if I join in?
T-shirts are no good for me because I live in a nudist colony, and downloadable games never work for me because I use Linux! This competition is unfairly biased against me! If I win, I demand a prize relevant to my lifestyle, such as a copy of the book "101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix!"
(And to anyone who was wondering, the entire above paragraph is a joke. I'm allergic to cake mixes anyhow, and I definitely am NOT a nudist.)
Can somebody help me with the third riddle... I can't figure it out.
Wooty tooty flip bam booty! I actually say that as well. :')
Walkthrough - warning totally spoiling spoilers:
First:
Myself
Second:
Eye Ball
Third:
Broken Record
Fourth:
Move pieces around for question
6
Hi, Jay. Great idea!
Can this be a web riddle in the style of, say, NotPr0n? In this sense, what I ask is if the 'answer box' can alternatively be a page name to be inputted into the URL bar. I was, ironically, already in the midst of making one in the style described above, and would love to finish it (at least about 20 lvs of it--originally planned to have way more) for the contest if such a 'riddle' was accepted.
Thanks,
Gamemastertips
The final game compilation will be a Flash game, not a series of HTML pages.
Having to type in a URL in the address bar is not very different than entering an answer into the text box as shown.
I'm guessing that many of your puzzles could be adapted to work within Flash instead.
Thanks for the quick reply, Jay.
Unfortunately, not. Pretty much all of them involve the source code, and a few require complex conversions/manipulations of pictures and HTML code.
Thanks anyway, and I hope the contest goes well.
Thanks. :)
About source code clues, aren't they just clues after all that yield a URL answer? Why must they reside in the source?
Thanks, Jay.
They don't have to, but clues are not always the only thing in the source :) It wouldn't be the same in flash--it would be much too easy and many of the levels wouldn't really work. The levels that COULD be transfered into flash would simply be too hard for say, a 5-level riddle. If you want anyway, here's the link for the unfinished riddle (17 levels): www.gamemastertips.com/cipher/begin/clickthedoor.htm
I made the levels after being inspired from my victory over NotPr0n, and if you ever played NotPr0n, you can see why some kinds of riddles just don't work in flash. :)
If I may add to my above comment, I'll go through the riddle again and see if any of them can possibly be extracted into flash. At a first glance though, I'd probably have to come up with some new ideas.
Depends on the audience you're going after, I suppose. We're not looking to create a very difficult riddle game. Perhaps our game will be too easy for you.
Some people even had trouble with our examples, which we thought were very easy. We're aiming to create a fun experience for a large casual audience as is the JIG community.
Right, I can see what you're saying. Mine is probably not the best then lol. I will keep working on it, however, and hope that some day or later I'll still be able to feature my riddle on JIG. :D
I'm really horrible at riddles... The only one I can think of is:
What's brown and sounds like a bell?
dung
Riddle games have always been a passion of mine. Not that they love me back, though, as I usually get stuck at Level 10 or so. I tried Gamemastertips' riddle and, sure enough, Level 9 had me completely stumped. But I gotta admit, Level 6 was pretty clever.
Anyway, it's nice to see You Are Games is back, it's been a while since the last one. And I'm sure this community game will turn out great! If there's no name for it yet, how about "JIGsaw"? =D
Ah, and one last thing:
Wooty tooty flip bam booty!
"Wooty tooty flip bam booty!" isn't the last one...
Things like this?
U
P
|
|
V
Just entered. ^^ If I think of more, can I enter again?
This looks like a lot of fun, but I think mine might be too easy. Or too hard, never can tell with these things. One person's easy riddle is another person's rage quit kinda riddle I guess. XD
Enter as often as you like until the deadline.
We'll accept all the ideas you can come up with. :)
Sorry, guys.
I wasn't trying to be negative about the prizes. In fact, I'm really excited about this competition! All I meant was that I was wondering about the prizes and attempted a joke that didn't really work.
Big Fish game coupons sound great!
Again, I'm really sorry about my earlier comment. I really do love JIG and think it's great that you guys are giving away prizes.
[Edit: No worries! :) And no harm done. You were fine to ask about them since I was pretty vague to begin with. -Jay]
Pe-ads, I don't understand what you mean. I'm guessing that you mean
The end of the example puzzles is not in fact the end. It says "end of examples" so I tried
S
but that didn't work. Sigh. It seems that I can't even finish a series of example puzzles without help...
I've got a riddle. What can be read upside down and right to left?
Noon
Hi Jay,
I've submitted a few .FLAs, and want to submit some more. But I don't want to keep submitting stuff if it's not the sort of thing you're after. Would it be possible to get just a one line feedback email saying "Yep, these are fine" or "No, these don't work"?
Cheers,
Tom
I got stuck at level 4, on Benjamins 'Doors'
anyways;
whats the limit to the interactiveness available for these small riddles?
@ Holly,
Was my message
The end is not the end of all!
too cryptic?
This might help a bit (without blatantly giving it away)
It's a LOT simpler than what you tried.
What the text says has absolutely no relevance to the answer
Are we allowed to use graphics in these or is it strictly text?
Yes, of course graphics are allowed for the clues. There are a couple of examples provided that use graphics.
Yes, sorry - I realized that after I posted the question and there was no way to take it back.
Argh! Missed the deadline by 2 days :(
Ah well, better luck next time!
So, when can we expect the game to be ready?
It's nearly finished. There were a lot of good entries, and a lot that were very obscure so we had to prune a lot from the final game.
Look for it up soon, along with a list of contributors. :)
Thank you everyone for your suggestions and submissions, even if we didn't choose your puzzle for the game!
Update