Before I start typing up the proposal, I want some feedback on a game
idea. The game would involve a Puzzle Master (which I'd be glad to
pledge to do for 6 months) who issues 3 puzzles a month, at any time
within the month (minus a week to allow time to respond). Each puzzle is
of a different category, and each one is worth 1 point for the first
person to respond with the correct answer. If nobody answers a puzzle
correctly, the Puzzle Master receives 1 point. The first player to reach
10 points (doable in 4 months of vigilant play) wins.
The difficulty is in constraining the puzzles to be relatively easy to
generate once a month and be easy to verify. Here's some ideas I've had
for puzzles that fit that criteria:
* Agoran trivia - A question that could refer to any bit of Agora, from
events 5 minutes before posting to the very beginning. This category has
bonuses for both new players (good excuse to learn something about
Agora) and old players (time to call on your memory).
* Ditloids - Like text-only rebuses. Ex: 3 B M = Three Blind Mice. I
like these because they're not easy to machine-solve, and the PuMa could
include the character count of the correct answer to make it more
verifiable.
* Letter Banks (Alpha Blitz) - Like a compressed anagram. Ex: IMPS =
Mississippi. This could accept an answer of a specified length, fitting
a specified description ("A country"), or just the longest answer
someone can come up with. This seems to me like something that can be
machine-solved, but I couldn't find a solver online.
- DIS: A Quick(ish) Game Proto nichdel
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