General Discussion » Puzzle Makers Guidelines
Perhaps an image creation tool FAQ would be useful.
I personally create JPGs using Macromedia Fireworks and export them at 80% quality, which gives a pretty reasonable filesize without losing much detail. (It's really unnecessary for images at these dimensions to be more than maybe 80Kb -- and it's especially hard on dialup users).
Hmm... I haven't seen enough questions regarding image creation tools to call them FAQs. So, what questions do people have? Take advantage of the pool of experience here at Tanga, and post your questions here!
There has been quite a bit of discussion in the puzzle maker discussion blog (linked above) about the pros and cons of different file types to use.
I assumed that hypercrosses were also limited to 500x500, and created two over the last couple days (with 81 clues between them)...
...looking back, it appears that the upload process automagically scales images (both up and down) to the appropriate size.
[3] DNewfield
Historically the pictures have not been scaled up (hence my constant griping about illegible pictures). However, they are scaled down.
Phew! 81 clues - thats a LOT for two puzzles - I paled at doing 17 in one puzzle.
(I don't know if I am looking forward to yours or not <8-o)
[4] Just because the import automatically scales up doesn't mean that a small image won't still result in a blurry clue. Your "constant griping" is still appropriate. :-)
[5] DNewfield
You are absolutely right! When the pic is too small, I usually bring it into photoshop to try to enlarge it, but when the resolution isn't there, it is just an exercise in frustration.
I will continue griping when appropriate. However, lately it seems that the hypercross authors have gotten the message - haven't had to grip in a while :-)
Can you include that "combingseveralwordsintoonewordbynotincludingspacesisnotreallyaonewordanswer"?
:)
It would be nice to have a link to these Guidelines at the top of the "Contribute Fun" page.
[9] They're fairly out of date. I just submitted a hypercross puzzle; the image size allowed is greater (it auto-scales). You do not need to worry about image name (it is auto-renamed).
That being said, an official guideline would be welcomed. But the Tanga guys seem to have their hands full doing higher-priority stuff already.
[10] It always has auto-scaled... but that can distort the image and make details hard to discern and/or text hard to read. It's best to create your image with a size that WON'T scale, so you know how it will look when the puzzle is published.
2/15/08 Added link to "The Worst Puzzle Ever" Contest as some cautionary examples
2/24/08
Added "There's no Hypercross SUMBIT Button" information
2/28/08 Added How to get the hypercross clues to show up in the order you want.
[14] Cool! Leadfoot, your Tanga knowledge is exceeded only by your generosity in sharing it with others!
Regarding "getting you Hypercross clues in order," I've yet to find this method to work for me. Often what happens to me is I get several "groups."
Say I want to "edit" 12 pictures into an order. So I "edit" picture A, then B, then C, etc.
What I usually get is something like this:
ABCD GHI K EF L J
or
EFGH L IJK ABCD
They kind of group together, but never in the complete order I want them. This is often good enough, but it can be frustrating at times.
FWIW, I will often delete a clue, just to add it again in hopes that it appears in a different place... and it's a total crapshoot :) Sometimes it comes back in the exact same place, soemtimes it doesn't. And then I can delete it again and readd it, and the same thing: total crapshoot each time.
Ah, Tanga.
[15] Other people had the knowledge - I just collected it so more people could use it!
Actually - it was enlightened self interest - so many people were asking the same questions over and over again - and I got tired of searching for old posts where the answer had been posted before - and this way anyone can point people to this compilation, or the FAQ compilation - if they can find them (I have them bookmarked for quick link copying)
[16] thanks for the feedback I'll update the information above to indicate is sometimes works.
Just want to reiterate [10]:
Image file names are NOT shown here anymorre, so go right ahead and name them whatever makes it easier for you to find/upload them :)
EDIT: Doh! And now they ARE shown again :(
Posted on Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:55 PM |
Geez, just because a fella used a non-noun, non-recognized hexidecimal you have to spell out the rules? Can't you just TG me with your complain...oh...you all did already. Shoot. Nevermind.
FFA500 Forever!
I learned the hard way tonight that apparently, for some reason, png files do NOT work properly for hypercrosses in some browsers. I could not enlarge the thumbnail on my IE 6 machine, although it worked fine using Firefox. I believe it works OK in IE 7 as well. Many people were having similar issues. I was unable to verify if everyone having problems was using IE 6, but that is what I am seeing.
Until this is fixed, I would highly advise everyone to stay away from using png files in hypercrosses!
I've used gimp for my puzzles so far, and it works perfectly. I wonder sometimes what people use as sources for their images for puzzles? google image search is an obvious start, but many pictures you pull from there specifically demand licensing, which I'm not terribly likely to pay for a puzzle on which I make no money. Are there any totally awesome resources people've used that they can share?
http://www.sxc.hu/, various free clipart and MS Powerpoint (you'd be amazed what you can draw w/ shapes if you're creative enough ;)
I just submitted my first puzzle (yay!) ... I think, I finished it but there was no big "I'm done submit my puzzle now" button. How do I know if it was really submitted?
It also did not take an mp3 file, oh well. I made an alternate image instead.
[28] [29] Oh, and you can now use flickr to search for various flavors of Creative Commons, the only weird thing is that I don't know if making a puzzle counts as commercial use or not. I'm not getting profit from what I produce, but Tanga theoretically could.
There are some that are blatantly usable w/o the no profit restriction.
P.S. I don't see where to add hints either. Is this something weird w/ the redesign?
I've seen some puzzle makers do this to cryptopixes, but not all have adopted it.
I think that if the answer to a criptopix has punctuation the puzzle maker should either not include the punctuation or show the punctuation in the puzzle
here is a good example of a cryptopix with punctuation in the puzzle
http://www.tanga.com/puzzles/3031-4-2-2008?comm...
it's just a small suggestion that might help people solve easier
Posted on Tue Apr 22, 2008 01:22 AM |
[31] I fully agree! Frustration over punctuation seems to come second only to errors in the "answer" field.
If you are making a Cryptopix, adding punctuation (commas, exclamation points, question marks, etc...) without showing them in the puzzle is a sure way to have your puzzle end up being negatively received!
But you don't have to take my word for it...
5/8/08 Updated with comment from a hypercross puzzle maker
[34] I have been following the 500x500 rule for my cryptopix (cryptopi?) submissions, and that is how they have been published with no enlargement or compression.
Added Philana's suggestions about what makes a balanced hypercross, and how to make the crossword tool re-organize the grid.
Thanks Philana!
There should be a link to this discussion on any page you are taken to from a link under "Contribute" on the left menu. I for one, did not know a lot of these guidelines.
[37] *sigh* yep! that sure would be a Good Idea :-)
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Added a link to Arnotts "some Hypercross "Rules"" discussion
If I've missed an answer to this question I apologize...or if it's a problem common to my browser (firefox) then ditto...but I have been trying to create some hypercrosses and I'm having trouble getting the puzzle to shape up correctly on the grid. I'm entering the row the word starts on and the column it ends on and it works for some but for others it appears to be combining the two entries and making that particular square the starting point and writing across or down from there. For example, a word starting on row 2 and ending on column 8 is starting at the square with the coordinates r2xc8 and building from there. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
[40] It looks like the instructions in the interface are wrong.
I think the STARTING positions are supposed to be entered
Starting row, starting column. The length is determined by the length of the word you have entered...
You must make sure the original grid size is enough hold all the letters or it will truncate...
Try that to see what you get.
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Having the ending column doesn't make sense for the down words and the prompt doesn't change....
EDIT: The misstatement in the interface has been fixed
Thanks pb...that's what I thought. I've reentered two puzzles simply using the starting coordinate and that seems to work
Regarding fonts:
I'd like to suggest that puzzle makers generally use sans serif fonts (such as Arial and Helvetica) rather than serif fonts (such as Times News Roman and Garramond).
There are numerous exceptions to this, but in general terms sans serif fonts are easier to read in a puzzle, especially if there is a background. Sometimes the thin strokes on a serif font blend into a picture and are hard to read.
If your software allows it, add a high contrast outline (white outline for black letters or vice versa) to your text.
Try to avoid small font sizes. You've got a very limited amount of real estate, so make it count.
Of course, you've got a lot of artistic license. I don't propose these as "rules" but as "considerations." If you've got a good reason to do it differently, then do it differently.
Regarding Puzzles that rely on recognizing a celebrity or cartoon character, or fictional specialized depiction of kumquats.... Please add something to the clue that will allow those people who don't recognize the picture get a handle on starting some kind of search in google, or wikipedia, or google images, or the search engine of their choice...
When a puzzle just requires *knowing* who the person pictured is, some people will recognize the picture right away and get it, however other people won't be able to solve it at all - and google image searching is not fun once you get to the 12th page with no results. It doesn't slow down the people who know, and will make the puzzle more fun for those who don't know.
Let me add not to use an ampersand in your hypercross creation, as some Mac and/IE users have issues:
[31][32] I agree except when it comes to apostrophes. Sometimes an image can represent the whole contraction or possession, etc., so you just typically have to let the image stand and hope people know their grammar. Obviously a Cryptopix that avoids this all together is preferable...or writing out the contraction can work, but sometimes it is unavoidable....like for instance, "They're back!"
© 2008 Tanga.com LLC. All rights reserved.
I’ve collected various guidelines for the puzzle makers from several Tanga sources and published them here.If there are other suggestions to put at the top (so people don’t have to slog through all the comments), please post.
_Disclaimer: These are accurate to the best of my knowledge as of 2/28/08, and have NOT been verified by any Tanga personnel.
PUZZLE GUIDELINES
For One Word Wonders and Cryptopix:
o The answer must be one word. Proper nouns are ok.
o The maximum size of the image is 500×500 pixels, please make the images as large as you can (and minimize the white space in the image)
o The allowable file types are .jpg, .mpg, .png, .gif (others?) JPG format is suggested for pictures, and PNG format for text-based puzzles (or images with very few colors)
o DO NOT include the answer word as part of the file name of the uploaded image (sneaky Tangans know how to read the filenames ;-) ). The file name of the picture will NOT be renamed.
o The ANSWER field does not show on the Solution page, so please include the Solution Word in your description of the the solve method.
o Include all steps to the solution, including any intermediate words needed to arrive at the solution. This makes the job easier for the moderators (a good idea) as well as the solver who isn’t quite sure how you really meant the puzzle to be solved.
o After the puzzle has been submitted and/or published – if there is an error (gasp!) you can upload a corrected image (and are encouraged to do so).
o Keep in mind that there are many colorblind Tangans often frustrated by reliance on color.Please check your puzzle in black and white, and make sure there are other clues available to those solvers.
o Combingseveralwordsintoonewordbynotincludingspacesisnotreallyaonewordanswer
o We held an unofficial This is the Worst Puzzle Ever contest in February 2008.You can find the results here are some excellent examples of some truly bad puzzles (and actually some examples of good ones for the phrase).Sometimes a bad example is a good learning tool
For Hypercross puzzles:
o While you are working on your puzzle – please include the words “WORK IN PROGRESS” or “WIP” in the title, so the moderators know not to test solve and moderate while you are still working on it. (there is no “submit” button). After you have uploaded all the images and doublechecked the spelling on the answers then change the title to the final name – or add “DONE” to the end. The “DONE” will be removed before the puzzle is published.
o All Hypercross images are displayed at 400 (wide) x 300 (tall) pixels, so do yourself a favor and MAKE YOUR IMAGES EXACTLY THIS SIZE. Tanga will WARP/DISTORT/STRETCH all Hyper clues to be exactly 400×300.
o The allowable file types are .jpg, .mpg,
.png, .gif (others?) 4/9/08 NOTE: It seems some browsers have difficulty dealing with .png files – suggest they not be used.o The file name of the pictures will NOT be renamed, so please do NOT include the answer word as part of the file names of the uploaded images.
o When you design your grids, if you keep them under 13 columns, then the letter boxes won’t get laterally compressed. You can have as many rows as you want.o Here’s a good tool for grid design. You can resubmit the same word list for different dimensions.Crossword Puzzle Tool – Note, that when using this tool, you shouldn’t necessarily accept the first grid it creates. You can click the browser’s back button twice and then click Create Puzzle again to generate a new grid. Do this until you get a grid with balanced and high-quality crossings. A good grid has balanced crossings. Try to avoid grids where one answer has 5 or more crossings, but many other answers have only one crossing. (Thanks Philana!)
o When you first submit your hypercross clues they seem to order themselves randomly. Here is how you get them into the order you want them to display (thanks monocle!):
1) go to your hypercrosses
2) Click “show” for the one you want to edit the order
3) Click “edit words”
4) Edit each clue in the opposite order you want them to appear. You don’t need to actually edit anything. Each clue you edit will get moved to the top. If done properly, the first clue you edited will end up at the bottom and the rest should follow in order.
note: see comment 16 below – this method does not always work – but it might for you, so it’s worth a shot.
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note from a hypercross maker:
” When my hypercross went live I was shocked to see the filename for each image listed in the url. It was my own fault for naming the images as such, but recently image names were given numbers and the filename did not appear. If you have submitted a HC, double check that the file names are not the answer. I screwed up and lost 40 minutes renaming and reuploading the images.
Just thought I’d pass it along in case others are as silly as me.”
One more link for Hypercross Rules: http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/1643-Some_Hypercross_Rules_
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TO SUBMIT A PUZZLE
Click HERE
p.s.
Click here to see the puzzle maker discussion blog started last January for more suggestions and tips from both puzzle makers and puzzle solvers (some of which are included above).In fine Tangan tradition, there are a LOT of comments and discussion.
Yet another discussion blog
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TOP REASONS SUBMITTED PUZZLES ARE REJECTED