Making a Puzzle

Augmented reality jigsaw puzzle game PuzzlAR: World Tour, formerly only available on mobile devices, has been given a major upgrade via a new version for the Magic Leap One. Back in November 2018, Magic Leap sought to bolster its AR ecosystem by launching the Independent Crea ...more

The big day may be over, but the weekend is still full of Thanksgiving spirit. And so is this week's puzzle. But let's keep it short this time, because we should all be taking this time to play a real game of Scrabble with friends and family. I was thinking of making a puzzle ...more

While the airline, casino, cruise, and hotel industries are asking for government bailouts during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies around the US are giving away its apps and services for a limited time. So while you're stuck at home, keep your mind off of coronavirus with free ...more

The worst can always happen. Even if you think you're absolutely prepared, you can somehow find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere by yourself.  It can happen.  Without a map, without a compass, without a cell phone... without food and water. There are plenty of dange ...more

SCRABBLE. To some it's just a game, but to me it's life or death. Well, not really, but it feels that way anyway. On a normal weekend, a game becomes much like Jon Thomas' "friendly game of death Scrabble." Video: . When I'm playing a game of SCRABBLE, my friends are not frien ...more

It's currently 2011, but when you fire up your game console, put your hands on the controller and play the new Dead Space 2 video game, you're warped into the future— into the year 2511— just 3 years after the events that took place in the first Dead Space. And it's sure to be ...more

It's December 11th. Only 14 days left until Christmas. But today is something more than just a countdown date for the quintessential holiday—it's Angry Birds Day, which marks the one-year anniversary of the popular mobile video game. Today, Angry Birds fans around the world w ...more

First off, don't be frustrated. YOU CAN DO IT! Contrary to the message in the image above, it's NOT over. It's just beginning. And when it comes to solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, the old cliche does apply: practice makes perfect. I've read quite a few books and ...more

The Android App Market is flooded with tons of new mobile applications each day. But there can't be that many developers out there familiar with the Android OS, so where are all of these apps coming from? People like you. People like me. All of which don't have the slightest ...more

How to Build a Basic BirdhouseMaybe you were outside in your back yard and you noticed that it seemed a little lonely and empty. Our maybe you have young kids that love to experience wild life in their own back yard. Whatever reason you have for searching out this article, you ...more

For all of you PS3 owners who got addicted to the wonderful puzzle platformer LittleBigPlanet, your hopes and dreams have finally been realized— LittleBigPlanet 2 is now out! Originally set to be released in November of last year, Media Molecule's LBP2 was in stores last Tuesd ...more

If you haven't noticed yet, I've started dishing out some "Scrabble Bingo of the Day" articles that showcase interesting and somewhat unusual seven-letter words (or longer) that could give you an extra 50-point bonus on the board, as long as you empty your rack. So, for this w ...more

The "slide-together" paper construction method is a fun and satisfying way to build 3D geometric objects. It only requires paper, scissors or an exacto knife, and some patience. In Tuesday's post, we explored the slide-together method, using ordinary playing cards to build th ...more

It's sad to say, but I will no longer be writing up anymore Scrabble Challenges. Frankly, I just don't have the time to make them now. And though they are incredibly fun and "challenging" to conjure up, I'm not sure that people are finding them as useful as I had hoped. But re ...more

Since the beginning of last year, every six months or so the fine folks at Wolfire Games have gathered indie developers together to release a combo gaming pack called Humble Indie Bundle. Not only are the included games good, but the way one buys them is what makes Humble Indi ...more

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. Thanks to all of our active moderators and ...more

The game has undergone many transitions over the years, since its days as LEXIKO (1931) to its briefness as CRISS CROSS WORDS to its current and amalgamated, renowned brand of SCRABBLE. There has been many editions of the word board game along that historic metamorphosis, and ...more

Steam has been a game-changer in the PC indie game market over the last eight years, making smaller games available to millions of users at lower prices than ever before. And few times in those eight years have there been as much indie awesomeness on sale for as little money a ...more

Erik Demaine is a Professor of Electronic Engineering and Comp Sci at MI, but he is also an origami folder who has had work displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. He makes some beautiful models and intricate puzzles, but in my opinion the really inspirational work is th ...more

Minecraft never ceases to amaze, from programmable pianos to serial killers. But now someone has tackled M. C. Escher's famous Relativity lithograph from 1953 that depicts a world not bound by the normal laws of gravity. It's an amazing puzzle of a three-dimensional world trap ...more

This week's FIGRR is all about games that are old-new (or new-old, if you like) school. Each celebrates a different vital, yet largely taken for granted, aspect of video game history in the decidedly new-school world of indie games. Their titles betray them. Blocks That Matter ...more

Game demos are unfortunately a dying breed. While broadband has made it easier than ever to distribute demos to PC and console gamers, they've become more expensive and risky to make. They seldom come out before the full game, especially for AAA games. Developers realize their ...more

Danish developer Playdead has made only one game, a little indie, side-scrolling, puzzle platformer called Limbo. It just happens to be far and away the best video game of that prominent genre (and perhaps the best indie game period) on the Xbox 360, and quite possibly for Pla ...more

FEATURED DOCUMENTARY: Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film directed by reclusive street-art legend Banksy, is a little puzzle-box of a documentary. It's perfectly designed and pitched to be enjoyable on multiple levels: on one as an entertaining, illuminating mini-histo ...more

From Pixel Prospector. Most of them are platformers/puzzle games. They explain why. Hey JD weren't you making a game? How's that coming along? Via MetaFilter.

Looking back on Alan Wake, more than a year and a half after its release, it's still one of my favorite games. The graphics and ambience have held up well in comparison to any other story driven game, and it's still the best third-person horror game out there, in terms of game ...more

In these weekly Scrabble Challenges, so far we've covered two-letter words, double bingos, high scoring moves, triple-triples, last moves, parallel plays, phoneys and opening moves. For this week's puzzle, we're revisiting the strategy for opening moves. It's said that the pl ...more

Anyone who likes shooters is going to hate me for saying this: the best game of the 2000's for me was Psychonauts by Double Fine Studios. It came out in 2005 for the original Xbox, achieving critical acclaim, but never selling very well due to its sheer kookiness and poor mark ...more

The end game is a very important aspect of playing Scrabble. If you have just a few letters left on your rack and there are none left in the draw bag, but you're currently losing the game, you still might have a chance to win if you play your cards (er… tiles) right. No matter ...more

In 2008, Audiosurf came out on Steam, creating the psychedelic music game genre. If you haven't played it in the intervening three years, you're missing out on one of the coolest things in video games. The player selects any MP3 on their computer, then the game builds a unique ...more

The holiday season is here, and if you didn't already pick up a SCRABBLE set during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you still have time to buy the perfect gift for your lexical-minded friend. There's sure to be deals out there over the next couple of weeks, you just need to ...more

It's Monday, which means once again, it's time to highlight some of the recent community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. I also thought that we'd try and create something known as an "Orderly Tangle" or "Polylink". This week we had a few submissions based off ...more

The concept of Scrabble and Words with Friends is the same—play words, score points, win. But the games require different strategy in terms of letter placement, premium squares, tile point values and word choices. Here's the main differences between the two games. Scrabble ha ...more

It's another Monday, which means once again, it's time to highlight some of the recent community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. Additionally, I thought we'd take a look at the Mobius Strip. Rachel Mansur of Giveaway Tuesdays posted twice to the corkboard. The ...more

Shadows of the Dammed (360/PS3) is a polarizing game. It's not shy of being crass and crude. Go ahead and judge the game by the following examples (click to enlarge): The game is a giant penis joke. This is an official trailer for the game.. Now, with what you have seen, choos ...more