DiMono is breathing heavy on my neck and muttering I should announce the September winners already. He really wants to get the October contest started. I mean he's trotting around with this whole gung-ho, can-do attitude of his, and it's
really starting to get irritating. I tell him "
more patience, less coffee"
but the man cannot be reasoned with. So I guess the easiest thing is just to make the announcement...
It looks like this business of making good word puzzles is surprisingly tough. When I set out to make my Bunny Puzzle, I was feeling feisty. I thought it was going to come off so incredibly clever, but when I sat down and worked with it a bit, well, the idea didn't seem so genius. I have even more respect for the guys that are actually good at making word puzzles, like the Reverend Charles Dodgson.
And it seems that the voters were probably a bit disappointed at what came up. Most of the authors got less than a 6. I believe this audience is so fluent in puzzles that it's just difficult to impress them. We're comparing the authors' puzzles to all the nifty chestnuts we've collected over our puzzle-loving lifetimes and that's tough competition.
The "
He's Not Even Trying"
booby prize is awarded to Eytan for his terrible "
list the prime numbers"
entry. The prize is a low-carb banana which has had its inside filling sucked out through a syringe and replaced in same fashion with sugar-free Jello brand banana pudding. The prize is waiting for Eytan in a refrigerated case at the Jiffymart Stop-and-Go in Elsewhere, Idaho.
Rookie bonus of +10 rank points goes to Tim and Noah. I mean, I'm pretty sure they didn't compete in any other contests. To be honest, I ought to start keeping track as these contests are piling up behind us. Tim, Noah, is this your first time?
Wackhead, you were
very close to getting the rookie bonus, but I don't want to bend the rules. Hmmm... Say something about kittens in a follow-up post. Seriously, just do it. You'll see...
For third place, we have Bibelot with six and one-third. I get the feeling he is always secretly picking points, but only the best-looking ones, which he cleans and puts inside his mantle frame. +25 for Bibelot and all his points.
Noah and Tim tied for second, earning a six and seven-fifteenths rating and 50 points. I'm not going to be stingy--you
each get 50 points. And you
each get congratulated separately: Congratulations, Noah. Congratulations, Tim.
Watcher has a seven and... nine/fourteenths rating. (Weirdly, I just started guessing with fractions and stumbled onto a 9/14 match after about 10 seconds. I'm not very good at math so this surprised me greatly!) And since that's the highest, he wins one hundred rank points plus either an item of his choosing from
the DROD Store or a free copy of "
DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold"
after it is released. E-mail me with your choice, Watcher, or I will almost certainly forget.
(Here we add about thirty minutes of hobbits staring lovingly at each other while swelling orchestra music plays.)
And also... ALSO... Watcher gets +1 rank points because he had a puzzle with a seven-or-higher rating. He was the only one, surprisingly. I suppose it's lonely way up there at the top, but you learn to get along with people of lesser abilities and not let the condescension creep into your voice.
Thanks very much for all this participation. I'm glad we had so many entries, and I was plenty happy with the follow-up discussion. If any of you guys happen to come up with the Ultimate Short/Long puzzle later, please post it--I'm still interested.
-Erik
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals |
twitch stream |
youtube archive (NSFW)
But seriously, is it normal in your country to call it a murder as he's shot himself? We would have called that suicide anyway.
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