Ideas for a cool puzzle for my cache listing

[+parker313]

I just hid a cache the other day and the hide itself is a little tricky, but not really. It's a large ammo can hidden off an access road to a barge canal/river area. I'd love to put a really cool puzzle that needs to be solved on the cache page. Not necessarily super hard, just something fun and different.

 

I'm searching through a bunch of cache listings looking at other puzzles other people have done, but was wondering if anyone here had any fun ideas too.

 

Thanks

--Kristin

[+Kit Fox]

A good place to start is by reading about Substitution Ciphers.

[+BillsBayou]

All of my puzzles are mazes. The simple reason is that I enjoyed creating puzzles as a child. It was only logical for me to do mazes as a start for my puzzles.

 

You should ask yourself "What kind of puzzles do I enjoy?" If you enjoy the puzzle type, you'll enjoy creating the puzzle. Enjoying the puzzle genre will fuel your creative process.

 

Begin by dissecting the puzzle. Identify the components of the puzzle which make it work.

 

For example, Mazes:

Step 1, What makes a maze, a maze?

 

Step 2, What is it about mazes that can be used to hide numbers?

 

Step 3, How can I abuse the criteria of a maze?

(This is the step where I came up with some of my really wierd mazes)

What if a maze had more than one exit?

What if a maze had no start or end?

What if a maze had no walls?

What if a maze had no single solution?

What if a maze had no solution at all?

(Come up with a maze with these broken rules and then go back to Step 2, above, and see how it changes that area of your creation process)

 

One of the most confounding problems I encounter is "How do I represent ZERO?" My answer is to use the number TEN. You may have another answer.

 

Sudoku is a puzzle type that I cannot use because I live in the 30N-90W area of New Orleans. There are no zeros in Sudoku. However, I've got several ways to hide coordinates if I can find a place to hide a cache.

So: What makes a Sudoku work?

Sudoku puzzles have a solution

Sudoku puzzles begin as an incomplete 9x9 grid

Sudoku puzzles must Sudoku rules (that whole 3x3 grids arranged 3x3 with the 1-9 rules)

Only digits 1-9 may be used.

1) Show a Sudoku with a maze path (yes, mazes again). The solution is 14 spaces in length. The entire path is empty but will contain the coordinates when you solve the entire puzzle.

2) Give your finders an incomplete coordinate set (N30 AB.CDE W90 FG.HIJ) and then mark 10 spots in the Sudoku with letters. The solution will give them the answer key.

3) Create your Sudoku with the coordinates in plain sight! The 14 digits (15 digits for people in the far West or East areas of the world) are the only digits at the start of the Sudoku.

- This is my favorite type. You don't need to solve the puzzle at all! Heck, you can even make the Sudoku unsolvable if you're cruel.

4) Combine steps 2 and 3, above. Hide the cache coordinates in the ABCs of the Sudoku. Make the hide spot very difficult. The plain sight coordinates give the location of a clue cache that makes finding the cache easier if they go there first.

 

You can do all this with crosswords too (plenty of blanks to be used there).

 

Granted, I've only mentioned pen and paper puzzles. There are plenty of other types of puzzles out there.

 

Do a "Paint-by-numbers" puzzle. Make a swirling mess of areas that can be easily imported into a Windows Paint file. Then when the finder fills in the numbers, the dark greens, blues, and blacks reveal the coordinates among the lighter whites and yellows.

 

Make your finders print out and put together a jig-saw puzzle. (Few would do this, I fear)

 

Have any 10-sided dice? Take pictures of the dice with the needed numbers on the bottom of the die. The finders will need to solve the puzzle by looking at all the photos to determine where the numbers are located.

 

There's a puzzle cache in my area that uses photographs and a marked map. To solve the puzzle, you need to determine which photos line up with the letters on the map. You have to drive around town to figure it out.

[+parker313]

Thanks for the awesome ideas

 

There is a maze puzzle here in Savannah - it was fun, and I had no idea how the puzzle was going to help me til I started it.

 

I like the Sudoku puzzles, and had a Kakuro puzzle but had to archive it b/c of not so nice cache neighbors.

[+One of the Texas Vikings]

I have placed quite a few puzzle caches.

Here are a few.

Most of the were well recieved, and the comments were positive.

Oldies but Goodies

X doesn't mark the spot

Oil

Movie Mania

Geography

Thorolfur's Treasure

You can read some of the comments from the logs.

"Movie mania" has stumped some people, because you can't Google a pic.

Before GC stopped scripts, you couldn't copy and right click on the lyrics in "Oldies but Goodies"

so you either had to write them down or sing them.

 

"X doesn't Mark the spot" has gotten a quite a few good comments. Most people really like the idea.

So much so, that I am going to do another one, on the other side of town, for the people on the

west side.

 

Have fun with the puzzles. I like the puzzle caches, as long as they are not too difficult.

If you have any questions, email me...

 

Rick, (One of the Texas Vikings)

[+BillsBayou]

Another good idea is to look at the puzzle caches of geocachers in other areas. Examine how they do their puzzles and change them to fit your own interests an coordinates. Ok, so maybe that's stealing an idea. You'll get zero points for creativity. That's why you look at caches more than 100 miles away. Your locals will most likely not recognize the puzzle. If your idea uses the same solution method as another cache, it's considered very nice to make note of where you got your inspiration. It's also a good idea to make this note if the solution method is so regognizable that other cachers are mentioning the other caches it in their find logs. You don't get the feeling of being "busted" if you've already mentioned your inspiration.

 

NEVER EVER NEVER steal someone else's TEXT or GRAPHICS. That's just wrong. If you cannot re-create the puzzle for your local coordinates without plagarizing, then JUST DON'T DO IT. You'll get called out for this on the forums or just flat out reported to your local approval agent.

 

Now then, if you cannot figure out how to solve another cacher's puzzle, it's OK. Just jot down the ideas you come up with for solving their puzzles.

 

"Hmmmm... maybe I need to do X, Y, Z to solve this puzzle"

 

If you think that X, Y, Z is a good way to solve a puzzle, then come up with a puzzle where you need to do X, Y, Z! If you want, you can give recognition to the other cacher's puzzle, but seeing as you're using a method and puzzle that was inspired but is essentially different, you're free to claim artistic ownership.

[+parker313]

Don't worry, if I take someone else's idea and adapt it, I will definitely cite my reference!

 

I have been searching out puzzle caches from out of our area.

 

I've got a couple of half baked ideas floating around in my head, I just need to flesh some of them out and see what I can come up with.

[Dinoprophet]

Another thing to consider is whether you want to do a figure-it-out-at-home puzzle or an in-the-field puzzle. I like all puzzles, but I prefer the latter. Texas Vikings' "X doesn't Mark the Spot" and "Thorolfur's Treasure" are examples. Here's one that I used to have. I haven't seen this concept redone yet, though several have asked me about doing so.

[+parker313]

I came up with something. I'll post a link once the cache gets reviewed. Thank you all, I've had a fun afternoon looking at all of these!

[+parker313]

Ok, here's my cache Brodie's Canal Bank Treasure

...and here's another cool puzzle cache that was just published not long before mine. Rare for us to get two in one day around here! Biliteral Thinking

Edited January 29, 2007 by parker313

[+ePeterso2]

Let the Games Begin! (GCTG4C) is one of the coolest and most complex puzzles in my area. I've got one piece left to move in order to solve it! You could definitely steal the concept for your own implementation.

 

-eP

[Dinoprophet]

Ok, here's my cache Brodie's Canal Bank Treasure

...and here's another cool puzzle cache that was just published not long before mine. Rare for us to get two in one day around here! Biliteral Thinking

Looks good. As a code hobbyist, a few things jump right out at me that I think would get me started solving it, but I haven't figured it out completely.

[+parker313]

You'll have to let me know what you think when you solve it. Constructive criticism more than welcome, I don't get offended.

[Dinoprophet]

You'll have to let me know what you think when you solve it. Constructive criticism more than welcome, I don't get offended.

Not at all, it's good. I have an idea where to start, which makes me believe it's solvable; but I wasn't able to sprint to the finish, meaning I have to think a bit, which is also good.

 

Now, that other one, that's got me stumped. For the moment.

Edited January 30, 2007 by Dinoprophet

[+parker313]

Let the Games Begin! (GCTG4C) is one of the coolest and most complex puzzles in my area. I've got one piece left to move in order to solve it! You could definitely steal the concept for your own implementation.

 

-eP

Wow! That is very impressive. It's also less than 5 miles from where my grandmother lives...who we are going to visit in March

[+parker313]

You'll have to let me know what you think when you solve it. Constructive criticism more than welcome, I don't get offended.

Not at all, it's good. I have an idea where to start, which makes me believe it's solvable; but I wasn't able to sprint to the finish, meaning I have to think a bit, which is also good.

 

Now, that other one, that's got me stumped. For the moment.

I had to get some google help for the bilateral one, but I ended up getting it solved quickly after that. Now, hopefully I can get out caching tomorrow (2 sick kids) and snag it!