A puzzle hunt (sometimes рuzzlehunt) is an event where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles, many of which are tied together via metapuzzles. Puzzlehunt puzzles are usually not accompanied by direct instructions for how to solve them; figuring out the necessary approach is part of the puzzle. These hunts may be hosted at a particular location, in multiple locations, or via the internet.
Promotional poster for the annual Manbites Dog puzzle hunt.
A puzzlehunt puzzle usually has no direct instructions for how to solve it, but instead requires solvers to deduce the approach to solving it. The method of solving may be hinted by the puzzle's title and its "flavor text". Some puzzles may involve elements of familiar puzzle types such as crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, cryptograms, and others, but they often have an additional twist beyond the usual structures of such puzzles that solvers must discover. Other puzzles may have innovative structures whose mechanics solvers must work out from scratch.
The solution to a puzzlehunt puzzle is generally a word or phrase. The process of deriving the final answer once the main part of a puzzle has been solved is known as "extraction". Extracting the answer may involve, for example, selecting certain letters from words or phrases clued in the main part of the puzzle, interpreting the solution to the main puzzle in terms of encoding schemes such as Braille or Morse code, or reapplying to the output of the main puzzle the gimmick used to solve the main puzzle and produce that output.
Groups of puzzles in a puzzle hunt are often connected by a metapuzzle, which is a puzzle based on combining or comparing the answers of other ("feeder") puzzles. For some metapuzzles (sometimes called "shell" metapuzzles), the answers to the feeder puzzles must be incorporated into a puzzle structure that is separately provided to solvers; for others, ("pure" metapuzzles), the feeder puzzle answers alone provide all the information needed to solve the metapuzzle.[1]
Puzzlehunts based in a specific location may involve "run-around" components, where solvers are directed to travel to specific sites in order to solve certain puzzles.
Toolsedit
Participants often use social chats like Discord and spreadsheets like Google Sheets to collaborate and organize information. Many puzzle hunts involve online information, so solvers often use the internet to gather information.
Additionally, some online tools are used more specifically for puzzle hunts and similar activities. Pattern matching tools like Nutrimatic allow for search and completion for words or phrases.[2]
Historyedit
Players solving puzzles at the MIT Mystery Hunt
One of the earliest examples of puzzle hunts is the MIT Mystery Hunt, started by Brad Schaefer in 1981. Later hunts in the MIT Mystery Hunt incorporate a cohesive theme across the puzzles.
As puzzle hunts grew in popularity and scale, other universities like Melbourne University and Carnegie Mellon University created their own version of a puzzlehunt. Puzzlehunt writers also incorporate new ways of organizing rounds. Foggy Brume started the P&A Magazine, which incorporates puzzlehunt puzzles in a magazine.[3]
Further development of the internet allowed for puzzles to make use of digital mediums, including videos and games. Some teams both compete in puzzle hunts and regularly create their online puzzle hunts. These teams also make open-source hunt frameworks like gph-site that allow even more groups to host online puzzle hunts. Many of the hunts are shared on Puzzle Hunt Calendar, developed by Dan Egnor.[4]
Google Games, a multi-part competition that usually includes logic puzzles, coding, trivia, and building challenges that utilize materials like LEGO bricks
College Puzzle Challenge (Multiple Locations, North America), hosted by Microsoft as a recruiting event on college campuses.
Palantir's Puzzle Challenge, a recruiting event on multiple campuses hosted by Palantir Technologies
Collegiate puzzle huntsedit
CMU Puzzlehunt, put on every semester by a student organization called Puzzlehunt CMU at Carnegie Mellon University's Pittsburgh, PA campus
VT Hunt, an annual group puzzle hunt held annually by Virginia Tech's ᚖᚌᚖ Septagram Society[7]
Nova Quest, a campus-wide puzzle hunt organized by the Nova Quest student organization, taking place each spring at Villanova University
Puzzle Hunt, open to all students and organized by the Rice UniversityIEEE student chapter
Stanford Puzzle Hunt , a puzzle hunt made annually by the Stanford University Association of Computing Machinery
MaPP Challenge,[8] a national event hosted on various college/university campuses that gets high school students solving puzzles inspired by recent developments in mathematical research
RM Pi Day and Mole Day Puzzle Hunts,[11] two hunts celebrating their namesake days through math and science-themed puzzles at Richard Montgomery High School, located in Rockville, MD
Non-competitive puzzle huntsedit
Individuals or teams can take part in a puzzle hunt-style challenge using software such as ClueKeeper on their smartphones.[6] An individual hunt is purchased, downloaded, and played at the player's convenience. Such hunts are typically not timed and offer no prize except the enjoyment of playing and the satisfaction of solving the challenge. Most are tied to a particular location and require walking from place to place as the puzzles are solved,[12][13] but some are designed to be played at home.[6]
^"RMHS Pi Day Puzzle Hunt". RMHS Pi Day Puzzle Hunt. Retrieved 2022-06-01.
^Furuichi, Miles (May 11, 2020). "Escape Ashland offers outdoor puzzle hunt, safe social distancing". KOBI-5. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
^Brooks, Nick (June 17, 2020). "Escape Enterprise offering new experience to social distance". WTVY. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
January 01, 1970
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This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Puzzle hunt news newspapers books scholar JSTOR February 2008 Learn how and when to remove this message A puzzle hunt sometimes ruzzlehunt is an event where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles many of which are tied together via metapuzzles Puzzlehunt puzzles are usually not accompanied by direct instructions for how to solve them figuring out the necessary approach is part of the puzzle These hunts may be hosted at a particular location in multiple locations or via the internet Promotional poster for the annual Manbites Dog puzzle hunt Contents 1 General structure 2 Tools 3 History 4 List of Puzzlehunts 4 1 Famous annual puzzle hunts 4 2 Corporate recruiting puzzle hunts 4 3 Collegiate puzzle hunts 4 4 Collegiate puzzle hunts retired 4 5 High School puzzle hunts 4 6 Non competitive puzzle hunts 5 Related puzzle events 6 See also 7 External links 8 ReferencesGeneral structure editA puzzlehunt puzzle usually has no direct instructions for how to solve it but instead requires solvers to deduce the approach to solving it The method of solving may be hinted by the puzzle s title and its flavor text Some puzzles may involve elements of familiar puzzle types such as crossword puzzles jigsaw puzzles cryptograms and others but they often have an additional twist beyond the usual structures of such puzzles that solvers must discover Other puzzles may have innovative structures whose mechanics solvers must work out from scratch The solution to a puzzlehunt puzzle is generally a word or phrase The process of deriving the final answer once the main part of a puzzle has been solved is known as extraction Extracting the answer may involve for example selecting certain letters from words or phrases clued in the main part of the puzzle interpreting the solution to the main puzzle in terms of encoding schemes such as Braille or Morse code or reapplying to the output of the main puzzle the gimmick used to solve the main puzzle and produce that output Groups of puzzles in a puzzle hunt are often connected by a metapuzzle which is a puzzle based on combining or comparing the answers of other feeder puzzles For some metapuzzles sometimes called shell metapuzzles the answers to the feeder puzzles must be incorporated into a puzzle structure that is separately provided to solvers for others pure metapuzzles the feeder puzzle answers alone provide all the information needed to solve the metapuzzle 1 Puzzlehunts based in a specific location may involve run around components where solvers are directed to travel to specific sites in order to solve certain puzzles Tools editParticipants often use social chats like Discord and spreadsheets like Google Sheets to collaborate and organize information Many puzzle hunts involve online information so solvers often use the internet to gather information Additionally some online tools are used more specifically for puzzle hunts and similar activities Pattern matching tools like Nutrimatic allow for search and completion for words or phrases 2 History edit nbsp Players solving puzzles at the MIT Mystery Hunt One of the earliest examples of puzzle hunts is the MIT Mystery Hunt started by Brad Schaefer in 1981 Later hunts in the MIT Mystery Hunt incorporate a cohesive theme across the puzzles As puzzle hunts grew in popularity and scale other universities like Melbourne University and Carnegie Mellon University created their own version of a puzzlehunt Puzzlehunt writers also incorporate new ways of organizing rounds Foggy Brume started the P amp A Magazine which incorporates puzzlehunt puzzles in a magazine 3 Further development of the internet allowed for puzzles to make use of digital mediums including videos and games Some teams both compete in puzzle hunts and regularly create their online puzzle hunts These teams also make open source hunt frameworks like gph site that allow even more groups to host online puzzle hunts Many of the hunts are shared on Puzzle Hunt Calendar developed by Dan Egnor 4 List of Puzzlehunts editFamous annual puzzle hunts edit the MIT Mystery Hunt Cambridge Massachusetts USA 5 the Melbourne University Mathematics amp Statistics Society MUMS puzzlehunt Melbourne Australia the Sydney University Maths Society SUMS puzzle hunt Sydney Australia the TMOU Brno Czech Republic the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt Redmond Washington USA the Miami Herald s Tropic Hunt Miami Florida USA the Washington Post s Post Hunt Washington DC USA the Gen Con Puzzle Hunt Indianapolis Indiana USA Mezzacotta formerly the Canon Information Systems Research Australia Puzzle Competition here the Galactic Puzzle Hunt D A S H Different Area Same Hunt takes place on the same day in multiple cities around the world using ClueKeeper as the interface 6 the Phish net Quest puzzle sequence summary here the REDDOThunt here the Great Puzzle Hunt in Bellingham WA every April Corporate recruiting puzzle hunts edit APT Puzzle Tournament a recruiting event on multiple campuses hosted by Applied Predictive Technologies Google Games a multi part competition that usually includes logic puzzles coding trivia and building challenges that utilize materials like LEGO bricks College Puzzle Challenge Multiple Locations North America hosted by Microsoft as a recruiting event on college campuses Palantir s Puzzle Challenge a recruiting event on multiple campuses hosted by Palantir Technologies Collegiate puzzle hunts edit CMU Puzzlehunt put on every semester by a student organization called Puzzlehunt CMU at Carnegie Mellon University s Pittsburgh PA campus VT Hunt an annual group puzzle hunt held annually by Virginia Tech s ᚖᚌᚖ Septagram Society 7 Nova Quest a campus wide puzzle hunt organized by the Nova Quest student organization taking place each spring at Villanova University Puzzle Hunt open to all students and organized by the Rice University IEEE student chapter Stanford Puzzle Hunt a puzzle hunt made annually by the Stanford University Association of Computing Machinery UMD PuzzleHunt a Spring puzzle hunt written by the Puzzle Club at the University of Maryland College Park PuzzleBang an annual puzzle hunt held as part of the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Reflections Projections student conference Collegiate puzzle hunts retired edit 2012 2016 Berkeley Mystery Hunt 1 a puzzle hunt at UC Berkeley made by The Campus League of Puzzlers 2002 2008 PuzzleCrack University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign USA High School puzzle hunts edit MaPP Challenge 8 a national event hosted on various college university campuses that gets high school students solving puzzles inspired by recent developments in mathematical research PEA Puzzle Hunt 9 a puzzle hunt at Phillips Exeter Academy Puzzlepalooza 10 a puzzle hunt at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring MD RM Pi Day and Mole Day Puzzle Hunts 11 two hunts celebrating their namesake days through math and science themed puzzles at Richard Montgomery High School located in Rockville MD Non competitive puzzle hunts edit Individuals or teams can take part in a puzzle hunt style challenge using software such as ClueKeeper on their smartphones 6 An individual hunt is purchased downloaded and played at the player s convenience Such hunts are typically not timed and offer no prize except the enjoyment of playing and the satisfaction of solving the challenge Most are tied to a particular location and require walking from place to place as the puzzles are solved 12 13 but some are designed to be played at home 6 Related puzzle events editThe Game a puzzle hunt combined with a road rally Microsoft Puzzle Safari Redmond Washington Race In The City an Amazing Race style event in Toronto Puzzled Pint a monthly puzzle hunt aimed at beginner to intermediate teams Prehistoric Puzzlehunt an annual event at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca NY www priweb org puzzlehunt Mission Street Puzzles San Francisco California UNR Puzzle Hunt A self guided puzzle hunt on the University of Nevada Reno campus See also editLetterboxing Geocaching Alternate reality game Treasure hunt game Geohashing Encounter game La chouette d or The Last of Sheila a murder mystery film set at a puzzle huntExternal links editPuzzles Wiki Puzzle Hunt CalendarReferences edit https blog vero site post puzzlehunts https nutrimatic org usage html https www pandamagazine com index php f Faq http puzzlehuntcalendar com Roeder Oliver 2018 01 19 Can You Stay Awake For 50 Hours And Solve 150 Puzzles FiveThirtyEight Retrieved 2018 01 19 a b c ClueKeeper that puzzle hunt app Review ClueKeeper Review Room Escape Artist Retrieved 22 December 2017 About Us www vthunt com Retrieved 2019 09 10 Mathematical Puzzle Programs Mathematical Puzzle Programs Retrieved 2020 12 14 About the Hunt PEA Puzzle Hunt 2018 Retrieved 2019 10 24 Puzzlepalooza puzzlepalooza mbhs edu Retrieved 2019 05 26 RMHS Pi Day Puzzle Hunt RMHS Pi Day Puzzle Hunt Retrieved 2022 06 01 Furuichi Miles May 11 2020 Escape Ashland offers outdoor puzzle hunt safe social distancing KOBI 5 Retrieved 13 July 2020 Brooks Nick June 17 2020 Escape Enterprise offering new experience to social distance WTVY Retrieved 13 July 2020 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Puzzle hunt amp oldid 1215178028, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
