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Showing posts from January, 2023

Show's Over

Hi, it's me again somehow. This blocked normal-ish puzzle is a calming of pace from the absurdity and complexity of some previous puzzles (only one sentence in the preamble!). Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the theme for what it is. Thanks to MP for the test-solve: you can find him  here . This puzzle is also up on  MyCrossword . Full-Screen AmuseLabs Link

Variety Cryptic 4: Keep Solving and Nobody Explodes

 This one's going to be a bit different, so I suggest reading this post the whole way through.  The idea for this one first spawned when watching one of  juff's streams , a fellow constructor and a very entertaining solver. In it, they were doing a co-solve of a certain puzzle - I forget which exactly - and I thought wow, this whole cryptic business is much more fun and exciting with a friend along to help. This cryptic has been inspired by the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and is thus designed for TWO solvers. You can still solve it with one person, though if you can get a friend to play along the experience should be better. One of you is designated the role of the DEFUSER. The defuser is allowed to look at the bomb (i.e. the grid and clues) and NOT allowed to look at the manual. The other is designated the role of the EXPERT. The expert may only look at the manual and NOT the grid or clues. Work together to decipher the clues and the instructions, test your com...