I'm proud to announce Raddle, my new puzzle game about transforming words into other words:

Raddle is like a word ladder, but from step to step the words can change in a variety of ways, from semantic, to orthographic, to phonetic. Your guidance for figuring out each step is a list of clues. But it's up to you to figure out which clue goes with which step. And if you get stuck going in one direction, you can start at the other end of the ladder. (Or you can take a hint, which will reveal which clue to use.)

I've got 14 Raddles up on the site right now, and I'm adding a new one every day, using the prompts being announced via Enigmarch. Once that ends, I'll keep the game going indefinitely.

The game has been rattling (lol) around in my head for a while now, but I only decided to turn it into an actual website about 3 weeks ago. I'm really proud of how it turned out, and the reception so far has been very warm. I've got a few features on the long-term road map, including a hard mode. If you have any thoughts or requests — or if you see any bugs — please let me know.

Most importantly: please share this around to all your puzzle-loving friends!

March Puzzler

Every month I offer a new bite-sized puzzle. Here's the latest one:

Play With Your Own Junk

I play a lot of board games. Most come in big boxes, which makes traveling with them a bit of a burden. So in addition to the Wingspans and the Wavelengths, my family also relies on a stable of "anywhere games" — games that can be played with just a few pieces of paper, a pair of scissors, and a pencils. Our go-tos are Salad Spinner (aka Celebrity) and the New Yorker Game, introduced to us by our friend James, where we draw our own New Yorker-style comics and captions, and randomly pair them together.

So I'm excited to see this new project by game designer Carol Mertz, where she's collecting "anywhere" games like those in one place:

Home - Play With Your Own Junk: A Collection of Sustainable Parlor Games

Bowl of Nouns A classic party game for all ages, this game gets SILLY. Can you get through all the words before time’s up? Up Jenkins A fast-paced bluffing game of “hide the coin” that will make you question your senses (and your friends). Exquisite Corpse Take turns drawing based on just a hint of

Play With Your Own Junk: A Collection of Sustainable Parlor Games - A hand-picked collection of free sustainable party games for you to play with the stuff you already have

There are only 4 up there right now, but Carol is actively collecting more. Got a game that only you and your family play? There's a form for submitting it to the site.

Type Word

Type Word by Bcraft

Type the right anwser, by the given clue.

itch.ioslavaxkt

Type Word is a 30-minute puzzle that challenges you to type the right answer based on the given clue. Reminds me a little bit of Jack Lance's Octogram.

Puzzle Boat 12 early bird pricing

Puzzle Boat 12 | The Zodiac Cruciverbalist

The Zodiac Cruciverbalist

Foggy Brume's annual puzzle extravaganza, Puzzle Boat, is coming back for another year, and like other years, if you get in early (before April 1), you can buy a berth on the boat at a big discount. It's $70 right now, and it'll go up to $112 next month. $70 (or even $112) for "somewhere between 100 and 150 puzzles" is a tremendous deal, especially considering the high quality of puzzles Foggy makes.

Foggy never announces the themes ahead of time, but he does tease them. The logo here is a 12-button telephone keypad. And the title of the webpage changes on reload to a phrase that references something related to the number 12.

Solution to the February Puzzler

Think of a word that means "treasure," and another word for a container that that treasure typically comes in. Both words also name parts of the body. What words are these?