I hope you all enjoyed the puzzle. I'm moving soon and won't have much time for at least a month, but I'll be back with more sooner or later. Good luck all, and have fun out there!

Well that was the most stressful move I've made in my entire life. Word to the wise, don't try to move just as a pandemic hits your area. NOT RECOMMENDED. I made it though and haven't gotten sick yet, so let's relax and celebrate our continued survival with some giveaways!

Ended: You Don't Know Droj

You don't know me. After you finish this quiz... you still won't know me. But all the answers can be found on my profile (here or on Steam) or in this thread. The final answer is "Blue Falcon".

Basically, I wanted to try out itstoohard. Answer the questions correctly, and you will gain access to a level 2+ train. Most of the giveaways are IndieGala leftovers, but I mixed a few other games in as well.

Have fun!


PS This is meant to be a fun, inclusive game--I hope that everyone who tries will be able to figure it out. If you're having trouble, hints will appear after one hour. If you're still stumped, feel free to express your frustration here and maybe I can help you!

If you want to skim the discussion for hints, comments for this puzzle start here.

edit: A lot of people seem to be having trouble with question 4. Check the hint on the quiz first, and if you're still having trouble: The hint gives you the Answer, but the meaning of the Answer is unimportant. Just treat it as a string of numbers, and follow the instructions in the question.

Solution:

The puzzle was in the form of an itstoohard quiz. I'll reproduce the questions, the hints provided, and then give the solutions for each.

Q1: What game does my profile icon come from?
H1: Start your search in my recently played games.

My profile icon may have changed by the time you read this, so check the bottom of this post to see the one I had at the time of the quiz. This icon shows up right in the middle of the banner of the game it's from, so it's pretty easy to work out once you see it. I tried to keep it in my last 3 games played so it would always be on my profile, but I confess that it did slip to #4 overnight once. Oops.

The game itself was Pyromind, which I highly recommend to anyone who is intrigued by the line "Arguably the most explosive and unforgiving little action puzzler you will ever play."

Q2: What is one of my favorite game genres?
H2: Look for the word "favorite".

My Favorite Group showcase and Main Group both feature Puzzle Lovers. This is unlikely to ever change. What can I say? I love puzzles! Unsurprising, then, that "puzzle games" would be the answer.

Q3: The initals of the games in my achievement showcase contain the name of another game. What is that game?
H3: It's a game about gravity.

Yes, I misspelled "initials". My shame will be eternal.

At the time of this puzzle, my Achievement Showcase was featuring achievements from Cultist Simulator, Victor Vran, Victor Vran, Victor Vran, RIVE, and RIVE. Extract the initials, and you get CSVVVVVVRR.

Discard the extra letters and you get VVVVVV, an indie game where you flip gravity instead of jumping. Apparently it's not as well known as I thought it was, so I told anyone who had trouble with it that it was one of Terry Cavanagh's games.

Q4: One of the statistics shown on my profile is not the Answer. In fact, it is rather the reverse. Which one is it?
H4: The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is, of course, 42.

This was by far the hardest one, judging by the comments. The hint tells anyone unfamiliar with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that the Answer is 42. The question states that one of the statistics on my profile is the reverse of that. It doesn't make any sense to try to find the opposite of 42, so the solution is to literally reverse the number. That gives us 24, and a quick scan of my profile reveals that I had 24 badges at the time. "Number of badges" is the answer.

Q5: How many giveaways are in this train?
H5: This train contains my only currently running giveaways.

Counting the number of Invite-Only giveaways currently running on my SteamGifts profile revealed the answer: 13.

Q6: Will you actually read the instructions in the giveaways?
H6: Should have read the instructions!

Yes it was a trick question. I've gotten annoyed at the number of people who can't read the instructions on a giveaway they've just won. Most of the keys for this train were to be delivered by email, and I wanted to weed out people who wouldn't pay attention to the big bold warning saying to check your damn inbox! The answer was contained in the first paragraph.

Why "Blue Falcon"? I don't know, I had to choose something, and I've been watching The Expanse lately, so why not?

View attached image.
4 years ago*

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(This space reserved for archived puzzles.)

4 years ago
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Puzzle #1: We Three Keys

We three keys obfuscated are,
Bearing gift(links) to near and to far.
Dungeon-diving, war is thriving,
Action games we all are.

(Apologies for the terrible lyrics. Please don't hurt me.)


As you might guess, there are three giveaways hidden in this verse. (For those who would like to know: Crawl, Squad, and Mr. Shifty.)

Hint 1

See the image below for a portrait of the three kings "keys".
(Base image: Throne king icon by Delapouite, licensed under Creative Commons 3.0)

Hint 2

As in music, sometimes cryptography involves transposition.


Solution

Working backwards through the hints:

Hint 2: The three codes for the giveaways were scrambled using a simple transposition cypher. This means you don't have to change any letters or numbers, only the order they are arranged in.

Hint 1: The picture contains three kings, each colored in stripes. Look carefully and you will notice there are three colors, each occurring five times. They represent the three giveaway codes, each containing five characters.

Solution: Take the three codes "hidden" in the verse and assign each character to a different color according to the sequence in the image. I made a chart because I like charts, but there are other ways to do it:

        rwRO0   N6LGJ   svDkR
RED     r--O-   -6--J   --D--  --> rO6JD
GREEN   -w--0   --L--   s--k-  --> w0Lsk
BLUE    --R--   N--G-   -v--R  --> RNGvR

Plug those codes into the giveaway URL and you get Crawl, Squad, and Mr. Shifty.

View attached image.
3 years ago
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Huh. Not as simple as it would seem to me. Just tested 400+ possibilities on two different theories, no luck so far. hmmmmm

(Edit: Thanks for the puzzle!)

4 years ago
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I haven't the faintest notion what I am looking at, so I think I will take my small brain and leave these obviously big-brain premises, in which I feel rather ill at ease.

The puzzle seems interesting, though. I just wish I wasn't totally clueless. :)

4 years ago
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Try checking in again next week. It's looking likely there will be hints by then. :)

4 years ago
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I made a note to look again, yeah. :)

4 years ago
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I think more people would be interested if we knew the games. It's not fun to spend hours solving a puzzle to find out that you already own or don't want the games. Unless you are just solving the puzzle for the fun of doing the puzzle, but those people would still solve it even if the games are shown and they don't want them.

I spent about 15 minutes trying to solve it, but it's hard to invest more time when I have over 15 thousand games blocked which means I most likely won't be interested in entering anyway. If there is something I want, I might invest a few hours or even work on it for many days if I am really interested in a game.

4 years ago
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Fair enough. I've added the names to the original post, spoilered for those who would rather be surprised.

4 years ago
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Thanks :)

4 years ago
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I own the games but bump for a nice puzzle

4 years ago
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Reply me on 13th 😅

4 years ago
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First hint is available. :)

4 years ago
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Please say the solution at the end of the GA 🙏

4 years ago
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I always do!

4 years ago
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Thanks 💗 ~

4 years ago
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The solution is posted now.

4 years ago
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I was very close!!!, I almost did it, but in something I will have failed. But I knew that this way was the solution.
Thank you, Droj for remember me 😄

4 years ago
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Bumped for first hint!

4 years ago
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Well this narrowed down the field a bit, but still not solved. Looks like I'm going to have to wait for hint two. Either there's guesswork involved in this puzzle, or I'm just missing a fairly substantial clue.

4 years ago
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Derp. Clue was /almost/ exactly what I thought it was. >-<. Solved.

4 years ago
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let's hope you get your minimum 5 entries for these ;)

4 years ago
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Bump for solved!

4 years ago
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Bump for "solved"... but I still don't understand how the GAs are hidden in the verses. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

4 years ago*
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Technically the first three words are part of the verse? Yeah I probably should have put quotes around "hidden". lol

4 years ago
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Bump for solved! Nice verses ;D

4 years ago
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bump

4 years ago
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Bump for solved. Thanks!

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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I figured it out, but the links still redirect me to the main page. What's up with that?

4 years ago
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Then you haven't figured it out. I had the same problem. You're almost there. Keep at it!

4 years ago
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It could very well be a slash or something I am forgetting...

4 years ago
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Second hint added.

4 years ago
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bump

4 years ago
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Added for a question.

4 years ago
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Accepted, fire away!

4 years ago
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Thanks! Good puzzle!

4 years ago
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Bump!

4 years ago
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Are you going to post the solution?

4 years ago
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I usually like to. The giveaways are now ended, so I've added the solution to the main post.

4 years ago
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OK... That ordering is unexpected. I thought the characters in read would follow the position of the red color in each king

4 years ago
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When I went to the king icon, the image was black and white. And only one king. I tried other transpositions, dunno from where you say "The picture contains three kings, each colored in stripes.". So I'm still puzzled. I missed a step but dunno how or where.

4 years ago
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It sounds like you're looking at the base image link. That's the original icon before I messed with it, adding all those colors. The picture for the puzzle was at the bottom of the post itself, in the "View attached image." (I've added it to this post too, for reference.) A little weird, but that's just how SteamGifts handles images.

I see where the confusion came from though, and will try to make the difference between images for puzzles, and attribution clearer in the future.

View attached image.
4 years ago
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3 years ago
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i'm stuck on number 4

EDIT: the hint make it easy xD

3 years ago*
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same here, this is difficult haha

3 years ago
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joining club "Stuck on 4" ;)

EDIT: I'm an idiot. I knew it and was still answering incorrectly XD

3 years ago*
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Hopefully the hint will help, but let me know if you're still stuck!

3 years ago
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Number 4 is obvious!
The one that's beating me is number 3... 😰

EDIT: Finally got it! (not before trying no less than 20 random guesses...)

3 years ago*
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3 years ago
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Add me to the Q4 club...

I've got all the other answers but even with the hint I have no idea about Q4. I guess I might be overthinking it.

3 years ago
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Yes, you probably are. The meaning of the Answer is unimportant. Look at it literally. No, really. Literally look at it, and then reverse it.

3 years ago
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I still have no clue, I look forward to seeing the answer.

3 years ago
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same here

3 years ago
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Added an extra hint for question 4 in the OP. See if that helps!

3 years ago
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One more application for the club.

3 years ago
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I've added another hint for Q4 in the main post since so many people were having trouble with it.

3 years ago
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Thanks for the solution, it makes sense now.

3 years ago
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3 years ago
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There's a new hint in the first post if you're still having difficulty!

3 years ago
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get my +1 :v

3 years ago
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+1 hint in the main post! :O

3 years ago
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Even with the second hint, I still see no way to do anything but brute force it, which I won't do.

3 years ago
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Bump for people to sort out the present situation.

3 years ago
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Bump

3 years ago
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