I've enjoyed some great puzzles on SG, and I want to give back to the folks that create them, so I've created an invite-only GA for Obduction - a beautiful puzzle game which I've enjoyed very much (review) - I just finished my second playthrough (missed an achievement the first time around), and I loved wrapping my mind around the puzzles again.

If you consider yourself a puzzle-contributor, are interested in the GA, and have not already been invited, please comment below with a link to one of your puzzles (perhaps your favorite) which you've created or contributed to in a meaningful way (and have attribution from a puzzle creator - e.g. they call you out by name to say thanks).

Edit: You're certainly welcome to create a puzzle to qualify, but if your 'qualification puzzle' was created after this discussion started, it must be non-trivial (determined by me, or possibly a jury of your peers), but you've got a few weeks, so get on it!

You're also welcome to share this discussion, and you are welcome to discreetly share the invite-only GA link with other puzzle creators - if you can't think of a way to share it discreetly, just post the user's puzzle details (reference) below and I'll take care of it.

💙

View attached image.
6 years ago*

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What's your favorite type of SG puzzle?

View Results
Encoding (e.g. binary)
Encryption (ciphers, e.g. ceasar)
GA-codes hidden in letters/images
Mind-benders (perhaps 'non-traditional')
Jiggidy puzzles
Potatoe
Other

RESERVED

6 years ago
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Added a note to the description: You're certainly welcome to create a puzzle to qualify, but if your 'qualification puzzle' was created after this discussion started, it must be non-trivial (determined by me, or possibly a jury of your peers), but you've got a few weeks, so get on it!

6 years ago
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Any other puzzle creators out there interested in Obduction?

6 years ago
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One more bump for any other puzzle creators who may have been off the face of the planet for a while... ;)

6 years ago
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Two days remaining bump!

6 years ago
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1 day remaining bump

6 years ago
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bump for an amazing gift! :-)

6 years ago
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:) I see you already have it

6 years ago
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I backed the KickStarter years ago :-)

6 years ago
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Yes, I did as well - I couldn't even think about resisting that one :)

6 years ago
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I know, right? It was a long wait but worth it. I did have to wait until I could find the funds to get a rig that will run it... and then promptly got distracted/busy with year-end stuff ....

6 years ago
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Yeah, it worked out originally to play through it the first time with my brother, but he was only in town (for business) one or two nights every couple weeks, so it took us a bit to get through it. My second playthrough was much quicker ;)

6 years ago
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Would be interested but i don't think i can even be remotely considered as a puzzle creator, thanks and bump!

6 years ago
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See, I've stumbled upon what I think is a pretty clever puzzle, but... it's apparently intentionally obscured, so I can't quite tell. I tried to 'solve it', but... it's late /early :p

6 years ago
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I'm more of a puzzle solver rather than creator. I did created two puzzles but they are quite crappy.

If you are asking what type of puzzle is right up my alley, then it would be encoding and encryption, though I'd like to see a bit more of mind bending ones which combine several methods of hiding and encoding the information. I was stuck on one recently, and only managed to solve it last minute.

6 years ago
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^ He's not joking. I've witnessed his genius mind at work.

6 years ago
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Invited ;)
@jbondguy007, thanks for the endorsement!

6 years ago
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What's your favorite type of SG puzzle?

A simple one 😁

6 years ago
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Is that a request to join? Do you have any other references? I do appreciate the simplicity of your puzzle, but I do really want to reward those that put an appreciable amount of effort into it ;) - hope that doesn't offend or upset you

6 years ago
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It's OK, I'm just way too lazy for most puzzles :)

6 years ago
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Very cool of you to do that - Thank you! My kind is definitely "Mind-benders". I like to fuck up with your brain at complete random. It's like a short trip in the mind of a jbond - almost no sense, lots of little mistakes, and a bit too much creativity for my own good...

Fun fact: I actually generally dislike solving puzzles. I just create them. :D

6 years ago
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Fun fact: I actually generally dislike solving puzzles. I just create them. :D

In other words, you're a sadist and not a masochist.
Also: Found you.

6 years ago
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It occurred to me that not all puzzle creators may enjoy solving puzzles, but I knew there would be at least a few that would. And Obduction is all about the mind-bendy puzzles - they find very interesting ways of twisting the same basic mechanic and making you wrap your mind around it - definitely satisfying to get the 'ah-ha!' moment when you solve it!

6 years ago
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I'm all for the logical mind benders. New ways to present old techniques.

6 years ago
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Then I'm glad you have this wishlisted, and I'm glad you've entered - best of luck to you! If you don't win it, I highly recommend picking it up - perhaps when it's back on sale. I intended to create this GA while there was still time left on the previous sale, but... I've been busy. C'est la vie.

6 years ago
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Approved! And invited!

6 years ago
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I did make a few crappy "puzzles", this being the most recent one...

For the poll, mind benders that are still logical for sure o_O

6 years ago
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Approved! And invited!

6 years ago
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Puzzles? What are puzzles? ;)

6 years ago
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I think there's a guide that can tell you more what they are. It's called zel... oh wait! ;D

6 years ago
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lol - I know this was intentional, but still made me chuckle ;)

6 years ago
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I'm glad you enjoy dry humour. :D

6 years ago
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What's your favorite type of SG puzzle?

Encryption and GA-codes hidden in letters/images

6 years ago
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I like all kinds of puzzles except for the ones that have no real reason to the like brute force or random stuff

6 years ago
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As this is a wishlisted game for me, I'll try my luck with this :)

6 years ago*
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You don't need luck with a puzzle like that - Approved & Invited!

That puzzle looks fun - I appreciate seeing the solutions too partly so I know how much effort was put into it ;)

6 years ago
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Thanks! :)

6 years ago
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Bump. I like "Mind-benders (perhaps 'non-traditional')" most.

6 years ago
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Thanks for the invite! This game looks phenomenal ! I didn’t know about it... and Myst was such a fantastic game... I recall beating it when it first came out!

Really appreciate this appreciation for puzzle creators!

6 years ago
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Oh, man - if you loved Myst and haven't even heard of Obduction, well... this has been worth it over and over! I had Myst on PlayStation and got stuck in the cave/subway-thing (totally missed the audio clues, but obvious in hindsight (isn't it always?)). When I saw the Kickstarter for Obduction I knew I had to back it!

It's AWESOME!!!

6 years ago
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Yes I can see that! Myst was my top favorite game. I also beat Riven and Myst III Exile, and played URU.

Thanks for the info!

6 years ago
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I finally played through Riven a few years ago (and enjoyed it, iirc), but haven't gotten around to Exile/URU/Revelations/etc. - perhaps someday (they're on my 'list')

6 years ago
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I'm nowhere near smart enough to be a puzzler but thanks for pointing us to the game, goes straight to my wishlist.

6 years ago
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it's a worthy add!

6 years ago
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I like word puzzles, brain teasers, spatial reasoning puzzles, etc.

6 years ago
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Approved & Invited! Thanks for your contributions!

6 years ago
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Hm, good question about my favourite puzzle... I do like puzzles that can be a bit educational in nature (like Mskotor's biology puzzle), or logical puzzles where the starting point is not too obtuse. Basically, I like an end to start in, but then I'm fine with some challenge :P

Jiggidy puzzles are fine, but I think I've solved enough of those for the moment :P

6 years ago
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Hmm... I'm not sure Mskotor was invited yet. Rectified - thanks!

6 years ago
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It's a sad day on SteamGifts when the highest-voted option is "Jigidi puzzles."

I really wish the English language had a noun that could distinguish between "Jigsaw Puzzle" and Puzzle-Puzzle (like a Mind-Bender/Nontraditional one). As I've stated in a previous post, Jigidi puzzles require no real thought or effort, just grind the pieces together, and in my opinion are altogether unsatisfying and can be classified more as time-sinks than as brain-testers.

The nontraditional puzzles aren't time-sinks--to some, the answer is immediately apparent, and to others it takes a good amount of thought and pondering to unlock the answer. This type of puzzle is distinguished from the Jigidi because of a few reasons:

1) The method in which to reveal the answer is not immediately obvious, as opposed to the Jigidi puzzles
2) The methods are varied and depend on the mood of the puzzle creator. Sometimes people hide things in images, sometimes people encode things with an uncommon cipher (not binary/Caesar/any other common one). The amount of different ways to hide something is infinite, in fact. Whereas, for Jigidi, there is only one way to solve the puzzle for every single Jigidi puzzle you come across, and that is just connecting the pieces together.
3) The time it takes to answer a nontraditional puzzle is variable. If you dedicate time to these puzzles you can become more experienced and discover tricks. Or perhaps, you might get lucky and spot a really neat trick to eliminate some possibilities to make the way to your solution faster. In Jigidi, pretty much everyone will have a speed to solve the jigsaw puzzles and this time does not vary.

Now I'm not talking about puzzles that are just take an encrypted text and pop it into Base64 decoder or Morse Code decoder and Binary decoder for your answer. I'm talking about puzzles that have actual warmth to them--these are the puzzles that, in my opinion, are distinguished as being the greatest of all the other puzzles. And the fact that, in my opinion, the lowliest of those puzzles, the type of puzzle that as I said in the beginning of this I wish could have a different noun to distinguish itself, the Jigidi Puzzle...the fact that this jigsaw puzzle is the most "favorite type of SG puzzle" is a sad fact, because it indicates that the majority of the userbase doesn't appreciate the love, ingenuity, and warmth that a nontraditional puzzle offers and instead would rather participate in brain-dead jigsaws.

6 years ago
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View attached image.
6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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I agree with the sentiments on Jigidi 'puzzles', but I have seen a few of them around here, so figured I'd include it as a category...

I must admit @Samusx's Cakeday II puzzles had the 'warmth' that inspired me to create this GA (and a partial list of puzzle creators to invite) - he definitely had a few twists that took some mind-wrapping to decipher (but a few 'cookies' to keep you going and not just fully stump you full-stop...).

Are you a creator of puzzles? I don't believe you've been invited yet (at least not by me iirc)...

6 years ago
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Also, it was totally unintentional that I spelled Jigidi wrong in the poll, but given the sentiments here, I guess 'who cares?' ;)

6 years ago
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Nordhbane is one of the best puzzle creators!! He's head of the Puzzle Agency on SG!

6 years ago
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Oh, yeah - I've definitely participated in at least one of his events. He was in on the original invite list ;)

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Fair enough. @snrd3r hasn't been around for a while, but I've posted a message checking if they'd like to join; the other three have been invited! Thanks for the recommendations!

6 years ago
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I generally prefer "real" puzzles but there are times when I'm not in a mood for anything more complex than a jigsaw; and I also like the competitiveness of jigidi -- no matter how late you find a puzzle after its creation, you can still have your actual solving time measured and make it to the top 10...

6 years ago
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Well said. Thank you.

View attached image.
6 years ago
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I only made really simple puzzles like this
But I really like solving them
It's always the best when the puzzle is so hard that few people will solve it, but so easy that I can solve it 🙄

6 years ago
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Oh, man - that was evil. Nevertheless, approved & invited!

6 years ago
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really I didn't thouhgt it was so hard
I posted the solution here and explained it also

6 years ago
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Yeah, I read the solution and don't know if I'd have been able to follow the rabbit hole - it's easy enough to explain it in post, but when you're trying to solve it, there are just soooooo many possibilities... Some certainly solved it, though, even before hints (apparently) ;)

6 years ago
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that's always the problem with creating and solving (if you know the solution the path is mostly really easy)
I made puzzles befire where you only need to get the first letter of each word, but I thought it was to easy and made them to read it from the back
Not many managed to solve the puzzle

6 years ago
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I tend to throw puzzles into events so everyone has something they can take part in, I remember back in the day there was so many great puzzlers. I still have pictures on my old PC which I spent hours figuring out. I can't come close to them, most mine tend to be treasure hunts rather than actual puzzles.

EDIT: Not a request to join but shameless self promotion here

6 years ago*
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Bump for a great deed!

6 years ago
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Friendly bump! I^v^I

6 years ago
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I've made this and this, not sure if they meet your requirement. I really enjoy doing puzzles on SG too, we have some very great puzzle creators. My favourite type of puzzle is jigidi, I find them relaxing and I like seeing the picture slowly be revealed.

6 years ago
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I do appreciate that your puzzles aren't just solving the jigsaw puzzle (jigidis are fine, but don't take much effort to create or solve on their own), but I am also looking to reward & encourage those who have contributed a good deal to the SG puzzle community - as you said, we do have some very great puzzle creators. Hope you understand!

6 years ago
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Not sure if you participated but I created a puzzle with multiple entrances to celebrate Forever Alone Celebration Day last year. The idea of the puzzle is there are multiple entrances to a giveaway train blocked by different sgtools. The harder the puzzle the easier the sgtool requirements, with the hardest puzzle has no sgtool req (only 1 person solves that one because the hardest one is indeed too hard? I'm not really sure lol)

And there's also this silly text-based train where user click multiple links trying to find all the giveaways in the train.

hmm, I might have to do another puzzle soon lol

6 years ago
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You know, I was honestly on the fence a bit since the stated point was to encourage 'puzzlers' and I couldn't decide whether your references really constituted 'legit puzzles', but... the intent was to encourage people who have contributed to the SG community in a meaningful (generally puzzling) way - and your first puzzle & choose-your-own-adventure event/puzzle did take some time to create & orchestrate (much moreso than just a jigidi of course), and did get people involved (and perhaps distracted for a bit). And... since you've expressed interest in creating more puzzles, I don't think too many would take offense at your joining... Approved! (and invited).

6 years ago
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My puzzles are indeed too easy. It's more of a participation thing for me, since only a few of users on sg actually know how to solve puzzles, I give out multiple entrances to encourage different users using their preferred puzzle style (hidden letters to ith/jigidi, the poll). My next puzzle will probably be a group ith puzzle so everyone has to chip in to solve it. Now I just need difficult enough material for it lol.

Thank you for your recognition but I will refrain from entering to give that chance to better puzzle creators here :D

6 years ago
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