Discussion about Puzzle GA's and number of entries

I typically just let it run its course. CV doesn't matter much to me since I don't even enter giveaways these days.
If I add hints, it's usually because I want to make it easier for the heck of giving a chance to people to solve the puzzle.

Pretty much depends on what YOU want. If you want to reward people for figuring your puzzle out without help you leave it.
Or if you want to give more people a chance, you drop more hints.

That said I'm not that good of a puzzle solver and gave up on your first one. If there are no hints that help me in any way (thesaurus didn't help at all^^) I'm ok with it but if there are additional hints I might try again (though it seems you are primarily concerned about p2-4).

Other then that....puzzles are always appreciated... even if they are too hard for me (then they are just not aimed at me^^)

My big puzzle event I dropped hints because some of the puzzles were less than stellar. I appreciate the same when I take part in others' puzzles. I'm not the greatest puzzle solver, and being pointed in the right direction helps a lot. But that's quite different from getting the complete answer.

I like puzzles. And I like that you put it up. I see the one your talking about. I simply have no idea where to even start and I see many others are the same. In this case, many people don't even know what your asking for. Some did so good for them. I spent nearly an hour a few days ago without any progress. So that was it for me.

41 of 149. I'm very surprised. I'm sure it makes sense once you "get" it but I was not one of them.

I wish those who did get it and go on good luck. :)

Don't be discouraged. Many like that people take the effort to make puzzles. Just because I and many others did not make it past the first round does not mean we don't appreciate it.

Edit because I never actually answered..
I'm not sure what I'd do. I think I'd leave it as is even if you don't get 5 for the end GAs. Hints are fine but not so many its no longer a puzzle. Thats not fair to those who made it. But Its a fine line. As a player I'm personally fine with however you handle it. Its is after all your event. I just would want to see it fairly done however you end up doing it.

I do not think it's fair to you, that's donating the games, not leveling. In my opinion, you should drop a few more tips until you get the minimum in the 5 entries (Even because without more tips I will not be able to pass the last ITH =P ... I think it is the last)... but the games are yours, and the puzzle also obviously in the end depends on you.

I created 2 puzzles myself, so I know it's rather hard to balance the difficulty to make sure that enough people solves it to get ocer the 5 entry limit. Sometimes, you just have to accept the risk and just give the solver of a hard puzzle the reward they deserve.

Disclaimer: I'm unable to solve your first stage so you should probably not listen to me because I'd naturally say anything to weasel out of this thesaurus torture :)

First of all, while progressively dropping hints is the norm on SG and is considered completely fine, adding random people to reach 5 entries is probably less so. Personally, I've never seen a puzzle creator do that and I would never do that myself. However, as people have said, those are your games and you can do whatever you want with them.

One big argument in favor of hints is making the experience more enjoyable and less frustrating for everybody. Most puzzle solvers are motivated mostly by the enjoyment they get out of it, the games are just a nice bonus that helps me to justify spending a lot of time on a puzzle when there are more important things I have to do in real life. Being stuck on a puzzle for some time is fine because it increases the enjoyment of solving it in the end... unless you ultimately can't get unstuck, which sucks. From this perspective, adding hints after some time is the right thing to do because it helps more people get this enjoyment.

Just a couple of weeks ago I won an awesome game in a puzzle event and the creator didn't get any CV. This actually felt much more wrong than if the creator added some subtle hints to help just a few more people make it to the end. Even if the hints were not so subtle and suddenly 10x people solved the final stage of that puzzle, I would be fine with that because ultimately it's not about games but rather about us all having fun together. :)

According to the invite GAs in your profile there's not much time left. Otherwise I would have given hints step by step: another hint at stage 3 first, then stage 2 and only if necessary at stage 1. There's the I need 5 entries thread, but that would be highly unfair to those who solved the puzzles.

Hm, let me take a look again. I started with the train, solved the first step and then stopped at the second. But it was mostly because I didn't really have much clue since I don't watch much movies (which would make this more bothersome) and because none of the rewards interested me.
As for the actual question; I usually add hints later in the even but most often people are already uninterested at that point. This get even more obvious if you are making staged puzzles. My mini-event planned for march will therefore only have single step puzzles. But if not enough people solve at the end I will accept it too. I have more then one puzzle with less than five entries for that reason. And also because I always write that I prefer people only entering if they are interested in playing which decreases entry even more.

I've read all these points and agree with almost everything. I've put a few more clues in but I think that'll be about it. I won't be adding anyone else to the GA's so if i don't get 5, so be it.

I didn't add many clues to the first puzzle , although I knew a few people couldn't do it, Q2-4 were the ones people were mainly asking about. But I think the majority of people who couldn't work out the first, just left. I also thought the first puzzles was quite easy but that just goes to show how we all think differently.

Live and learn.

I didn't solved your puzzle either (but I also didn't try much) but I would describe me a pretty good in puzzle solving and I already solved tons here
It is really cool if you manage a puzzle, especially when you were stuck and got some tiny hint that helped you
sometimes the hints are so obvious that I thought why did I even tried it myself if with a bit waiting I could have got the link for free, so this is something I would avoid.

If there are Too few entries, maybe a few more hints is better, because it's Too difficult