So I had this great idea.

In the US this year (and I don't live in the US), Flag day occurs on 14 June. Father's Day occurs on 16 June. I can put the two of them together and launch a new puzzle event combining the two on the 15th of June. Easy Peasy. So I started writing puzzles in May to meet a 15 June launch date.

Uhhhh... Yeah, I always underestimate how long it takes to finish writing puzzles. Sigh... So somewhat belatedly, five weeks late, please find my FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS Event.

A few ground rules: The "Flags" part and the "Fathers" part can both be done independently. They are each separate events with their own metapuzzles, which make use of the answers from the other puzzles. The "Of Our" is an appropriate lighter appetiser to link the two parts together and like the others, it can be done separately and independently.

There are no hidden puzzles, or hidden giveaways in this event. What you see is what you get. If you want any guidance as to how I write my puzzles, I can again recommend my magic guide (this should not be confused for Zelghadis' excellent guide).

Each of these puzzles have been written so that each will yield a single word or short phrase for the answer, which means I can use them with ITSTOOHARD. Not all of the puzzles are original (though most are). Where I have used an unoriginal puzzle, I will of course provide full information about the source, and where you can get others of that creator's puzzles.

The contributor level for all games is set to 1. I usually use SGTools, but have decided not to do so this time.

ALL of the puzzles are open from the start, but to take some of the pressure off, I am staggering the event. So the giveaways will be staggered, which means that you may be able to solve a puzzle at the very start, but not enter the associated giveaway. Later on in the event, you can reopen the ITSTOOHARD page and jump straight to the reward giveaways. The exception to this is the Of Our section, which will not open until 25 July

Also, I don't really care if you do not play your wins, but I do care deeply if a game does not reach 5 entries, so if you are one of the first five to solve something, and you wouldn't mind seeing that game in your library, then please enter the giveaway. You can always choose to remove your entry later (once 5 people have entered it).

One last thing, some of these puzzles will yield to backsolving. That is not an inadvertent design flaw. I knew that when I wrote them. Backsolving is still solving. You are perfectly entitled to enter the giveaways if you backsolve a puzzle. Though feel free to leave a note on the giveaway page, so I can tell if the puzzles that I thought would yield to backsolving are indeed the puzzles that led themselves to backsolving and to get some feel for the ratio of forward solvers to backsolvers.

FLAGS

Giveaways run 23 July to 22 August - Ends 22 August at 23:59 G.M.T.

1 - Flags of the World
2 - Graphs
3 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Flags
4 - Places in an Embarrassing State
5 - Signalling
6 - World Travel
7 - Many Exciting Things Await

OF OUR

Giveaways run 27 July to 25 August - Ends 25 August at 23:59 G.M.T.

Of
Our
[Of Our]

FATHERS

Giveaways run 2 August to 1 September - Ends 1 September at 23:59 GMT

1 - Father Confessor
2 - Father William
3 - Father Brown
4 - Father Guido Sarducci
5 - Father Figure
6 - Father Christmas
7 - Father in Law
8 - Father Time
9 - Father Ted
10 - Father of All He Surveys
Warning note: One image in puzzle 10 contains racial epithets and may offend as it is providing a clue to a concept that is inherently offensive. Do not open if you are likely to be offended by racial epithets. It is not gratuitous; it is exactly relevant for the word clued.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

Giveaways run 2 August to 1 September - Ends 1 September at 23:59 GMT

Flags of our Fathers

Prizes for this event include (in alphabetical order):

Alter Army
Anomaly 2
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
Bioshock Infinite
Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
Construct: Escape the System
The Darkness II
The Deadly Tower of Monsters
Dex: Enhanced Edition
Distant Worlds Universe
Duke Nukem Forever
Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood
Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek
Fahrenheit Indigo Prophecy Remastered
Fairy Tale Mysteries 2: The Beanstalk
The Final Station
Gods will be Watching
Gravity Wars
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
HIVESWAP Act 1
Hue
Ice Lakes
Industry Giant 2
Kill the Bad Guy
The King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition
Last day of June
The Last Express Gold Edition
Learn Japanese to survive Hiragana Battle
Leviathan: The Last Day of the Decade
Little Farm
Mafia II Directors Cut
Mafia III
Merry Glade
Metal Slug X
Midnight Mysteries
Mini Metro
Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
Naval Warfare
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
Oxenfree
Pandora First Contact
Pathfinder Adventures
Prime World: Defenders
The Princess' Heart
Project Highrise
Project Temporality
Puzzle Kingdoms
Qvadriga
Renowned Explorers: International Society
RiME
Runespell: Overture
The Sexy Brutale
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Small World 2
Snake Pass
The Spatials
Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophesy
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
Time Mysteries 3: The Final Enigma
Torment: Tides of Numenera
The Town of Light
Unbox Newbies Adventure
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut - Classic Edition
Windward
Wurm Unlimited

End of List