No problem. Just because I couldn't figure it out didn't mean that someone else couldn't either!:)
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Unfortunately I have no idea how to do this puzzle, but thank you for the opportunity regardless!
Hoping there's a solution posted at the end so I can learn <3
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That's no problem at all!
I'll be back in a few days then.
Thank you very much!
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Thank you! :) But I wouldn't call any of this elegant... :) Simple, maybe, assuming you know what's going on... :)
Looks like only 12 hours left, and I've stopped checking the puzzle numbers so I don't know if anyone is still trying to solve it... Probably not... :)
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Bump. I'm on the last step but it's stumped me. Tried everything I could but even with my best results it's... Not quite right. Haha. Thanks for the puzzle. I had a ton of fun with this.
edit I solved the issue. I was in my own way. XD
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I decided to have a look back at SG and saw this and your other one but I was late. I didn't want to enter anything anyways, I just wanted to solve because I was curious. You have a very twisted idea of what is "dumb". This was not really dumb. I got really confused as to how it was all structured with the 3 levels. Kept getting mislead about how "dumb" this all was. I "decoded" stuff but didn't really know which quiz to put them in/what order or perhaps that this was the level 1 puzzle or the entire puzzle. Felt like a little bit of a guess that the solution was to do "that" after solving each puzzle (1-3). Simply getting started was the hardest part.
This is coming only from someone that hasn't been here in a while. What's the solution for the link for 4? I have not done that yet.
Edit: I have done 4. Delimiters man. I wasn't overthinking. :( Oh well it was good enough.
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Ahh, if you want to see tough puzzles, I'm just an amateur... :( There's oodles of better puzzle makers around, as you probably noticed... :)
But http://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/n0td4/ and https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/cPTbm/ were two tricksy old ones, and https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/DFIO8/ was my most sadistic recent attempt...
I suppose you're right in that noticing what puzzle piece goes to which itstoohard thing didn't need to be a puzzle itself, but hopefully anyone who found one part would have tried it in all three places, and known from that where in the keys to look for the rest. :)
Yeah, making that number be "084 114 121 032 075 120 086 101 080" instead would have been simpler, but for some reason I decided it would be too obvious... :) I figured people familiar with ASCII would notice sooner or later... :)
So, anyway, by "dumb" I didn't mean "it's so easy to solve, you must be dumb if you can't do it" but more "it's not cleverly made, and if you see what's going on you'll probably solve it quickly". Oh well.
I'll have to try harder next time! :) And I hope you have fun if you stick around! :) Thank you! :)
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I checked some of those earlier. Clever concepts but stuff like needing to play dark souls and watching the videos to gain some ascii code from the stats or something, it's not of my taste.
Be as sadistic and unfair as you like though since everything is level restricted, thus of course you'd only want "die" hard souls fans to enter. I don't think I'm going to stick around. Probably because I'd get angry at all the trolling really quick. Then get spammy or rude in the middle of everyone saying "i'm dumb, I give up and thank yous".
Your solution write-ups, thanks for taking the time to write them. And may you get more "I'm dumb" and "thank you's" in the future.
I'm dumb, and thank you.
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Hmm, I remember being disappointed only one person solved that Dark Souls puzzle, but of course it was my own fault... The people who solved the puzzle but didn't see the final piece from the videos probably felt disappointed too... :( Where's the grand prize? Is it only bundle junk? :(
I think many puzzle fiends would have spotted the codes hiding in the videos, except they also needed to be Dark Souls fiends enough to reach the videos. :( Otherwise, a lot of work for nothing... :(
Ahh, hope I haven't chased you away from this place... :( It's not the same community I remember from years back, but there are still a lot of friendly people around... :) Plus lots of giveaways to enter, if you like that sort of thing... :)
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Try KxVeP
Ugh - now I feel stupid xD
At least it wasn't game I was interested in :)
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Didn't even participate in this one, but landed here late & out of happenstance. A tip of the hat for your generosity β in giving, conversing, and creating puzzles for the rest of us!
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I found some of the hidden text, but just didn't work out what you wanted us to do with it.
Have you played Monster Hunter World? I was going to buy it, but my backlog is so huge and it's apparently very grindy. I thought I may as well wait until it's a lot cheaper since I won't be able to play it for ages anyway.
On a backlog-related note, I did finally finish Sakura Spirit after many years. I know people are generally down on those Winged Cloud games, but I quite liked it: silly, feel-good story; "well-rounded" glossy anime boobie art; and characters that I didn't want to kill. People can't ask for that much more, surely!? ;)
I then went and played Pyrite Heart. That was considerably more annoying. But at least that's two more games off my backlog. Hooray!
Anyway, thank you for your explanation, and thank you again for the puzzles.
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Hmm, sorry about that... :( Most of my puzzles are pretty bad, a lot of random guessing seems to be required, or noticing something that's not explained anywhere... Some day maybe I'll make a good one, but probably not... :)
Hmm, it sounded too grindy for me, too. And apparently there's no story, just fight these guys so you can get slightly better equipment, so you can fight slightly stronger guys, etc. Not sure, guess it's not for everyone? Oh well...
I can't remember which Sakura game is which, unfortunately. :( I remember there was a "part 1" of something, that never got a "part 2" - guess they decided nobody cared about the story, and just wanted boobies. Oh well...
Pyrite Heart doesn't look familiar at all, so either it was completely forgettable or I never even installed it. Not sure which... Ahh, Steam says it's "Otome" so I probably never installed it. Oh well... :)
There's a new puzzle brewing, sort of... With a tutorial, more or less... :)
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Turns out the best way to write a puzzle explanation is to sit down and write it. Ideally before you make the puzzle, but I never remember to do that... Usually I just start fooling around with numbers and bundle keys and see what turns up... :)
Yeah, numbers and bundle keys. I guess this will spoil any future puzzles, but my key drops with random leftover bundle keys are never random leftover bundle keys - there's always something hiding inside.
LOOK AT THE KEYS!
I'm not clever enough to save links to old puzzles, but poking around found some examples:
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition puzzle, or Little Witch Romanesque: Editio Perfecta puzzle :), or NieR:Automata puzzle, or, of course, Dark Souls 1+2+3 & The Miskatonic puzzle and The Miskatonic + Monster Hunter: World puzzle. :)
I suggest anyone working on puzzles read the puzzle guide first. For this specific puzzle, you have a pile of text (i.e. the bundle keys) meant to distract you from the secret message(s) hiding inside. Like this:
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
The first column in the keys gives THATISNOTDEADWHICHCANETERNALLIEANDWITHSTRANGEAEONS which Lovecraft fans might know as That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons... :)
The second column in the keys (yeah, ok it's not a column, it moves around because I don't own a million spare bundle keys...) gives 486F776D616E796167657368656E63655368616C6C74686973 which umm, it's a long string of gibberish? Don't worry, that is base 16 ASCII character codes, which you already knew or noticed in the puzzle guide. Turning that into text gives HowmanyageshenceShallthis which looks like Shakespeare if you spread it out a bit How many ages hence Shall this... :) Yeah, I wasted a lot of time trying to make some other Lovecraft quotes fit instead, but I didn't own enough bundle keys to pull it off. Oh well... :(
The third column gives ISAWTHEBODYSPREADONTHATDANKSTONEANDKNEWTHOSETHINGS which is also Lovecraft, but you'd probably need to google it to discover where I saw the body spread on that dank stone, And knew those things came from... :)
Incidentally, that should (?) explain the keys added in the 26 July edit, which didn't help with the puzzle but just gave you one more chance to notice something. The things you could notice were GALLIA EST OMNIS DIVISA IN PARTES TRES QVARVM VNAM INCOLVNT BELGAE ALIAM AQVITANI TERTIAM QVI IPSORVM LINGVA CELTAE NOSTRA GALLI APPELLANTVR and This is not a hint. This is not a hint. This is not....... and HI OMNES LINGVA INSTITVTIS LEGIBVS INTER SE DIFFERVNT GALLOS AB AQVITANIS GARVMNA FLVMEN A BELGIS MATRONA ET SEQVANA DIVIDIT FREE KEYS WOOHOO which google could explain for you. :) There's no U in Steam keys, sorry. :)
The 4 August edit was the same idea - ?HINT? and HINTHINT in the keys were trying to get everyone to look at the keys. That's it. :)
Anyway, the solution to these puzzles comes about by guessing you need to finish the quote. Otherwise you're screwed. Hence the Burma-Shave "hint" in the itstoohard things. Blah blah blah blah, and googling tells you the missing part is BURMA-SHAVE. The part in the keys is "blah blah blah blah" so you just type in the rest of the line, i.e. the "Burma-Shave" part. Yeah, it's not a very good hint. Sorry! :)
Anyway, solving those first three itstoohard puzzles led to the Miskatonic giveaways 1 2 3, each of which contained a number.
For the fourth itstoohard thing, you only needed to add the numbers: 2247371907021798609437 + 3673622262609912460805 + 2490417963119497539938 = 8411412132751208610180. Which leads to... ?
For everyone who tried to do something with that number, umm, sorry. A lot of people noticed what's going on, but more than a few didn't... :( Check the puzzle guide one last time. It's simply more ASCII characters. Would 084 114 121 032 075 120 086 101 080 have helped? Yeah, definitely. I guess if you're familiar with ASCII you noticed, and if not, you didn't. Anyway, turning that ASCII stuff back into text gives Try KxVeP which was the Monster Hunter: World giveaway.
Sorry it took so long to write the explanation, and sorry the puzzle was dumb. Hmm, seems I'm always writing this...
I could say I'll try to do better next time, but most likely next time I'll be just as lazy and make the same dumb things again. So thank you for playing, and good luck next time! :)
Original message:
Umm, nope, same here. Maybe when it's in a bundle?
You know, it doesn't really say "Humble Monthly" to me, and frankly it looks too good for Indie Gala or (current) Groupees... But you never know...
The store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/870290/The_Miskatonic/ looks interesting, but it sounds like they ran out of money or the programmer left or something? I dunno. In other words, typical kickstarter? The art looks cool though.
Anyway, maybe if you solve one of these puzzles, you won't have to buy it:
Level 0 puzzle, i.e. public giveaway Can you solve the puzzle of the people who try to win a visual novel but can't read? One of the enduring Steamgifts mysteries...
Level 1 puzzle
Level 2 puzzle
Level 3 puzzle
Level 4 puzzle
And the obligatory puzzle pieces disguised as a bundle leftover key dump in 3... 2... 1...
TZM3N-CBπB2-MN6QIH9YC9-CA73π -0A5LSALIEX-4VπE3-7PBKAT5WAC-GC8π½7-NXPMWIN4YK-GBDZπ-C7JYTS20IL-MCZπE-Y3ECHNTFEX-πZCYW-Y44AEO2DZE-FGπ»AH-LDHHBTAYBX-πQWBE-GZKTOD5WZ0-JYπPV-5GVLDEA9EA-QWπPR-KEBAYANCR8-FYπΌIW-WVV5SD5W3P-AC0π9-2AH4PW4CB5-K0π‘HK-GC4PRHYBX9-π3A0T-LNGCEI087L-F2KπV-F6EXAC62Q5-VC7π2-82JPDHGWNC-YWVπ4-AFCPOCF035-K0πYD-EINZNA5IJM-KVπLY-GBZMTNDBZL-π5DQT-4EDZHEJPTY-0YGXπ-LL57ATR7HB-IWEπG-KRFRTETFE0-Dπ QNE-VXRXDRECEP-QπKAR-J79PAN5FK2-L2π99-D9GMNA74RZ-πEGDT-XAHWKLQGMZ-YVπΌ5I-VBRGSL8R7K-πB4A8-0JFCTIF3T3-MBπI2-CYR0OEE9R8-πZH3E-MQBYNAL3AW-29πBV-XFRBENH5ZV-Mπ3T4-VZ20ADQKNX-πXZ8K-AZ8CNWVCQK-JNπM9-V26QDIJVYM-8Bπ 7N-AGJDKT6M88-4XπKN-N4W7NH0FZ0-π7YQN-XK46ES5Q5E-π3QH3-JVGVWTC2EA-MπPL3-IK7LTRIR3K-π2YPV-4AN4HAGACG-WJIZπ-WZNQON6YLN-H8Gπ0-YKJ3SGWF9Z-Tπ2XY-WR2ZEEI8J0-YKWπT-WY28TAZA87-0Pπ R2-IZZQHEXM6X-FπQXW-QEYMIOG2T8-π‘6CJN-JCA2NNWLLB-AGDπ7-0YV4GSDAVV-P64π7-8Q6XSGood luck! :)
Edit 26 July:
Hey, I couldn't think of any new hints, but I did find some more leftover bundle keys... :) Someone's got to feed those starving bots... :)
GKEWA-79π6P-Q6QZHA5G89-8IπMT-5Q80IL82IV-F0NVπ-L5L8OLN6VR-27π TB-2YNQMI3CXG-ERJπK-83GENANXEB-5π‘VM3-6MMGEE7DHY-95EVπ-80PHSSRYI8-πJGX6-AMCHLTVDVA-D0π03-HNICIOGKWH-YAπEM-9K6HNMP8YT-I9πKZ-D8Q3GNVEAA-KFπ‘VX-QD7TVIT5E3-WπE68-EIWAASZ7ZW-X9πDM-C8VYIDNHLE-VJπBB-2JVENIR47G-DQLπE-PNJESVX48N-8XZπI-6I2BTIAN5V-8EπΌPV-W404ISZBXW-πEPL0-84KHTAMKZC-4VKZπ½-BPWWVIW5Q6-WZπKX-CPE5TNM0NM-FWπN6-K0JKIPV4XJ-RM83π-4TVESA9Q2F-FMπNG-KI3TLR8BK2-H05πJ-TXG4ET47W6-IMCπE-AE2VGE53VQ-BWπGE-KLKJISMHKY-7Rπ57-4CJZBTPG4R-WXπIG-P9FXVR3RGL-74π IT-ICCWSEIL69-95TπP-GTI4ISTL7R-H2π‘TR-X2XQNQ6T6M-MGπPB-KGFHTV54G9-8MπΌCK-LFWLEAN9RV-MFQ2π-PLRNRR9247-πDQZC-BQIPSVZQAC-3AGπJ-EXAAEMW040-JVπΌV3-33Y6DVPQ0I-πKFZL-47MFINZ4CK-JπAVQ-X3C9FAEIKT-09π4E-TR64FMCYAC-44πZ9-YFKCEI62TA-πNFIP-CB7RRN4EM8-πX0TH-XDM3VC2HDL-R0GVπ-EKFXNOARQ0-3Dπ CM-ANDBTLCDHV-Kπ8VV-5GC0GVIZCN-Kπ‘6F4-462WANH5RK-FDYπQ-NNH2LTVQHM-X88πR-N3ZXLBC386-NEπMY-70JFOENB4Y-YWπ0P-4I3PSL6WEK-πF5FD-RX6BAGACNE-6Bπ‘V4-7NA5BAA479-YPπEN-VBWIAEA3Y5-JXπZM-5NILQAHZAW-XFJKπ-RMZDVLEZV4-AZ77π-9ZNAIIV3CI-MJπ49-9QQCTA0F3I-πΌDNTJ-MNJBAMEY9M-π8VN5-QE94NA0CVJ-LDπ½P6-98PKIQCAXA-9GLWπ-39R9SVGDCC-84WπW-EHG0GITN05-0Lπ75-7L2CAT69H7-052πE-2KQJRA0MLQ-πHMN6-80NLVNIY4V-ARDπM-Y6Z4MI5MXJ-GYπBF-Y6A9NTKJGK-EπP3N-0CADAEE3N8-2R2Pπ-LNR0FRTV0P-W5Eπ G-7D2JLTPG4R-WXπIG-P9FXVIE5MC-QCπ‘CV-PH67MAVX8Y-PCπRF-2TQWEMCB4I-DπΌL9I-6XA8NQ2BNV-AQ3πT-6LFAAV0A5L-ZPπ8K-AGPEBIV2LJ-π64AX-DFXGEIPMB4-W3πΌIC-JDXRLP582X-πP77T-7EFMGSMWZA-YZ9Jπ-EA6HIONL5T-L4π2F-2ZC9SR2T5J-πJMPW-CAP9MV89B7-GIπ2J-R64XAMJLDR-πCTAW-CWLYTLTAKR-EWQπV-9MTNRI8ZJZ-ZRπ BH-38V3ONW0Y9-4π2YW-I5CNNGECRQ-H8π‘K0-WXIRAVNAF2-TYπDF-KD6VEA60ME-FWYRπ-BNPLTCYA2A-TXπN5-4W6GSEPHR9-Z32πY-AL9WEL37TI-DIPπ3-W5IAQTHGMB-74π‘Y9-2RZVVAA479-YPπEN-VBWIAEH8HA-AYπ7V-E80ZNNVEKT-P9Y0π-W9XVAONKQD-P5π79-MWHJDSVPY0-2XπPZ-VWFRIT42BT-πΌBGMC-THYBVR8F24-HWXπ6-5CW9IAWMTL-Dπ½R5Y-AL57DGFKAV-54YπT-A4Z2IA0VZ3-AR7πZ-J3Z3TL97DM-FALπ8-JIKDFL8FHY-πΌATFX-ACVYRI9PFY-RπY35-D6YLEAJA56-RXπΌ8X-FDEEEP5IE0-Q9πXB-Y695KPEDQL-4πΌG45-CK9LEEN8LW-IGπIZ-BV3QYLWNKA-FπΌC3Y-VFW7SLB7JY-BHπ0K-57X3WADLWM-6W3XπΌ-EB97ONRCM2-JMF3π-4KLWOTDEYE-Y7K9πΌ-W0YKHVQ4JK-8KPπH-H383ORPBXV-7BπΌGH-2LYIOEdit 28 July:
So you thought this puzzle sucked? You're in luck, there's a completely different puzzle here! :)
Edit 4 August:
Hey, it's your last day to solve this, so have one last hint:
H4I7M-βΎπ βββΏ-RXYF2I3LNI-ββΈβΆβΈπ -TGYNDND249-βββΉββ-MJIZITBPDG-βββββΈ-47E7JHJLNM-ββΆβββΊ-3KHNQIF8I5-ββΆβΈββ-IKZQJN8M0E-βΌβπ ββΉ-P6EQ5TK5WW-βΏβΈββΏβ -GZ54JHCBEW-ββ ββΎπ -9WLGZIJVCC-ββΉβ ββ-WM5BPNDQ9D-π ββΏββ-GP097T0MV6-βββββ-PQKJWH9XAD-βββΊββ-AG434IYC2L-βββββ-TC8BPN3ZRE-ββΎβ½ββ-9MXNLTANMV-β·βΎβ½ββΈ-V6B02HRYBY-βΉββββΎ-2WXFDIHDWK-βΈβΈβββ·-PHVBWNXHV6-ββΉββΏβΎ-BCMZ7T8W77-β»β½ββΌβ -KRT48HFTYP-β βΏββΌβ-62JCVIWJR7-βΎβΏββ»β-G56CWNQJEX-β»ββπ βΉ-KBD32TY9R9-βΆβ»ββΌβ-YIYHDHNLEW-ββββ»β-XNAHGIIBCL-βββΊβΏβ-TD6YWNY8D5-βββ βΈβ-RWMFPTGQ6C-ββ·βββ-49TDDHHJRT-βββΈββ-PDQ6BIG4BV-ββΊβββ-A8CQNNZPLX-π βΈβββ-2RZZ7TFK5F-βΉβ»βββΌ-NLT9NH0BY4-ββπ ββ-BCCDWI04G7-βΌβπ βΈβ-J7M6ANYXLB-βββββ-GPG33TLT3Y-βΆβπ ββ»-QWRP8HQJV2-ββββΎβ-GPPBXIHEBB-ββ·βββ»-TZ5Z7NB9XV-ββπ β β-Q3FF0TQ396-ββΊβΊββ½-T2E89HF5TI-βββββ-5NK4QI09AZ-ββ·βΏβΊβ-6G3Z5NZ7MX-βΆβΏβββΏ-QE7ACT43Q0-ββΈββΎβ-3BKVDHY4B5-βββββΎ-9P4JPIE6AW-ββΆβββ-9HQD4NXF86-βΌβ ββΊβΊ-YF7ZZT30NZ-βΆβΆββΎβ-CQ2EXEdit 5 August:
So you're wondering where the solution might be hiding? Ahh, it's not written yet - for some mysterious reason the Level 4 giveaway is still running... :) So you still have three days to work it out, or maybe just forget about this nonsense and go play something you already own... :)
Good luck... :)
p.s. I say "for some mysterious reason" but it's not actually mysterious - although I managed to forget it... :) Fortunately I put off writing the explanation so long that I noticed it's too early to write it. Sorry about that! :)
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