Lure of the Labyrinth... Yes, of course it's a game!

This week's mental challenge comes from the Lure of the Labyrinth. The interesting part of this game is that it has a separate 'Play the Puzzle' section; the link is just under the 'Play the Game' legend.

If you're not really into playing long games, you can just play the puzzles. You won't get any game credits by playing the puzzles outside of the main game, but they are fun on their own!

You must sign up to play either the game or puzzles but logging in is immediate, with no hunting around for a confirmation email. Click "Sign up here!", create a username and password and off you go!

Have fun!

And let me know if you prefer the game or the puzzles.

Game About Squares

A nice gentle start to the year with a clever game I found during the summer.

Let's see what level you can reach during the lesson!

Go to Game About Squares.

Enjoy!

Cryptograms for Kids

A few weeks back we spent a couple of sessions on cryptography and code cracking. By far the most popular site with my students was Cryptograms.org.

It has a nice clean interface and the letters are easy to input. Every cryptogram is a quotation, so you end up with (hopefully) something interesting to read at the end. However, this does mean that the quotations may have some long or unfamiliar words, but learning new words is also part of the fun! The one thing Cryptograms doesn't let you do is to see a full solution if you've given up on a particularly tough puzzle.

Play Countdown

One of the most popular and long-running daytime gameshows in the UK is Countdown. Broadcast since 1982, each programme has two contestants pitting their wits against each other, a ticking clock and some word and number puzzles.

The word games involve finding the longest word you can from 9 random letters. In the actual shows, the contestants take turns in selecting how many vowels and consonants there are.

The number games involve using arithmetic operations to reach a random 3-digit target number using 6 randomly selected numbers.

The very last round is known as the 'conundrum', which involves unravelling a 9-letter anagram

Ouverture Facile: A Riddle Game

Last week, a number of students were playing Ouverture Facile, an online riddle game. It’s an interesting game and reminds me of something similar that was online at about the same time (2005) but has since been taken down. I helped a little bit with some of the mathematical puzzles and got to know the programmer.

Both games share the aim that the puzzles build one upon the other and that they ultimately guide the player to some new knowledge, be it some code or mathematics, or using a new piece of software or the structure of the internet.

Escape the Room Puzzle Games

There is a genre of games known as “escape the room”. These are minimalist flash video games in which you are locked inside a... room, or rooms, and have to figure out how to escape. if you've never tried such games, have a go at The Viridian Room first.

The Crimson Room is perhaps the most famous (and the smallest) such game however, there is one clue that requires going to a specific URL and last time I tried to play it the information was out of date and did not work. This may have been fixed; you’ll know it when you see it! Lots of other similar escape games at Escape Room.