I feel like I’m drowning in puzzles. And I love it.
Red Bull Discovery Lab was supposed to be the peak of my puzzling endeavors. Teaming up with problem solvers around the world- how could it get any better? Yet surprisingly, I continue to find myself deeper and deeper in the world of puzzles.
After the Online Escape Room Championship qualifying round, John B., one of the other Discovery Lab participants, recommended Panda Magazine, an online puzzle publication. Panda Magazine sets up an annual puzzle challenge featuring over 100 puzzles per challenge. Older challenges are available, so this past Saturday, John, Christina, Jon, and I dipped our toes into Puzzle Boat 2.
The contest is a blast. It’s much closer to the MIT Puzzle Hunt than it is to any of the escape room challenges we’ve done. Individual puzzles often take 30+ minutes, even with multiple people working on them.
The first day, our team spent two hours together and got through four puzzles in about two hours. In the three days since, we’re up to 20 puzzles completed. With 30 open puzzles we can be working on!
It’s really fun staying in constant contact with the team as we work through this. Someday I’d love to consider taking a full week off work to dive into a challenge like this with a team that’s serious about winning. But in the meantime, I’m thrilled to know I’ve got 30 puzzles waiting for me online, calling my name.
Leave a Reply