Salutations, puzzle people! I’m writing to you from the road, at the tail end of an album release tour with my klezmer band. We’ve already played 4 shows, and it’s been absolutely glorious performing for live audiences again. If you happen to be in the NYC area, we’re playing one final show tonight, July 12, in Brooklyn.
We’ll be releasing our album on the Borscht Beat label (yes, I love puns even in my non-puzzle projects!) The album is available for pre-order now, and it’ll be released on August 15.
I have 2 fun pieces to share with you today: an article sharing some of the behind-the-scenes of Pilcrow Bar and a podcast episode in which I talk about puzzle design.
Pilcrow Bar: A Pandemic Puzzle Project
One of my all-time favorite projects is Pilcrow Bar, the puzzle hunt that Sandy Weisz and I designed for Alinea in spring 2020. I know that many of you reading this found your way to my work through Pilcrow Bar, and the reception and community that formed around this game is still staggering to me.
Now over 2 years later, Sandy and I are excited to share an article that we wrote, diving deep into our design process behind Pilcrow Bar. We also share some tips and learnings that I think will be of interest to anybody in the puzzle and game worlds.
Give it a read — I’d love to hear your thoughts!
A puzzling podcast appearance
Last year, I collaborated with Scott Kominers on a special puzzle in Bloomberg, themed around the Reality Escape Con. Since then, Scott and I have had a chance to work on some other projects together, and along the way, discuss the intersections of puzzles and our various other interests.
Scott is an economist and professor at Harvard Business School. He’s also done extensive research in the crypto world, and I’ve learned a ton from his intersectional insights.
Regardless of whether you know or care about anything related to crypto, I think you’ll enjoy our conversation on the a16z podcast. We explore some lesser-discussed aspects of puzzle design, including the overlaps between incentive design in puzzle hunts and in real-life markets.
A number of you have asked whether my newsletter puzzles will be returning. Short answer: not exactly… but something new is coming soon in their place. More on that hopefully in the next newsletter!
Happy puzzling!
Matthew