Description

While travelling on the other side of the world, I came across a Tuesday copy of the New York Times. I spent many hours and took many attempts in trying to complete the massive crossword within but to no avail. Despite that, I took delight in its checked style, where every square was a part of two words. It was something I was unfamiliar with. As a solver, I liked how solving each box is also a step closer to solving a clue in the other axis and how, conversely, there are two ways to solving each box. This means that I can make educated guesses at a box I am stuck at by looking at it from a literally different angle. So I decided to create smaller versions of it, and I used these bite-size puzzles to entertain my sisters during downtimes in our travels. I can say as a designer, the checked style truly is superior. The heightened challenge of creating a grid of letters that each played its part in two dimensions made me feel more accomplished as a designer than any other crossword I have made. I hope to one day create puzzles like these in a video game format.