Puzzlehunt

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A puzzlehunt is a puzzle-cum-game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles, usually leading to a final answer or goal. Puzzlehunts are often site-specific, taking place on college and corporate campuses (MIT, Microsoft) or in major cities (New York, Miami). A number of puzzlehunts have been created that take place entirely online.

In many puzzlehunts, groups of individual puzzles are connected by one or more meta-puzzles, whose answers may in turn lead to the final answer or goal (or to further meta-meta-puzzles). Puzzlehunts may have cash prizes or novelty prizes; sometimes, the prize for winning a puzzlehunt is to create the next one.

Contents 1 Puzzlehunts in the United States 1.1 Annual events 1.2 College puzzlehunts 1.3 Online Puzzlehunts 1.4 Puzzlehunts of the past 2 Puzzlehunts Outside the United States 3 Related Puzzle Events 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Puzzlehunts in the United States

[edit] Annual events

• Microsoft Puzzle Hunt (Redmond, WA)
• Miami Herald's Tropic Hunt (Miami, FL)
• Maze of Games (GenCon and Origins conventions, various locations)
• The Haystack (New York, NY)
• The National Puzzlers' League annual convention (various locations) includes a Saturday night "extravanganza" which is usually a puzzlehunt
• Midnight Madness (New York, NY)

[edit] College puzzlehunts

• MIT Mystery Hunt (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA), the first of its kind
• PuzzleCrack (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL)
• UT PuzzleHunt (University of Texas at Austin, TX)
• PuzzleQuest (Carnegie Mellon University), hosted by Microsoft
• College Puzzle Challenge (various locations), hosted by Microsoft as a recruiting event on college campuses

[edit] Online Puzzlehunts

• Intercoastal Altercations, created by various members of the National Puzzlers' League (NPL) and run annually from 2002-2004
• Greg Brume's Puzzles & Answers Magazine and Puzzle Boat. The Puzzle Boat was published in 2005; P&A Magazine has been published bi-monthly since January 2006.
• Sekkrets, created by members of The Grey Labyrinth, an online puzzle forum. Sekkrets was published on July 2006.
• Labor Intensive, created by NPL member Mark Halpin (aka Zebraboy) and published in September 2006.

[edit] Puzzlehunts of the past

• Manbites Dog Theater PuzzleHunt (Durham, NC), last run in 2003

[edit] Puzzlehunts Outside the United States

• Melbourne University Puzzle Hunt (Melbourne, Australia)
• The Paperchase at Cambridge University

[edit] Related Puzzle Events

• The Game (a puzzlehunt combined with a road rally)
• Microsoft Puzzle Safari (Redmond, Washington)
• Race In The City (an Amazing Race-style event in Toronto)

[edit] See also

• Letterboxing
• Geocaching
• Alternate reality game

[edit] External links

• GameControl.org - Listing of hunts in south eastern Michigan