XYZZY Award for Best Individual Puzzle

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The XYZZY Award for Best Individual Puzzle is one of the annual awards given by XYZZYnews to works of interactive fiction. This award has been given since 1996. The award for Best Individual Puzzle recognizes a particularly inspired, well-crafted, and intriguing puzzle.

Below, the winners of the award for each year are listed, followed by the finalists for that year.

• 1996: Opening the gate, in So Far by Andrew Plotkin
  • The crystals, in Fear by Chuan-Tze Teo
  • The elephant, in The Meteor, the Stone, and a Long Glass of Sherbet by Graham Nelson
  • (cramped, crawling), in So Far by Andrew Plotkin
  • Riding the creature, in So Far by Andrew Plotkin
• 1997: The language puzzle, in The Edifice by Lucian P. Smith
  • Setting the digital clock, in Heist by Andy Phillips
  • The whole game, in Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die by Rob Noyes
  • Defeating the Kunkel, in Sins Against Mimesis by Adam Thornton
  • Building the sand castle, in Sunset Over Savannah by Ivan Cockrum
• 1998: Getting out of the chair, in Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin
  • The snack machine, in Little Blue Men by Michael Gentry
  • The granite cube, in Losing Your Grip by Stephen Granade
  • Getting out of the maze, in Photopia by Adam Cadre
  • Entering the warehouse, in The Plant by Mike Roberts
• 1999: The maze, in Hunter, in Darkness by Andrew Plotkin
  • Stopping the flood, in For a Change by Dan Schmidt
  • The clone puzzle, in The Frenetic Five vs. Mr. Redundancy Man by Neil deMause.
  • The gypsum flowers, in Jewel of Knowledge by Francesco Bova
  • Getting the light upstairs, in The Mulldoon Legacy by Jon Ingold
• 2000: The whole game, in Rematch by Andrew Pontious
  • The whole game, in 9:05 by Adam Cadre
  • The mannequin, in Adove and Beyond! by Mike Sousa
  • The letter rooms, in Ad Verbum by Nick Montfort
  • The recursive room, in Being Andrew Plotkin by J. Robinson Wheeler
• 2001: Deciphering the language, in The Gostak by Carl Muckenhoupt
  • The birds, in All Roads by Jon Ingold
  • Switching the glasses, in Pytho's Mask by Emily Short
  • The chess game, in Silicon Castles by David Given
  • An unspecified puzzle, in Textfire Golf by Adam Cadre
  • Disarming the bomb, in Vicious Cycles by Simon Mark
• 2002: Setting the traps, in Lock & Key by Adam Cadre
  • The maze, in Constraints by Martin Bays
  • Entering the church, in Forever Always by Iain Merrick
  • Decoding the letter, in Savoir Faire by Emily Short
  • The computer password, in Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish out of Me! by Jon Ingold and Mike Sousa
• 2003: The purple room, in The Recruit by Mike Sousa
  • Escaping the quicksand, in Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus by Dan Shiovitz and Emily Short
  • Making the sandwich, in Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus by Dan Shiovitz and Emily Short
  • Creating the black powder, in Risorgimento Represso by Michael J. Coyne
  • Getting into the farm, in Risorgimento Represso by Michael J. Coyne
• 2004: The time puzzle, in All Things Devours by "half sick of shadows"
  • The toilet, in Blue Chairs by Chris Klimas
  • Cracking Eno's computer, in Future Boy! by Kent Tessman
  • The poltergeist, in Necrotic Drift by Robb Sherwin
  • The cistern, in The Dreamhold by Andrew Plotkin
• 2005: Following the murderer, in Beyond by Mondi Confinanti (Roberto Grassi, Paolo Lucchesi, and Alessandro Peretti)
  • Moving the stone (after escaping the labyrinth), in All Hope Abandon by Eric Eve
  • Finding something to eat, in Chancellor by Kevin Venzke
  • Beating the creature, in Distress by Mike Snyder
  • Identifying the killer, in Mystery House Possessed by Emily Short