Puzzle Writing Resources

This is a list of resources specific to writing hunt puzzles and running hunts. Puzzle Resources gives a list of general resources, while Puzzle Solving Resources gives resources tailored for solving puzzles; many of these resources are helpful when constructing puzzles as well. (for instance, if you want to find words that fit a certain pattern when filling out a grid)

Answer Checker

• Calling it in

Guides

• GC Summit

Puzzle Writing

• How to write a fun puzzle, by Jay Lorch
• Introduction to Writing Good Puzzle Hunt Puzzles
• Puzzlecraft, a paid resource but contains tips on creating many specific genres of puzzles.
• How to Write a BANG Puzzle
• Foggy Brume's Blogs on Puzzle Construction - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Puzzle Hunt Event Hosting

• Suggestions for Running a Puzzlehunt
• BAPHL wiki
• How to Host a BANG

Hunt Organization

For smaller hunts, a spreadsheet may be sufficient for tracking progress.

• Puzzlord, an updated version of Puzzletron written in Django by Galactic Trendsetters
• Puzzletron, hunt organization software used by MIT Mystery Hunt writing teams from 2011
• Puzzup, a fork of Puzzlord, maintained by Palindrome

Hunt Website Frameworks

• CCXC Engine
• Ephesus by betaveros (Wiki link), a simple way to host your hunt online (without learning a full framework)
• gph-site, used by Galactic Puzzle Hunt
• hunter2
• puzzlehunt_server, used by Puzzlehunt CMU
• silenda Fork of spoilr (written for MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 and passed down), used by MIT Mystery Hunt 2021
• tph-site, used by Teammate Hunt
• wizard, a tool created by weeklies.enigmatics.org for creating Discord-based unlock structures

Puzzle Construction Tools

• Puzzle JS, library for setting interactive JS based puzzles in HTML.
• Qxw, for setting crosswords
• Crosserville, for setting crosswords
• Extraction Finder, for checking whether a target answer can be extracted by indexing into a given list of strings

Grid Logic Editors/Players

• puzz.link
• Penpa+

Wordlists

These word lists may be helpful for constructing word puzzles (such as crosswords), as well as defining what words are legal for interactive puzzles and games.

Scored wordlists

• Peter Broda's Wordlist - Also includes unscored wordlists of entries found in particular crossword publishers (e.g. all NYT entries)
• Spread the Word(list) - Also includes other links to wordlists in resources page.

Unscored wordlists

• [1] - Contains ENABLE, UKACD, and YAWL wordlists
• SCOWL and friends - includes 12dicts, 3of6game