You Are Games:
Letters In Boxes #2
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to regular ol' crossword puzzles, a wild Letters In Boxes appears! We received such a warm response to last week's puzzle that we thought we'd follow up with another set of puzzles for your solving pleasure. This week, we've got a bit of a sideways challenge for you, with puzzles to play on a slight tilt. Can you keep your thinking straight as you solve this set of stumpers?
In case you missed it last week, here's a review on how to play: Below, you'll find a puzzle to solve. Click on it to open it in a new window (and see it full-sized). When you think you've stumbled on the solution, redirect your attention to the window's address bar (in this case, https://jayisgames.com/images/lettersinboxes/lib2start.jpg). Change the filename of the image (namely, "lib2start") to your answer (remember to keep it a .jpg file and within the same directory and use all lowercase characters) to see if you're correct. If you're right, the next puzzle pops up and you're on your way! If not, try tweaking your answer and try again.
This batch of puzzles contains four puzzles to solve. On the fourth puzzle, you'll find the email address for sending your final answer. We'll hand out a prize to the first correct entry we receive, plus four additional randomly-selected correct entries. Please include your Casual Gameplay account display name with your entry. You must be at least 13 years of age to enter. Only one submission per participant, please. Offer void where prohibited. Your deadline for submitting your answers is Monday, June 6th at 11:59 PM (GMT-5:00). Take on this troupe of tilted teasers and you could triumph with a trophy! (There are no actual trophies, it just fit with the alliteration.) Good luck!
Update: Congratulations to these 11 winners! :D
All winners were given a choice of prizes or an entry into a GRAND PRIZE drawing to be held at the end of August! Congratulations and thanks for playing with us! Look for another Letters in Boxes again soon!
- SirNiko ...First!
- saytn
- zxo
- scoi007
- Zac
- Candyman
- amanda
- physkid94
- SilvorMoon
- nerdypants
- kdausman
Oh yeah! Was I first?
This one was a lot trickier than last week! It took me a few minutes to even figure out what the last puzzle wanted me to do!
Once again, kudos to the puzzle creator for a great set of word games!
Could I get a hint for puzzle # 2, I have no idea what to do.
Got it!
Same as Gamezster, I've just been staring at the second puzzle for a minute or two, with no idea what I'm supposed to do. And the first puzzle this time was so easy...
Never mind! I got it.
@Gamezster, a single clue for you:
Look for a word starting in the top left.
Note: remember, words aren't always in a straight line...
Third puzzle solved! Wasn't that hard once I figured out
what all the words had in common.
Thanks V2Blast, but I still can't figure out how to solve the puzzle.
And now on the fourth puzzle...
I figured out the easy first clue, but none of the others, or what the arrows mean, or how the clues are related.
Augh, once again the second puzzle is the death of me.
I know what to do for puzzle #2, but I remain stuck... very stuck. Can't figure out the ending point or length...
@VoxPopuli42 (and @lsi too, I guess):
(sort of a more major spoiler, IMO)
You can get a sentence (multiple words) out of the puzzle.
I've got how the 4th puzzle works, but I'm stuck on a couple of the clues.
Dowbits, likewise.
Are we supposed to use all the letters in puzzle #2?
...Wait, I just figured something out about it! :D
Hint:
You'll only really need to figure out half the clues on your own.
@gamezster: Yep. And it'll make sense to you once you find it (the pattern will be clear).
Well, I figured out the final answer, but I still want to figure out the one word from the last puzzle that I haven't been able to get.
Still stating at #2; none of the hints have triggered any sudden realizations. Gah, guess I'll try again tomorrow.
I am completely stuck on #2. No amount of hints seem to help. I am sad.
I just tried to submit my answer to the email address, but the email bounced saying the address didn't exist. Should I just wait until later to try again?
That was fun, I'm not usually any good at word games like this, but I think I got it.
First puzzle's so hard, I ran to a crossword solve. Second puzzle's a word search without words?!?!?!?
none of the clues helped me with puzzle 2 until I
read Steve's introduction carefully again
Took a break, came back, still stuck on #2. I've been trying every single word I can string together, and none of them work.
I am not seeing any sort of pattern here at all.
Is the 4th puzzle
a cryptic clue puzzle?
I tried to submit my answer just now and my email bounced as well.
Just sent in my answer. The e-mail doesn't appear to have bounced, yet.
That second puzzle had me stumped for quite a while.
Epiphany! A hint for anyone stuck on #2:
Think diamonds rather than squares.
Finally got past #2 after a break, and now I've finally cracked the last one. #4 is quite ingenious when you figure it out.
I apologize for the email address mix-up. The domain is casualgameplay.com, not jayisgames.com as the last image initially displayed.
The last image you'll see has now been updated with the correct email address.
Again, my apologies for the typo.
The third one has stumped me. I get the theme,
I just can't figure out what would be in a quilt store!
So, about the email address mixup, does that mean that the prize going to the first correct answer would now go to the first person who submitted to the corrected address? Seems a little unfair to whoever actually figured it out first.
[The first correct response we received was sent in (to the correct address) very soon after the puzzle went live. No one alerted us to the problem until 3 hours after the puzzle was published. We're going to give out 10 prizes at random to compensate for the mix-up. I feel that's more than fair. -Jay]
So, erm, did you already send the emails to the winners of the previous one? Just checking.
[Yes, all winners of Letters in Boxes #1 have been notified and all prizes have been awarded. We'll post the winner's display names soon. -Jay]
SteamPunk:
The third puzzle actually has nothing to do with quilt stores.
awesome puzzles, Jay. So satisfying when you finally get it. Fourth one was really cool. I'd love to see more of these.
okay 1st was easy second catasthophic :P thrid one easy again now on to number 4 wish me luck =)
Had to register in a hurry to send in my entry...
Damn, #2 is hard.
I've
rotated it so it's a diamond
but still no dice.
I'm also completely stuck on 2. I've come up with all sorts of words, using every possible direction I could think of to take the previous hints in, and I still haven't found a pattern.
For #2,
consider what happens if you tilt the grid into a diamond. What would "across" be for a diamond? Also keep in mind the concept of "wrapping around."
I'm currently stuck on #4. I think I have
the easy 3-letter answer figured out, but the others leave me blank. I suspect that there's some secret method to figuring out the letters used in the clues, but so far no dice.
So good. Puzzle #4 was a work of art!
Jade, about #4:
Did you ever hear the one about the dyslexic agnostic?
He wasn't sure if there was a dog.
Ah, now I get it! Thanks for the hint, nerdypants.
That was a clever, clever puzzle indeed. My favorite of this batch, hands down.
My brain is fried from #4. The first and last clue have me stumped! Got the four in the middle, and totally understand how the puzzle works, just can't think of words that will fit.
Yep, the power of posting strikes again! That was fun, and much more difficult than the first one. Keep them coming, Jay! I love these!
Flipped #2. Looked in every position. Tried to figure out what's
across on a diamond
. Fried brain. Applied un-frying balm. Fried again.
Aaaaargh!
Jade's clue helped me a LOT on #2, I think the clues before then might have even led me astray. I'd say the important things to keep in mind would be
The concept of wrapping around and the fact that you will use up every letter in the grid if you have figured things out.
I got to the puzzle #4 and quit. I think I get it, but I don't know the words for the 2nd from the bottom and 2nd from the top words. I have no clue at all. And I get the feeling that I might have plugged in the wrong words for some of the other ones. :s I don't know celebrities!
V2Blast,
I know your intentions were good, but your hint on puzzle #2 is misleading :(
bio
Which one? I apologize for being misleading. I just didn't want to give away the answer completely, so my vagueness may have led some of you astray :P
As for #4, I never figured out the answer to the middle clues... I suppose I should wait until the deadline, rather than ask someone to answer it for me. But then again, I did solve the overall puzzle without it. :P
V2Blast: That's so weird because your clue is what got me to solve puzzle 2. On the other hand, I only read the first sentence of your hint. So maybe the second sentence is what confused bioLarzen.
Ok, so I've solved the first three puzzles without any help, but now I feel like a fool. I don't even have a clue of what's going on on the 4th... Can anyone help me please??(Will it be easier if English is my mother tongue? Or perhaps I'm just too stupid :P)
Solved last week's without too much trouble, but #2 has me completely stumped this time. Even with the clues I'm not seeing anything there...
stuck on #3. any hints?? i tried
anagram solver and crossword solver
as well as
reading them all together
@BKdeuce
start at the top left and read it as though it were a diamond
Ex: hl
xxxep this would be help(the xs are just to space it; they mean nothing!)
Okay, maybe it's just me, but the first set of Letters in Boxes puzzles didn't make it so hard to even figure out what you're supposed to do.
I mean, I'm on #3 this week & I just have no idea of what I'm supposed to do. I'm practically pulling my hair out.
ikr rygar! it doesn't give ant hints as to what to do!
I'm stuck on #3, and I'm sure the solution is obvious to most people. Help please?
Fun games... I hope there are more to come!
#2 had me going for a while, but once I got past that, I made it through to the end without too much difficulty.
Massively major hint for #3:
The same sequence of 3 letters is missing from each line.
Good luck to all!
I really liked that the objective of each puzzle was left ambiguous. Part of the fun is working out the rules of the puzzle.
This is making me crave the Labyrinth again. I need to go back and solve that puzzle on which I got stuck...
I GOT 2!!!! FINALLLY!!!
I have nothing productive to say, except a big THANKS to everyone who posted hints!
... and now I'm in the same boat as the people who understand how #4 works (at least I think I get how it works...), but can't figure out certain clues. For me, it's the 1st, 2nd, and 2nd-to-last.
OK, stuck on #4. I think I get how the puzzle works, but I can only figure out one clue. Just so I can get a little bit of help, are all the words on the left
supposed to be actual English words? Or are they just
the words on the right, backwards?
@bubblecamera:
both.
For the last puzzle...
the bard was drab
but more importantly...
from regal trams come smart lager
See, that's my problem with 4. I totally get how to do the puzzle (and you guys' hints just confirmed that for me). But unless there's also a trick for figuring out these cryptic clues, I'm stumped (just got the 2nd-to-last one, though -- yay!).
tigrita:
A thesaurus might be helpful. It helped me out, anyway.
I *gasp* finally got it *collapses*
Thanks everyone for all the advice. What had me so confused was that my first, er, several answers that I was so sure about were completely wrong. So I didn't see
the bigger picture
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go curl up in the fetal position for a few hours.
Can't get the third puzzle for Pete's sake. Hints plz.
For the second puzzle
Read as you normally would, But orientate puzzle differently.
Ah finally. The thesaurus was my friend for the 4th puzzle.
That was fun!!!!!
Oh, hmm. I type in the final answer with .jpg at end, but no email. I could not possibly have it wrong, right? :(
OMG, never mind. *smacks head*
@ Selune - Wish I had a useful head-smack moment. I got a proper word after solving the 4th puzzle, but it doesn't work as the "nextword".jpg to get me to the email address. I can't imagine what to do next. Any help appreciated.
Don't feel bad, Selune. I did that with the first LiB puzzle too, and no doubt a lot of other folks have as well.
Hopefully I've got it. That last one was much more difficult than the otherrs.
That was pretty fun.
I'm not ashamed to admit it... I don't get it. It's my understanding that the first puzzle is very easy, but for my money, this was sent to me in an e-mail while I had no time to react to the challenge at hand.
Could someone please explain the rules of the first puzzle? I suppose that discovering the rules is harder than figuring out the other words, which I've done.
Could someone tell me where I have gone wrong on puzzle 4? I'm 99.99% sure I know what to do, but my answer is not a word!!
salivntos
#4 took forever. I had to come back to the puzzle 4 times before it finally clicked.
@ New Guy,
Think of the 1st puzzle as
a crossword puzzle without black squares, and the clues are written to the right of the blank squares.
Also,
the last three letters of the first word make up the first three letters of the 2nd word, and so the last three letters of the 2nd word make up the first three of the 3rd word and so on.
There's no clue for the central word, so work out what it is by completing the other words.
Hope that helps. : )
RAWR The fourth puzzle is killing me! I understand the mechanics of it but the clues seem unsolvable... I've only solved the first and last ones. Need a gentle push in the right direction.
-snickerless1
Power of posting strikes again! For those of you stuck on
the celebrity clue
the trick is
that the clue isn't referring to any one specific celebrity.
That's what got me.
The fourth puzzle was a bit frustrating as the mechanism was easy to figure out, but the answers weren't. Very rewarding though once I finally solved it.
Thanks to whoever created these fun puzzles (Steve I guess?).
Kristen, you're very close.
The final answer is indeed a real word. You've got your third and fourth answers wrong, judging from which of your final-answer letters aren't right. You're almost there!
This contest is over! Here are the answers for this set of puzzles:
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 1 Answer
The goal of this puzzle was to find a chain of five-letter words, where the last three letters of one word were the first three letters of the next word. The completed word chain was PASTA, STAMP, AMPLE, PLEAT, EATEN, TENOR, NORTH, and the unclued word (PLEAT) was the filename for the next puzzle.
Puzzle 2
Puzzle 2 Answer
Remember when I said that this set of puzzles was on a tilt? The phrase "NEXT CLUE CAN BE FOUND AT QUILTSTORE DOT JPG" could be found by tilting the entire grid 45 degrees to the right and reading the words straight across, wrapping around edges.
Puzzle 3
Puzzle 3 Answer
Unlike the first puzzle, where adjacent words shared common letters, the same three letters would appear in every word, shifting a bit each time it moved down. The answer was ANT, which resulted in ANTHEMS, PANTHER, GRANTED, INFANTS, and DEFIANT.
Puzzle 4
Puzzle 4 Answer
As some of you pointed out in the comments, this puzzle used a handful of semi-palindromes (also known as semordnilaps) where a word, when spelled backward, resulted in a different word. Each clue corresponded with a two-word phrase, with the trick that if you flipped the entire set of first words upside down (that is, backwards and in reverse order), they'd become the second words. The answers to the (painfully pun-laden, I apologize) clues were TEN DESSERTS, RATS DELIVER, REMIT REWARD, DRAWER TIMER, REVILED STAR, and STRESSED NET. By using the numbered letters (shown in the picture above as blue boxes, due to formatting issues), you could spell out the final solution, SALIVATES
Winners will be announced soon!
For the fourth puzzle:
I actually didn't realise you were supposed to assemble the two parts like that. No wonder I kept feeling that the answers were only half of the clues. Heh.
Hmmm. might be good to warn people that the filename in the URL, is case sensitive - at least from the first part, seems to me it insists on lowercase letters.
[That's a good point. We'll include a note in the rules from now on about that. -Jay]
No crossword solvers gave me answers to puzzle 3
So..... who won?
Update