Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

How to publish puzzles

You can only publish puzzles if you are logged in and if your user profile contains certain data.

In your own interest: make sure that the puzzle material that you intend to publish does not violate third parties' copyright. You are liable for any violations of rights you commit, and this can become very expensive very quickly.

Once all requirements are met you can start. Most puzzles require a puzzle diagram. You can upload image files to our server using the upload files page. If the upload is successful you will see a six-character image ID. The following file formats are recognised: PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, XCF, PS, and EPS. If your puzzle diagram is available in a different format you have to convert it to one fo these formats first. Watch out: you can also upload PDF files for the contest engine, but you can't use PDF files in the puzzle portal!

When uploading an image file you can choose if your file should be 'private' or 'public'. 'public' files can be shared with other users, and these users can use your image file for their puzzles, too.

The page Publish puzzle is where you can start publishing. Choose a meaningful name for your puzzle: calling it Sudoku is potentially not very exciting - but if you really want to, that's OK, too.

The next step is to enter your puzzle in HTML format. If you don't know HTML you may want to have a look at the Hints section further down on this page: these hints are enough for many puzzles.

Here you can also incude the images that you have uploaded before. Just enter <img:xxxxxx> and replace xxxxxx by the image ID that you saw after the successful upload. Note: If you image does not show up, it may be because spaces have accidentally been inserted here. Please check your code.

Now you should provide a solution code and its description. Check the hints section below on how to come up with a good solution code. Solution codes may only contain letters, digits, and the following special characters: ! $ % & / ( ) = \ + - * # ~ < > |. All letters are automatically converted to upper case, and illegal characters are stripped from the solution code. (The same thing happens when solvers enter solution codes!)

You can use HTML for the solution code description, but it usually makes not much sense to do so. The page will only become more complicated.

There are separate edit boxes for the German and the English puzzle and solution code description. If you ask in the forum chances are good that you will find a volunteer who will translate your puzzle into German. If you create a puzzle in German or English only and leave the boxes for the other language empty users will see that version regardless of their language preference: you do not have to copy your puzzle text and solution code description into the edit boxes for the other language.

If you provide both language versions users can switch between the English and the German version using the flag icon at the top.

Now choose a difficulty for your puzzle. This will serve as a hint for the first solvers what to expect. After five solvers have rated the puzzle difficulty the average of their ratings will be displayed instead of your initial difficulty rating.

You only have to fill in the next block if your puzzle should be published at a certain time (for example at midnight on April 1st). Enter the time here and choose Yes. Remember that the puzzle needs to be activated on the puzzle page before it will be published!

Finally you can set some labels and tags for your puzzle. These tags will be displayed on the puzzle page, and they can be used in the advanced puzzle search. If you are not sure if a particular label/tag is appropriate, please have a look at this Help page.

If you have entered everything you can safely click on Create Puzzle. The puzzle still needs to be activated, therefore it won't be visible to other puzzlers yet.

Now go to the puzzle page and check what the puzzle looks like. If you are happy with what you see you can activate the puzzle by clicking Activate in the box at the right. You can also deactivate an active puzzle there in case you would like to edit it.

Hints on publishing puzzles

• In order to promote a broad variety of puzzles in the portal we suggest to publish not more than seven puzzles per week.

  (Furthermore we suggest that independent puzzles are always posted separately, not as a group in one shared entry. Unless it is essential as part of a complex puzzle construction, each puzzle ID should contain only one puzzle.)

• Make sure that your puzzle has a unique solution: You can only specify one solution code, and any users who find a second solution might get annoyed if their solution code is not accepted.

• Be careful about using a computer to create puzzles: there are already many web sites that offer computer generated puzzles. The puzzle portal is intended for handcrafted puzzles, for puzzles that the authors are proud of. Besides, you may run into legal problems if you publish computer generated puzzles.

• Put your puzzle solver's hat on: do the instructions describe the puzzle in a way that it can be solved? You can find descriptions for many standard puzzle types in the puzzle wiki. Avoid phrases like "Standard rules" or "Normal rules", because different users may have different ideas about what is normal. Better write down the full rule set.

  Keep in mind that there are inexperienced solvers in the Portal. Not everyone will know what to do if you only write "Skyscrapers puzzle". Thinking about the instructions from a solver's perspective is extremely important if you create a puzzle where the solvers have to figure out what needs to be done.

• HTML formatting: HTML provides lots of formatting options. In many cases all you need to do is to insert <P> at the start of every new paragraph. To include your puzzle diagram you can use the following HTML code (and replace xxxxxx by the image ID):

  <div style="clear:both;text-align:center">
  <img:xxxxxx>
  </div>
  

  You can also look at how other people applied formatting by looking at the HTML source code of their puzzle pages. How to look at HTML page source code depends on your browser, but once you have it you can search for the string "HTML-Code des Raetsels: Anfang". That's where the puzzle content starts!

• Choosing a solution code: The solution code should ensure that the person who entered it has solved the puzzle. This rules out solution codes that can be easily guessed or that can be determined halfway through the puzzle. On the other hand it is rather annoying if it takes longer to determine the right solution code than to solve the puzzle.

  Asking for one or two rows of the puzzle grid is a popular approach. Or columns, of course... Just look at some similar puzzles and see what other puzzle authors have done.

• The puzzle has been published. Nobody has solved it yet, but there are lots of comments asking for this or that: This can be a very stressful situation for new puzzle authors: is the puzzle broken, or is it too difficult? Did I make some kind of mistake? Usually the best thing to do is keep cool and wait for a few days, but do read the comments and think about them. They may help you decide what needs to be done. In case of doubt you can consult an experienced author. They often know what can and what should not be done!

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