I’ve always been impressed by vanity plates on cars. I think some are quite original and I especially enjoy ones that make use letters and numbers together to spell something. I recall in my youth toying with the idea of getting a vanity plate that said…

This particular puzzle is multi-layered. First the players needs to decode the words on the plates to understand the message E is giving them. It’s important to the story line. Here is where they learn that there are coded documents that need to located and sent to someone to be decoded. The plates also tell them that there are clues hidden in the puzzles. I don’t think that was new information to anyone but since a lot of the players were new I thought it would be good to let them know that there was more to this puzzle than what meets the eye. One thing I hoped they would notice was that the hyphens on the plates meant the end of a sentence as opposed to each row being a sentence.

Using the message board to communicate with each other it wasn’t too long before someone mentioned that the alignment of the plates as well as the states represented were interesting things to consider. Shortly thereafter the realization that the two letter abbreviations for the states spelled out an entirely different message sparked a flurry of conversation as they raced to learn what the message said.

I think the fact that I made the first sentence short helped immensely in getting people going in the right direction. Another help was that the plates were laid out in way that each row of plates was a single word. All they had to do was unscramble the letters.

Creating a hidden message using only two letter state abbreviations is not easy to do although it didn’t take me as long as it could have. I kind of did it backwards. First I figured out what words could spelled and then used those words to make up a clue. It was bit awkward. For example, I could spell “a password” but had to leave out an “s”. I figured players could still figure it out. Similary, I could spell out “Christmas” but without the “t”. Once I discovered I could also spell “island” I then looked for a way to use them all together. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there was a “Christmas Island” in the world.

One thing I very much like to do is to insert clues in other puzzles. In this case, the sharpest of players recalled the previous puzzle (Letter from E) where it mentioned a pet bird from E’s uncle who worked on an island and the bird’s name was Goldy. This info plus the clues from the license plates that mentioned “flag” and “animal” helped steer the players to the answer they needed.

I also like to create puzzles that take a little research to answer. I don’t think there are too many people in the world that know off the top of their head what kind of bird is on the Christmas Island flag. But a few minutes with Google and the answer became clear.

It took players 2 hours and 46 minutes to come up with the correct answer. The correct answer provided the players with the next number. In this case it was 53.

Challenge yourself to see if you can solve it faster.

A problem I had with the previous game was that because it wasn’t in a secure location any of the puzzles could have shown up in a Google search thereby allowing a player to jump ahead. To prevent this from happening in this game I required players to register. That way I knew how many I had and also allowed me to email them a username and password that could be used to access the puzzle site which resided on a secure server.

So when the start time came I posted the link to the secure site and players used the username and password to access the game and get their first look at it. The first thing they found was this:

That message set the stage for the game. Now the players knew that Fletcher Edwards was missing, that mysterious people were looking for him and his friend Iggy is concerned. This combined with the intro video gave the players the background information they needed to begin the journey.

Included on the intro page was a link. Once clicked the players were greeted with a picture of the interior of an office. My intent was for players to understand that the office was a room of E’s house which was the house seen in the intro video. Since he is a scientist I thought he should have a nice looking office. I searched a long time to find the right picture for this. I first tried to find one that was in disarray but finally decided a nice neat upscale office would work just fine.

I think it’s pretty clear that the picture was doctored. Several items were added. Eventually the players would learn that each item would become a link to a puzzle once they got to that point in the game. At this point though, the only active link was the one attached to the crumpled up wad of paper on the floor. Once players found that and clicked on it they got to see the first puzzle (click on the picture at the top of the post to see a larger version of the letter).

I wanted as many people as possible to play the game and figured the further they got into the story and the puzzles the more interested in it they would become. Therefore I designed the puzzle to be very easy.

The letter makes it clear that Edward Fletcher (aka Mr. E) is gone and plans to be for awhile. He trusts his friend Iggy enough to tell him this and also to place the care of his bird Goldy in his hands.

If this were a real-life letter perhaps the bit about the pet bird would not seem strange but in a puzzle game everything is a potential clue. In this case E’s pet bird is actually a clue for the next puzzle. As is the mention of the island. I think I’ve gotten quite good at inserting clues into puzzles that will be needed for future ones.

Players noticed right away that there were several spelling and grammatical errors in the letter. By taking the extra letters, missing letters and, in the case of misspelled words, the correct letters, players were able to spell out the answer to the puzzle.

Another goal I had with this game is that all the puzzle answers would themselves provide clues to the mystery. In a later puzzle I would provide a clue to the players as to how the puzzle answers should be arranged to help shed some light on what was going on.

One thing I never noticed until now is that there is a mistake in the answer. A letter is missing. Obviously players figured that out but I can’t believe I never noticed it. An “A” is missing. I spent a lot of time on this puzzle making sure I arranged it correctly to reveal the answer and I just don’t see how I missed that. And I don’t recall anyone ever pointing the mistake out to me. Anyway, there should an “A” as the third to last letter.

It took players a mere 39 minutes to solve it. Once the correct answer was typed in the players were taken to a congratulations screen where in addition to a link to follow, they were give a number. For this puzzle the number is 50. It would be a wise choice for the players to write that number down. It becomes very important later on.

By clicking the link, players were taken back to the office where now a new link was activated. This time over the license plate on the wall. This took the players to the next puzzle License Plates which will be reviewed next.

However, in order to get there from here, I have to finish game 3. So I am picking up where I left off. I am determined to finish this game and get it out to you to play. I am about 60% done. If I can focus on it for a couple weeks I should be able to finish it. When it is about 90% done I will have an idea of when the start date will be.

So please be patient dear Cluechaser fan. The end of the journey is approaching. Once game 3 is done there will be no more Cluechaser games like this, but Cluechaser will continue on in a different format. One I hope you will find interesting. Will there be puzzles? Of course there will. I love making them so I won’t stop doing that. The contests will likely end though. They just take too much out of me.

So thank you for your patience. I will let you know more soon.

Take care.
Cowpatty Bill

I started the Mr. E puzzle series with a broad storyline in mind. I was confident that the details would fill themselves in as I went along. And they did. During games 1 and 2 players learned who Edward Fletcher was and that he discovered something very important. By solving the puzzles and following the clues players uncovered a government secret that a disease known as Environmenally Related Rapid Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (ERRODS) was rapidly spreading across the world. Mr E. was on the trail of tracking down the source when a mistakenly revealed password led to an attack on the San Francisco apartment where he and his colleagues were hiding. News reports indicated that everyone in the apartment was killed. With Edward Fletcher presumably dead players were left wondering if the cure for ERRODS would ever be found? This is where the storyline is now.

During the past year the remainder of the story has been brewing in the back of my mind. I knew where I wanted to go and how to get there but still needed to work out what clues would be found along the way. I imagine that fiction authors go through similar thought processes. Things were moving along at a nice pace when suddenly, bad things happened. If you’ve watched the video you know what happened. You know the site was hacked over and over. You know that I had to shut it down.

Now that it is back up and ultra-secure (and I’m a little wiser) the story can continue. During the site down time I did a lot of work on the plot details. Along with that I had to think up different kinds of puzzles. The trickiest part turned out to be trying to figure out how to give out the information the players would need for the story without bogging the game down. Previously I had accomplished this by including the information in the puzzle itself (like this one). Other times I made it part of the puzzle answer (like this one). However, I find that kind of puzzle difficult to design and after creating almost 40 different kinds of puzzles for the previous games and other projects my creative juices were running dry.

The good news is that the creative block in my mind that I had been chipping away at for the past several months finally seems to be giving way. The story line is clear. The path is set. The clues are being placed. Game 3 should be the most exciting one yet. New puzzles, new characters are introduced and more details are revealed.

I am excited to tell you that during the buildup to the launch of Game 3: Chasing Shadows I plan to release mini puzzles to wet your appetite. To get you in the mood so to speak. I also hope to create a couple more teaser videos to help set the stage. My goal is to have everything ready to go by June. In the months prior to that I will be asking for your help to get the word out. The more players we have the better the game experience will be.

This will be the most complex game of the three. Twists and turns await you as you brave the shadows and chase the clues. Reward and reputation are on the line as you race your fellow Cluechasers to the end.

?? – Is E dead
?? – What is the source of the chemical
?? – Who is the mole

These are the questions that need answers. Will you be the one to do it?
We’ll see soon enough.

If you don’t know Jesus, I pray that during the 2010 year you take some time to look into that. I didn’t become a Christian until I was 30 and even then it was only after much reading, studying, sole searching, questioning, and finally praying. Looking back on it I can’t believe it took me so long and how stubborn I was to accept it. I hope your journey is not as long and difficult as mine was.

Merry Christmas all you Cluechasers out there. Be safe. Be joyful.