The best interactive clue hunting, puzzle solving game on the internet.
By Cowpattybill
I’m back. My family and I were away at Family Camp which is a camp hosted by the Diabetic Youth Foundation (www.dyf.org). My oldest son (8 years old) was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes 2 years ago. The camp is great because all the kids there have diabetes so they get to hang out together and be the same. They all check their blood sugar levels at the same time, they all administer insulin to themselves at the same time. It’s great. They play lots of games and other activities and just have a blast. The parents get together and share the difficulties of diabetes management, learn about new technology, and learn about other things they can do.
It really was a great time and I can’t wait to do it again next year.
If you would like more information about Type 1 Diabetes or would like to donate to the DYF please visit their website at www.dyf.org.
By Cowpattybill
Why me? I’m just a little ol’ puzzle game website owner trying to make his way through a cyber world crowded with big techno-giants. Regardless of the reason, it happened. Cluechaser.com was vandalized but an irritating perpetrator. A Spammer!
Just a minor hack. Someone caused the site to redirect elsewhere but the link was no good. It just errored out. The problem though was that my friend who helps with the website was on vacation and although I’ve been called alot of things, Programmer is not one of them if you catch my meaning. I can do some basic coding and stuff but I leave the heavy duty stuff to him. With him gone I was forced to figure out how to fix it.
As you can see, the very fact that you’re reading this post means that I was successful. ClueChaser continues (mass applause).
By Cowpattybill
After much internal deliberation I finally decided to post this. The trouble with asking for feedback is you may not like what you hear. An important rule for requestng feedback is this:
If you can’t handle what you might hear, don’t ask.
However, if I don’t know where the problems are, I can’t fix them. With that in mind, here’s my request:
I would like your feedback on the layout of the website. Specifically, what areas of the site do you not like, which do you like, what suggestions do you have to make it better, etc. I would like your thoughts about the visual appeal of it, the navigation, the colors, the layout, basically all aspects of the website.
I would like visitors and regular players to enjoy their time here at ClueChaser. If the site is ugly or unappealing, or the navigation through it is terrible, you may not come back regardless of how good the games might be. I sense there are areas that could be improved but I’m not sure how. With you feedback I hope to accomplish that. So here’s your chance to be directly involved with ClueChaser’s success.
I’m not asking for feedback on the games or the puzzles within the games. Just the website itself. Not that I don’t want to hear you thoughts on the games, I would love to actually. Just not here in this post.
So feel free to post your comments/suggestions here or email them to me to admin@cluechaser.com.
Thanks.
Cowpattybill
By Cowpattybill
One of the best Clue Chaser players, mrsmathteacher, commented on the previous games. She said the puzzles in game 1 were much harder than those in game 2. I was going to reply to her but instead I decided to write a post.
I agree with her. The ease of the puzzles in game 2 happened because of 2 things. One good, one bad.
The bad reason is because in game 1, puzzle 3 caused a lot of problems. It seems I made it too difficult. Getting to the parts needed for the answer was fine but taking the letters to form the puzzle’s answer is where the problem was.
What to me seemed like a reasonable leap of logic apparently wasn’t so with all the players. Even after the answer was figured out (after MUCH hinting by me) it still didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to others. I felt like it might have left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. I decided not to make the puzzles that difficult again.
The good reason is, I feel like I have a really good story to tell. I would like to share it with as many people as possible. My experience from game 1 told me that there is only a small group of people who are willing to push their way through all the puzzles. Especially when it starts out with a cypher puzzle (Evidently the majority of people don’t like cyphers). Lots of potential players saw the first puzzle and left, never to return. In order to get as many people involved as possible I decided to make the puzzles easier. Especially the first one. Unfortunately I underestimated the brain power of my faithful players and you busted it out in less than 4 days. Big sock to my ego.
Side note- Puzzle 3, once again seemed to be the most difficult. Most players didn’t understand the clues and once they got the answer they didn’t seem to understand how they got there. Seems there’s a pattern of the third puzzle being the most difficult. I wonder if that will repeat in game 3? Hmmm…..
Back to what I was saying, once again I learned a lot. Game 3, I feel, is a good mix of puzzles. It will definetly be harder than game 2 but probably not as difficult as game 1. Much of the storyline will be revealed in game 3. It is much different than game 2 and is alot more like how I originally planned the games to be.
By Cowpattybill
I’m filled with nervous excitement. I’ve had the video done for over a month now but I wasn’t far enough along in the game creation process to release it. I am fairly confident now that I can be done in time, plus I need the pressure, so I’m releasing it today.
Watch the video
The release itself requires alot of work. I have to send out a bunch of emails to the registered players. My email provider allows mail to be sent to only so many email addresses or it is considered spam so I have to send out about 10 email addresses at a time and after about 50 or so I have to wait an hour to send more. I know there’s better ways out there. I just haven’t bothered to look for them yet.
Then I have to notifiy the owners of the sites that I link to so they can put the word out to their visitors. Once the puzzle in the video is solved I have to repost the video with the actual date. Then I have to put the countdown timer up. Then I have to work on marketing. Meanwhile, I have to finish the game by putting the puzzles on actual web pages, etc.
I hope I gave myself enough time. We’ll see (he says with fingers crossed).
By Cowpattybill
Frustration sets in once again. I’m not sure how to say this without giving anything away…hmmm. Let’s try it this way:
I had all the work done for what is basically the main puzzle of the game. It requires the use of, uh… extraneous “materials” that I have no control over. I wasn’t sure if these materials would ever change so I took a chance. I found out Friday that in fact the do, and did, change. So now I basically have to redo the entire thing. Not the whole game, just the main puzzle. No easy task considering it took me more than 2 weeks to create it initially. It is the largest and most complex puzzle I’ve ever craeted. Now about 80% of it has to be redone.
The game revolves around this puzzle and it’s too late (and too much work) to change it. I would have to redo just about every puzzle. There’s NO WAY I’m doing THAT! The worst part is that the materials could change again though probably not for awhile. But when it does, the game will be rendered virtually useless. But I’ll deal with that later.
The good news is that I was rechecking one of the hardest puzzles and I found (and fixed) an error. There’s not much worse than having the players, racing against time and other players, get stuck because of some mistake I overlooked (think Game 2, Puzzle 9).
Other than that, all is well.
By Cowpattybill
I have been toying with this idea for awhile now and I think I’ve finally made the decision to take Game 1: Puzzle Master down. Here’s why:
Games 2 thru 4 follow a story line. Game 1 doesn’t. It is independant. I think there are some good puzzles in there but few people get to see them because they are very hard and most give up before they get past the 2nd puzzle.
So after Game 3 or maybe Game 4 I will take Game 1 down and clean up the puzzles, changing them if necessary, so that they are independent of each other and post them individually. By doing this, it allows the other games to be a nice happy family without being distracted by the orphan Game 1. Additionally, visitors to the site will have the opportunity to view and solve multiple puzzles just for fun without having to solve one to get to the next.
I will leave the information regarding the winner in the Hall of Fame but I may take down the message board comments for it.
By doing this I think the website will be more fun for visitors as well as have a nice series of games that follow the same story line for the more adventurous players.
Let me know what you think.
By Cowpattybill
Another puzzle complete. Feels good. This leaves me with only 2, maybe 3 puzzles left to create and then I have a whole mess of internet work to do like creating the webpages and stuff like that. I think after I finish one more puzzle I will release the Game 3 video. I decided to add a little puzzle to it as well and the first person to figure it out will win a free membership to the clue club. Excitement is starting to build.
By Cowpattybill
I am proud to announce the creation of the Clue Club. For a small membership fee of $5 (half off the regular price) you gain access to exciting benefits like a two hour headstart on the games and double the prize money if the member is the winner. Get more information about it here. Join by clicking on the coffee cup on the left.
By Cowpattybill
The situation with the PayPal has been resolved. Thank you to those who brought it to my attention.
If you had tried to buy us coffee and it didn’t work please try again. Your support is greatly appreciated.
By Cowpattybill
I just found out that the PayPal is not working correctly. Apparently it will let someone donate money but a notification is not sent to me and the person who donated receives an email stating:
“The transaction that you made on [removed] with the amount of [removed] have an “unclaimed” status because it was sent to the wrong email address or to an email address that is not attach to any PayPal Account. I suggest that you cancel the payment on your end and contact the seller to ask on what email address you will be resending the payment.”
This is very irritating. (Sigh)
By Cowpattybill
Ahh yes. Things are finally coming together once again. My brain is finally starting to spit out some puzzle ideas.
After each game it seems to be important that I take a 2 or 3 week break from it just to let it all settle in my mind. After that I can s l o w l y begin to get the tiny wheels inside spinning again. Creatively speaking things are just about up to full speed. I have finished the logic behind 2 more puzzles and have an idea for another one.
The process for me is first to come up with an idea. I then figure out the logic behind it. Once that is figured out I gather the items I need to visually create it. This process usually means scouring the internet for pictures, or background information, or just learning the information I need to put the puzzle together. Materials are gathered and a draft of the puzzle is created. I then look for way to either make the puzzle harder, or if I feel it is necessary, I look for ways and places to put a clue. After this I then pass over to my puzzle checker. She tries to figure it out while I begin to work on the next puzzle. I follow this process until the have them all but done.
The next step is to put them all on web pages, followed by two rounds of making sure the puzzles don’t have any mistakes, the flow is good, and it stays with the story line. I had to add the second round of “quality checks” because of the mistakes discovered by the players during Game 2: The Missing Mr. E.
Often I break away from creating the puzzles and I work on things like getting the Cluechaser.com website ready and I do as much promotion for it as I can.
There’s alot more involved, many more details but I’ll save that for a different post.
