Submit Puzzle

This metawork article describes the process to add a new puzzle to the Mystery Master collection of logic puzzles. The following information is required.

1. The Title of the puzzle.
2. The Rank (number of stars) of the puzzle. Easy puzzles are 1 or 2 stars, medium is 3 or 4 stars, and hard is 4 or 5 stars.
3. The Blurb for the puzzle (optional).
4. The Author of the puzzle (optional).
5. The Source of the puzzle (optional). Example: Dell Logic Puzzles #1
6. The Text of the puzzle. This is usually an introduction followed by a list of clues
7. The Image for the puzzle (optional). Usually a "gif" file and I provide one if not given.
8. The Names that show up in the Chart.

The names (aka Nouns) must be sorted and organized by type (aka Noun Type). The following is a very simple example.

1. Order: First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth
2. First Name: Amy, Bob, Cat, Dan, Eve
3. Last Name: Adams, Baker, Collins, Donner, Edwards

After this information is entered into a Microsoft Access database, I run a script to generated the HTML files for the puzzle index files. This process is described in the metawork article "Build HTML Puzzle Indexes"".

A corresponding JavaScript module is needed in order to solve the puzzle. This requires programming and so far I am the only one who has done this. Perhaps this would be a nice exercise for somebody taking a "Programming in JavaScript" class. The JavaScript module has the following definitions.

1. The Nouns of the puzzle organized by Noun Type.
2. The Verbs of the puzzle. Usually "is not", "is", and "maybe".
3. The Links in the puzzle. Verbs and links describe the relationships in the puzzle. The implied (default) link is "with".
4. The Facts in the puzzle. Example: "Bob is not [with] Mr. Baker."
5. The Rules in the puzzle. Example: "If Bob is before Amy then Collins is after Donner."

Note: Programming a logic puzzle is not rocket science, but it ain't easy either.