Puzzlehunt puzzles

If you've never heard of puzzlehunts, a brief idea is that they're sort of like escape rooms, but minus all the physical aspects, and generally lengthier and significantly more difficult (think a weekend-long event, rather than an hour or so). I like this primer as a slightly more extended dive into what puzzlehunts are.

I've run and contributed puzzles to a few puzzlehunts over the years, primarily Silph Puzzle Hunt. According to my personal records I've written over 160 puzzles for 15+ separate hunts, but here are some of my favourites.

• White as a Sheet (2021): a puzzle that seems like it gives you nothing to work with.
• The Minimeta that Goes Wrong (2021): a chaotic minimeta where the constructor can't seem to catch a break.
• Six Feet Under (2021): a labyrinthine collection of footnotes.
• Re-actions (2021): a tough-as-nails cryptic crossword where you'll have to figure out how the clues fit together.
• Answering Machine (2025): a perfectly normal list of cryptic crossword clues.
• Sudoku Starter Pack (2025): a Sudoku built on a happy coincidence.
• Difference Maker (2025): a crossword with nonsensical answers.
• Ouroboros (2025): a leviathan of a minimetameta.
• Rig Your Own Tournament (2025): a blackbox logic puzzle.

I also have a soft spot for Christmas Cards, a half-puzzle, half-game "deckbuilder" I wrote for a Secret Santa-style puzzle-exchange event.

Cryptic crosswords

These are cryptic crosswords with no hunt-style "final answer", though usually they have instructions for extracting one or more phrases from the grid.

• The Two-Trench Truce (PDF), written around the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
• Choose Your Path (PDF), written around the time of Undertale's release on the Switch. (Spoiler warning!)
• Hexed Again! (PDF), written as part of a Secret Santa puzzle exchange for Christmas 2019.