Puzzlehunt

A рuzzlehunt or a puzzle hunt is a puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles at a particular site, in multiple sites or via the internet. Groups of puzzles in a puzzle hunt are often connected by a metapuzzle, leading to answers which combine into a final set of solutions. Sometimes, the prize for winning a puzzlehunt is to create the next one.

Promotional poster for the annual Manbites Dog puzzle hunt.

Puzzlehunt events

Famous annual puzzlehunts

• D.A.S.H. (Different Area Same Hunt) takes place on the same day in multiple cities around the world using ClueKeeper as the interface.[1]
• the MIT Mystery Hunt (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)[2],
• the Melbourne University Mathematics & Statistics Society (MUMS) puzzlehunt (Melbourne, Australia),
• the Sydney University Maths Society (SUMS) puzzlehunt (Sydney, Australia),
• the TMOU (Brno, Czech Republic)
• the VT Hunt ᚖᚌᚖ (Blacksburg, Virginia, USA)
• the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt (Redmond, Washington, USA),
• the Miami Herald's Tropic Hunt (Miami, Florida, USA),
• the Washington Post's Post Hunt (Washington, DC, USA),
• the Gen Con Puzzle Hunt (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA),
• Mezzacotta (formerly the Canon Information Systems Research Australia Puzzle Competition) (here),
• Galactic Puzzle Hunt, run over Pi Day weekend (no 2020 event, as the authoring team is currently working on the 2021 MIT Mystery Hunt),
• the Phish.net Quest puzzle sequence (summary here),
• the REDDOThunt (here),
• the Great Puzzle Hunt in Bellingham, WA every April

Corporate recruiting puzzlehunts

• APT Puzzle Tournament, a recruiting event on multiple campuses hosted by Applied Predictive Technologies
• Google Games, a multi-part competition that usually includes logic puzzles, coding, trivia, and building challenges that utilize materials like LEGO bricks
• College Puzzle Challenge (Multiple Locations, North America), hosted by Microsoft as a recruiting event on college campuses.
• Palantir's Puzzle Challenge, a recruiting event on multiple campuses hosted by Palantir Technologies

Collegiate puzzlehunts

• Puzzle Hunt, put on every semester by a student organization called PuzzleHuntCMU at Carnegie Mellon University's Pittsburgh, PA campus
• VT Hunt, an annual group puzzlehunt held annually by Virginia Tech's ᚖᚌᚖ Septagram Society[3]
• Nova Quest, a campus-wide puzzlehunt organized by the Nova Quest student organization, taking place each spring at Villanova University
• Puzzle Hunt, open to all students and organized by the Rice University IEEE student chapter
• Puzzlehunt, a puzzlehunt made annually by the Stanford University Mathematical Organization
• UMD Puzzlehunt, a Spring puzzlehunt written by the Puzzle Club at the University of Maryland, College Park

Collegiate puzzlehunts (retired)

• 2012-2016 Berkeley Mystery Hunt (), a puzzlehunt at UC Berkeley made by The Campus League of Puzzlers
• 2002-2008 PuzzleCrack (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)

High School puzzlehunts

• PEA Puzzle Hunt[4], a puzzlehunt at Phillips Exeter Academy
• Puzzlepalooza[5], a puzzle hunt at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring MD

Non-competitive puzzlehunts

Individuals or teams can take part in a puzzlehunt-style challenge using software such as ClueKeeper on their smartphones.[1] An individual hunt is purchased, downloaded, and played at the player's convenience. Such hunts are typically not timed and offer no prize except the enjoyment of playing and the satisfaction of solving the challenge. Most are tied to a particular location and require walking from place to place as the puzzles are solved,[6][7] but some are designed to be played at home.[1]

Related puzzle events

• The Game (a puzzlehunt combined with a road rally)
• Microsoft Puzzle Safari (Redmond, Washington)
• Race In The City (an Amazing Race-style event in Toronto)
• Puzzled Pint (a monthly puzzlehunt aimed at beginner to intermediate teams)
• Prehistoric Puzzlehunt (an annual event at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY) www.priweb.org/puzzlehunt
• Mission Street Puzzles (San Francisco, California)
• UNR Puzzle Hunt (A self-guided puzzle hunt on the University of Nevada Reno campus)

Puzzlehunt event calendars

• Puzzle Hunt Calendar
• Puzzle Pile Event Calendar

See also

• Letterboxing
• Geocaching
• Alternate reality game
• Treasure hunt (game)
• Geohashing
• Encounter (game)
• La chouette d'or
• The Last of Sheila, a murder mystery film set at a puzzlehunt

References

1. "ClueKeeper, that puzzle hunt app [Review]". ClueKeeper Review. Room Escape Artist. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
2. Roeder, Oliver (2018-01-19). "Can You Stay Awake For 50 Hours And Solve 150 Puzzles?". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
3. "About Us". www.vthunt.com. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
4. "About the Hunt". PEA Puzzle Hunt 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
5. "Puzzlepalooza!". puzzlepalooza.mbhs.edu. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
6. Furuichi, Miles (May 11, 2020). "Escape Ashland offers outdoor puzzle hunt, safe social distancing". KOBI-5. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
7. Brooks, Nick (June 17, 2020). "Escape Enterprise offering new experience to social distance". WTVY. Retrieved 13 July 2020.