Thursday, October 22, 2020

Diagramless #1

Diagramless #1 - PDF | Solution | PUZ

Back this month with a diagramless puzzle! This is my first attempt at a diagramless, a format that was one of the first crossword variety formats that I really took to as a budding puzzle-loving solver. This book of diagramlesses by Brendan Emmett Quigley did a lot to foster that love of diagramlesses - jeez, was it that long ago that it was published? Seems like yesterday. 

The PDF has three pages; the first page has the puzzle, the second page has the starting square hint at the bottom of the page, and the third page has the symmetry type. So be sure to only print out that first page and if you want or need the hints, just scroll down to the appropriate page on the PDF so you don't waste paper.  Let me know what you think - anytime I make a first foray into a format, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I've added a PUZ file up top; for digital solving options you can download either Diagnil or Xword and open the downloaded PUZ file in either of those apps. Thanks to Jeff D. for pointing these out!

Also, the September bundles for Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle have been posted. It was a five-week month, so those bundles are fully packed! Get your hands on one of these bundles if you're curious what a subscription would entail.

One final plug - I'm excited to join the crossword team over at Vox! My first puzzle will drop this Friday the 23rd, and each Friday I'll have a mini puzzle posted, as well as a full-sized themed puzzle about once a month on Saturdays. So far it's been great working with the people at Vox as well the fellow Vox crossword team - Adesina O. Koiki, Juliana Tringali Golden, Patrick Blindauer, and Will Nediger. All the puzzles are free to solve, and are meant to be accessible, current, and above all fun - give it a shot!

Talk to you soon - I've got something special planned for November (maybe even an extra free puzzle), so be sure to stop by! 

7 comments:

  1. Great puzzle! I love diagramlesses with a thematic shape.

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  2. You can probably guess what I'll ask :) - any chance you could provide a digital version? It's possible to create diagramless Across Lite files - BEQ used to include them in his subscription. Across Lite can't really handle them well, but there are other apps (XWord, Diagnil) which handle them just fine.

    I'm not sure what tool you use to create puzzles, but Crossword Compiler seems to support exporting diagramless files, or you can create one in the Across Lite Text format (https://www.litsoft.com/across/docs/AcrossTextFormat.pdf) by using ":" in the grid instead of "." for all of black squares. I could also probably put a regular puz -> diagramless converter on my JPZ site if that'd help!

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    1. Thanks for the heads-up, Jeff! I wasn't aware that these digital options existed, so many thanks.

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  3. Great first diagramless! Clever theme and fun to solve. My only request is to make the grid a little larger on the PDF. It was hard to squeeze a letter and a number into those squares.

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    1. Thanks for the tip, Brian - will keep this in mind if and when I do another diagramless. Thanks for solving!

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  4. I love diagramless puzzles. I learned years ago to do them on graph paper and forget about writing in the numbers. It might take a little longer to make sure I'm in the right place, but it makes the resulting grid much nicer to look at. I don't fill in all the black squares either, just put dots at the beginning and ends of words. That can make the resulting "picture" difficult to see, which is why I came to the site to see the finished grid.

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