SnoutCast #102: Of Summits and Letters

In which we do a dramatic reading of the Black Letter Game's answers to our listener questions, and then a quick recap of this year's Game Control Summit: Simulcast!


[ Download mp3 - 25 MB ]

00:59 - "diplomatic"
01:20 - The Black Letter Game has answered your questions...
02:58 - Where did the name for the Black Letter Game come from?
03:41 - How many individuals are "GC" for this Game?
04:47 - How does the extreme secrecy enhance the player's experience?
05:01 - How are you playtesting the puzzles?
06:15 - How will you know this enterprise has been successful?
07:05 - GC Summit recap...
10:36 - Corey Anderson on "Running Someone Else's Game"
12:58 - Jett Jones and Bob Schaffer on re-casting the WHO Game
14:17 - Scott Blomquist on designing portable puzzles
14:50 - Linda Holman on re-running Shinteki Aquarius seven years later
16:28 - Andy Rich on simulcasting Microsoft Puzzlehunt 14
22:37 - upcoming events: volunteer for Doctor When playtest (2/11-12), Shinteki Field Trip: Disneyland (2/25), Iron Puzzler (3/3-4); more at PuzzleHuntCalendar.com
26:31 - The End

Got a comment or question? E-mail podcast@snout.org or post at snout.org/podcast!

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Shop Vac" by Jonathan Coulton

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Friday Flash Fiction: "It's in There"

Those three words were seared into my brain long ago. Allow me to share:



Anyway. If you're a puzzler like me, you already know that pizza can contain data; I had firsthand experience with this in The Goonies Game (2003). Elsewhere, Microsoft Puzzle Hunt A: Atlantis (February 10-11, 2007) also featured a pizza clue.

Finally, WHAT IS THAT I don't even.

Read "It's in There" at 512 Words or Fewer

SnoutCast #101: Gamer Profile - TODD ETTER, Boneless Chicken Cabaret

Did you know that all of 2012's "Shinteki Puzzle of the Month" (POTM) puzzles (starting tomorrow, January 25th) will be written by Todd Etter of The Motley Fool? And all solvers can win prizes at the end of the year? It's true! But don't take our word for it--hear it from the man himself, this week on SnoutCast.


[ Download mp3 - 27 MB ]

00:58 - "calciferous"
01:24 - behind the scenes of Boneless Chicken Cabaret's WHO Game video
02:29 - Todd's non-evil plans for Shinteki POTM
05:41 - How did you get into puzzle hunts?
09:39 - the_game@yahoogroups is, shall we say, lightly moderated these days
10:23 - assembling the team
13:24 - What's your day job?
17:54 - (actually, it was a Facebook post linking to a PDF of the puzzle)
18:43 - comparing GC experiences from different puzzle events
23:58 - final thoughts on Shinteki POTM
27:58 - The End

Got a comment or question? E-mail podcast@snout.org or post at snout.org/podcast!

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "My Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton

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Friday Flash Fiction: "H is for Horse"

This week's story was brought to you by the motion pictures The Book of Eli and War Horse, the welcome letters for many conventions, and the titles of some books by Ray Bradbury.

(Also, fun fact: searching for "jesus horse" on flickr got me exactly the image I wanted. Thanks, random photographer who tagged her pics!)

Read "H is for Horse" at 512 Words or Fewer

SnoutCast #100: Community?

Please help celebrate our ONE HUNDREDTH PODCAST by leaving a comment. (We're celebrating by not writing up show notes this time.) And thanks for listening!


[ Download mp3 - 29 MB ]

00:59 - "patient"
29:55 - The End

Got a comment or question? E-mail podcast@snout.org or post at snout.org/podcast!

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Mandelbrot Set" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

Friday Flash Fiction: "Meet Brute"

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! You know we're going to have three of these in 2012--which is the maximum possible in one year? Crazy! Anyway, here's a thing I wrote.

Read "Meet Brute" at 512 Words or Fewer

Repeat Presenter

There's a blog post, so it must be official: I am one of the twenty people selected to present at Ignite Portland 10 on February 9th!

This will be my second Ignite talk; the first, in 2009, was a précis on puzzle hunts. This one will be a sort of companion piece to DeeAnn's 2010 overview of our 2008 road trip with our cats. (I submitted the original proposal for an earlier Ignite under the title "Travels WITHOUT Our Cats;" this time, I called it "A Homebrew Cat Feeding Robot.") But I'll do my best to make my talk interesting even to people who don't have cats, and I'm looking forward to several of the other talks, myself.

If you're in Portland, stop by and see the show! Otherwise, you'll be able to watch the videos online a few weeks later.

SnoutCast #99: Holiday Movies Recap

And now for something almost, but not entirely, completely different.


[ Download mp3 - 25 MB ]

00:59 - "festive"
01:35 - send us your questions for the Black Letter Game creators! (e-mail podcast@snout.org by Friday, January 13th, 2012)
03:51 - inspired by true events: holiday movie marathon
05:12 - A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
07:22 - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
09:18 - War Horse
10:39 - The Descendants
11:32 - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 vs. The Darkest Hour
13:10 - Hugo (3D)
17:27 - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
18:29 - My Week with Marilyn
20:32 - The Artist
22:11 - Young Adult
24:25 - "Unintentional Patton Oswalt Sandwich" is the name of my Kinks cover band.
29:59 - The End

Got a comment or question? E-mail podcast@snout.org or post at snout.org/podcast!

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "A Talk with George" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

Friday Flash Fiction: "A Place in Time"

Did you know that the Oscar bait Golden Globe nominated film The Land of Blood and Honey is not the first movie Angelina Jolie has directed?

Her directorial debut was the 2007 documentary A Place in Time, which, as far as I can tell, was screened once at the Tribeca Film Festival and then pretty much disappeared. You can watch the trailer on YouTube, but that's about it.

Anyway, you can't copyright a title. Here's this week's story.

Read "A Place in Time" at 512 Words or Fewer

SnoutCast #98: 2012-Q1 Hunts Preview

In which we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Dan Egnor and PuzzleHuntCalendar.com (self-plug: hear our interview with Dan in SnoutCast #76: "One Calendar To Rule Them All" )! Also: NSFW language, but you knew that.


[ Download mp3 - 28 MB ]

00:59 - "prescient" (not "omniscient")
03:21 - "Remember when...they were sacrificing blood from their penises a lot?"
06:15 - January 10th: Puzzled Pint
10:02 - January 13th-15th: MIT Mystery Hunt (plus online "mini-recast" later)
11:25 - January 28th: Game Control Summit
15:30 - February 11th-12th: Doctor When playtest
18:09 - February 25th: Shinteki Field Trip Disneyland Redux (original event recapped in our pilot episode)
21:08 - March 3rd-4th: Iron Puzzler (hear our debrief of IP 2011)
25:37 - "Nobody had to wear a penis, thank God."
30:28 - The End

Got a comment or question? E-mail podcast@snout.org or post at snout.org/podcast!

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "The Future Soon" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

Friday Flash Fiction: "Time is Not on My Side"

Better late than never, right? (He said, as he posted on Sunday the thing he should have posted on Friday. Oops. Too much holiday cheer, I guess...)

Read "Time is Not on My Side" at 512 Words or Fewer