Extras
Nope. The extra puzzles were released just for standalone fun during the contest period (which is now over).
General Information
Sure, as long as you follow the terms of the license. You don’t need my permission as long as you (a) give me credit, (b) don’t make money off of it, and (c) distribute your work under the same license terms. If you want to create and distribute a derivative work under any other terms, please contact me – I’m not opposed to making a deal.
No, this system doesn’t log attempts to use invalid passwords. Which is unfortunate, because I’m sure your guesses range from awfully close to wildly inaccurate to humorously tangential.
Probably, but not necessarily. Several solvers have found alternate solutions to some of the puzzles that led them to the correct passwords, links, or locations.
If you feel you missed something and want to experience all that Geodyssey has to offer, let me know.
If you found the link and password you needed to move on, you solved the puzzle correctly. If you entered the correct password on the Final Page of the challenge, then you completed the challenge correctly.
You can order it directly from the publisher Lone Shark Games.
If you liked Geodyssey, you’d like another very similar challenge I created called Puzzle Solving 101. It’s a series of geocaches, but the puzzles can be solved remotely.
First, it is a portmanteau of the prefix geo- meaning “of or relating to the earth” and the title of the classic Greek play The Odyssey, which tells the tale of the travels of its main character Odysseyus.
Second, it is a play on the word geodesy, which is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth.
The place where the container was hidden deteriorated to the point where the container was completely exposed to muggles. The log book and contents have disappeared. Consequently, the cache has been archived.
Yes. All of the Geodyssey puzzles will remain active for the foreseeable future.
Getting Help
Yes. At the bottom of each puzzle page is a section titled “Hints” which contains a link to hints specifically for that puzzle. The hints are protected by spoiler buttons, so you can choose how spoiled you want to be.
Try searching for that type of puzzle on Google. For example, if you’re asked to solve a nurikabe puzzle, search for “nurikabe puzzle” to get lots of great information.
Use the contact form to get in touch with me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, usually within 24 hours.
See if it has been answered on the Starting Line.
Either you’ve arrived at an incorrect solution to a puzzle, or you haven’t converted that solution into a proper password.
If you’ve got the correct solution, then the method for turning it into a proper password is as follows:
All page passwords consist only of lower-case letters (a-z) and numerical digits (0-9); no spaces or symbols are used. For any potential password you discover here, remove all spaces and symbols, and convert all upper-case letters to lower-case.
Yes. Send a message to me via the contact form and include the puzzle name or number.
However, if you’re asking me to check your work, then it’s very likely that you’ve either made an error that you are able to spot yourself, or you need to do some more thinking about what the puzzle is asking you to do or what you’ve learned about the puzzle so far.
Local Challenge
At least seven.
You will have completed this challenge when you use the correct password to open a page whose title says that it’s the final page of the challenge. That page will contain a big congratulatory message on it, the tracking code you’ll need for the travel bug, and other surprises. There’s really no way to miss it – if you’re not certain that you’re done, you’re not done.
The clue is nothing more than a single English word. It will be clearly marked as such at the bottom of the solution pages for each of the first seven puzzles.
The place where the final benchmark was located was destroyed. The container was hidden deteriorated to the point where the container was completely exposed to muggles. The log book and contents have disappeared. Consequently, the final has been archived.
However, the Local Challenge has been reworked to be solvable remotely. Think of it as a bonus Remote Challenge.
Problems
While it is possible that there is an as-yet undiscovered error in a puzzle, it is highly unlikely. All of the puzzles in Geodyssey have been tested extensively by the constructor, by the test solvers, and by the many successful solvers of all three challenges.
If, while solving a puzzle, you encounter a contradiction or a situation that does not reconcile with the given information in the puzzle, chances are that you’ve made an error somewhere along the way. In that case, here’s my advice:
- Start over from scratch, assuming nothing and being extremely judicious in making inferences.
- Step away from the puzzle for a while, then come back to it later.
- Clear your head by solving a completely different type of puzzle.
- If you’ve done all those things and still are firmly convinced there’s an error, please let me know via the contact form on this site.
Use the contact form if the site is up, or send email to info@puzzlehead.org if the site is down.
Sometimes when you try to open a page here, you may get a strange error (often with error codes 404, 418, or 500). It usually happens when the load on the web or database server becomes too great (since this site is running on the same server as a lot of other customers of the hosting company I use).
If you see one of those errors, wait a minute or so and try again. You may have to do this a few times before it starts working again.
If you find a link that you absolutely cannot ever seem to open that you believe should work, please send me a note using the contact form on this site (if it’s up) or to info@puzzlehead.org (if it isn’t).
Sometimes (especially later on in the chain of puzzles) when you enter the password and you’re sure it’s correct, the site will take you back to the top level page instead of to the next puzzle page. This is very, very annoying.
The best workaround I can give you is to hit Back, then reload the password page. If the password was correct, then the puzzle page will be unlocked and should display for you.
Honestly, I’m not sure what else I can do about this. I’ve experienced it myself during testing, but I can’t figure out what’s going wrong. Chances are that it’s two or more of the plugins interacting with each other or the web server in a weird way.
Remote Challenge
At least seven.
You will have completed this challenge when you use the correct password to open a page whose title says that it’s the final page of the challenge. That page will contain a big congratulatory message on it, the tracking code you’ll need for the travel bug, and other surprises. There’s really no way to miss it – if you’re not certain that you’re done, you’re not done.
The clue is nothing more than a single English word. It will be clearly marked as such at the bottom of the solution pages for each of the first seven puzzles.