HowToPlay

How do I play?

Getting started is very simple. Simply login using any one of your existing accounts from a number of other popular web sites (i.e., facebook, google, yahoo, openId, etc.) by clicking the "Login" link at the top of the screen. After logging in, find a puzzle you want to play and click the start link.

Once you start a puzzle you will be redirected to the page containing the first topic. The goal is to try to reach the ending topic in as few links as possible by following links to other topics. Once you reach the end you will be awarded points based on how well you did.

Walkthrough

Let's play the "Kevin Bacon" to "Canadian Bacon" puzzle. Here are a couple of things we know about Kevin Bacon and Canadian Bacon:

  • John Candy stars in the movie Canadian Bacon.
  • John Candy and Kevin Bacon were both in a movie called Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

Now that we have these nice little tidbits of information let's play. We start off on the Kevin Bacon page. Since we know he played in the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles find that link on the page and click it.

Now, since we know John Candy starred in the movie Canadian Bacon find the link to John Candy on the page and click it.

Finally, after a little reading we discover that Canadian Bacon was the last movie that John Candy starred in. Find the link and click it.

Congratulations you just completed your first puzzle and earned 25 points.

How do I earn Points?

Points are awarded for several different events.

  • When you solve a puzzle
  • When you create a puzzle
  • When another player solves a puzzle you created
  • When another user up-votes a puzzle you created

How do you determine how many points are awarded?

When a user's puzzle is up-voted they are awarded 10 points. When it is down-voted 5 points are taken away.

The amount of points awarded for completing a puzzle is calculated based on the number of steps it took you to complete the puzzle and what the average amount of steps are for the puzzle. A base amount of 25 points are awarded if you solve the puzzle in the same amount of steps as the average for the puzzle. The more steps it takes the fewer points that are awarded, and the fewer steps it takes the more points that are awarded. The fewest amount of points awarded for a puzzle is 10 points.

When another player solves your puzzle you awarded 5 points. Getting a lot of people to play your puzzles will help you ramp up your score fairly quickly.