Once you learn the secret ingredients, your team will be responsible for making two puzzles and getting them to the event site within 24 hours. Almost anything goes, but there are a few basic rules to follow:
1.) Each puzzle must ultimately solve to a single, common English language word.
2.) One puzzle must be a paper-only puzzle. Paper-only means that the puzzle can fit on a single sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper, and could be reproduced using a photocopier. The use of color is allowed, as is the use of both sides of the page.
3.) One puzzle must be an "Other" puzzle. An "Other" puzzle is any puzzle that does not fit the description of a paper-only puzzle. Creating a puzzle that is simply on two sheets of paper is the easiest, if perhaps least interesting way of meeting this definition.
4.) Each of your puzzles must contain at least one of the secret ingredients, and you must use a total of at least two different ingredients. You may integrate the ingredients either formally or functionally, superficially or tightly knit into the fabric of the puzzle.
5.) You must bring at least 6 copies of the paper puzzle - one for each of the five other teams to solve, plus one for the event staff.
6.) You must bring; enough copies of your "Other" puzzle that all teams could solve it simultaneously. Whether that will require one copy or six depends on the nature of the design. If you determine that multiple copies are necessary, again, you must bring 6 copies, one for each other team, one for event staff.
7.) Each puzzle must have an assigned number on it. Prior to the event we will assign your team two puzzle numbers. Make sure that one of these numbers is clearly marked on all copies of your puzzles, and of course make sure that you don't put the same number on both puzzle designs. Do not indicate authorship on the puzzles, as that should remain secret until after the scores have been tallied.
8.) You must bring a written description of how to solve each of your puzzle (6 copies). At the end of the event, we will pass out the solution to each puzzle before teams decide how to score them, so that teams that weren't able to solve your puzzle will still know how elegant it was. As with the puzzles, identify your answers with puzzle numbers, but do not indicate authorship in your solution. Make sure your answers are on two different pages, and if you want to format each answer differently so that other teams won't know which two puzzles were by the same author, that is fine.
When crafting your puzzles, you can expect teams to have all the solving equipment and knowledge on the Equipment List. If you wish to make a puzzle that requires other materials or additional knowledge to solve, go right ahead, but there is no guarantee that teams will be prepared to solve it.
