Any crosswords enthusiasts here?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Jul 2011 Posts: 10

Are there any crosswords enthusiasts here? i am planning on creating an ipad / i phone crosswords app and needed to ask some questions about crosswords.

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:08 pm

I'm a big fan of cryptic crosswords, although I am terrible at trying to set clues myself.

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:17 pm

I like the fairly tricky quick type but my girlfriend does the cryptics so I may know something - depends on the questions I suppose.

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21155

The daily Joklahoman has a cryptoquote, a sudoku and a crossword. I used to them them all every day but I have slacked off in the last few years.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Jul 2011 Posts: 10

Well I suppose any of you can answer. I am seeing lots of web sites and publication where an author can subnmit a created a crossword puzzle and be paid for thier work but I know of no such iPad / Iphone application.

As in, submit your crossword and it will be published to the ipad for the users of the app to buy and fill out with a portion of the proceeds going to the author. Have you ever used any crosswords apps? I have researched some but none of them have this ability.

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:33 am

Don't want to rain on your parade but I downloaded a free crossword app for a Samsung smartphone from google play app store and it's got 1500 crosswords ranging from easy to cryptic. And the option to download more.

Maybe there's money in it somewhere but I can't see it when there's free stuff out there?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:50 am

Apple startup? (3)*

From the perspective of a cryptic puzzler (UK style): good quality setting is so important that I would be extremely hesitant to pay for a puzzle by an unknown setter. This is also evident in some of the very low reviews for (some of) the cryptic crossword apps out there - setters need to hit a sweet spot of clever clues distributed across the different methods, sufficient level of difficulty, etc.

I tried the Guardian's (now defunct) android app and thought it was great, but like most people I didn't pay when they ended the free trial - after all the main content wasn't paywalled and the app didn't offer that much advantage to me. I have paid for other cryptic apps (again android only) but only after playing through free samples provided which established that they were the kinds of puzzles I'd like to solve. I've also solved a lot of free cryptics included in various packages with varying crossword types, although I've cut down on this a lot lately as many of them are just a little too formulaic (seeing exactly the same clues

The big challenge is first - how does a paid crossword app attract and retain customers given all the free alternatives out there? And, how do you attract the content providers to start out? Once it's established, this kind of model seems appealing as it allows the discovery of high quality amateur setters - presumably by some kind of user rating system within the app? But getting it off the ground in the first place seems like a big challenge.

*OK you can see why I solve rather than set.

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:51 am

I have also tried crossword apps but can't stand doing puzzles with a touch interface. Especially with cryptics I still need the paper to work out anagrams etc. Although @firehouse5 it's too bad there is no Guardian app. I love the Guardian cryptic and prize crossword; I've collected big stacks of printed, partly-completed puzzles.

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 11:29 am

What about a just for fun cryptic Eater scambaiting crossword though? That would be nice. Or maybe even make it a prize one if someone thought it was tricky enough?

The clues could be crowd-sourced amongst us and pm'd to the compiler although putting it together would be hard.

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 11:48 am

Phil Yerboots wrote:

although putting it together would be hard.

In a previous life I put together a few Crosswords.

In a professional looking Crossword the design must be symmetrical. --- that's harder then you think.

It's quite straightforward to make something like this -- but not the one below it:

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 11:52 am

It would definitely have to be symmetrical, Spot. Eater is after all a quality site.

I'd leave the kid's version to other less well known domains Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

bohigal wrote:

I have also tried crossword apps but can't stand doing puzzles with a touch interface.

Pen and paper, pencil for the weak.

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 1:52 pm

Quote:

pencil for the weak

crayons for the mods?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:27 pm

Quote:

crayons for the mods?

good luck with staying inside the lines

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 3:36 pm

^^^^ he nearly crossed one Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

One I have seen quite frequently lately, I have no reason as to why other than it has good starting letters and in the news.

ALEPPO

Clue is usually, quite aptly, something like "Syrian capital".

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Jul 2011 Posts: 10

Phil Yerboots wrote:

Don't want to rain on your parade but I downloaded a free crossword app for a Samsung smartphone from google play app store and it's got 1500 crosswords ranging from easy to cryptic. And the option to download more.

Maybe there's money in it somewhere but I can't see it when there's free stuff out there?

What is the name of that app? I want to download it. That is exactly why I posted this thread (for you to rain on my parade) no need to invest time and effort in something with a free alternative but would really like to know what app that is.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Jul 2011 Posts: 10

firehouse5 wrote:

Apple startup? (3)*

From the perspective of a cryptic puzzler (UK style): good quality setting is so important that I would be extremely hesitant to pay for a puzzle by an unknown setter. This is also evident in some of the very low reviews for (some of) the cryptic crossword apps out there - setters need to hit a sweet spot of clever clues distributed across the different methods, sufficient level of difficulty, etc.

I tried the Guardian's (now defunct) android app and thought it was great, but like most people I didn't pay when they ended the free trial - after all the main content wasn't paywalled and the app didn't offer that much advantage to me. I have paid for other cryptic apps (again android only) but only after playing through free samples provided which established that they were the kinds of puzzles I'd like to solve. I've also solved a lot of free cryptics included in various packages with varying crossword types, although I've cut down on this a lot lately as many of them are just a little too formulaic (seeing exactly the same clues

The big challenge is first - how does a paid crossword app attract and retain customers given all the free alternatives out there? And, how do you attract the content providers to start out? Once it's established, this kind of model seems appealing as it allows the discovery of high quality amateur setters - presumably by some kind of user rating system within the app? But getting it off the ground in the first place seems like a big challenge.

*OK you can see why I solve rather than set.

That is precisely my point. New and unknown setters have a hard time getting thier stuff noticed. The quality of the content can be maintained with try before you buy models and content ratings systems. These models of content management and ratings are well established.

1) The first challenge will be met by offering a selection of free and paid crosswords. If you like the free stuff from an author, you can consider buying his paid stuff. If hsi free stuff is not good, try a different author / setter

2) Getting an app like thiss off the ground, marketed and known is a challenge that can be met multiple ways. App marketing is not too difficult but it does require patience. What I have noticed is that craplications with a decent marketing effort behind them seem to do about as well as good applications with little marketing effort. I can handle marketing, SEO, ad campaigns and social media marketing, that is not the probelm. What I need from you guys is if such an idea would fly given your experience with setting or solving corsswords. You guys have given me some great ideas and thoughts. But I agree, quality of the crosswords is king.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Quote:

Cryptic crosswords are crossword puzzles in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada Evil or Very Mad

, India, Kenya, Malta, Israel, New Zealand, and South Africa. In the United States, cryptics are sometimes known as "British-style" crosswords.
Cryptic crossword puzzles come in two main types: the basic cryptic in which each clue answer is entered into the diagram normally, and the advanced or "variety" cryptic, in which some or all of the answers must be altered before entering, usually in accordance with a hidden pattern or rule which must be discovered by the solver.

emphasis mine

I was curious. I'm just used to the "dumb" ones myself. There's always one, isn't there.

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:36 pm

My Barnes and Noble Nook came with a canned crossword app.

Pastor Frank wrote:

Pen and paper, pencil for the weak.

I cut the puzzle away from the clues with a scissors, read the clues once and throw them away, then roll the puzzle into my 1970s Underwood manual.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^ That's hard-core; I like it.

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:18 pm

Work the NY Times crossword in ink!

Only use a pencil if I cannot find a pen.

I credit my word knowledge to a skinny and very old Latin teacher.

She made us play Scrabble in Latin by the second year -- and I was only in Latin class for the Roman Banquets....but I learned root words. She also made up Latin crossword puzzles for us.

Man I hated that Latin teacher however I learned a few things in her class.

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21155

There is a priest at Mercy in OKC that does the NY Times in ink as well. I do the Joklahoman in ink but that is no major feat.

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