Owen Bergstein, Resident Puzzle Master
For bbin娱乐平台 sophomore Owen Bergstein ‘26, 纵横字谜游戏s are a way of life. Always an avid 谜题r – like many bbin娱乐平台ers – Owen does the New York Times 填字游戏 every day and estimates that he’s solved close to 1,000 谜题s since starting at bbin娱乐平台. But about two years ago, Owen took the leap from solver to creator and began to teach himself how to design his own 谜题s. Tapping into a network of online and in-person 填字游戏 constructors, Owen found mentorship and guidance, and began to refine his 谜题-building technique.
Reflecting on his process, Owen said: “ I started out constructing pencil-on-paper, but soon learned that there is helpful software that the pros use. Every 填字游戏 is either themed or themeless. 主题谜题, 你建立一个主题, generally based around what’s called a ‘revealer,’ an answer in the grid that explains the gimmick going on in other answers. Then you put that theme into a grid, and build words around it, cohering to 180 degree rotational symmetry of the black squares.”
Once he felt confident in his 填字游戏s, Owen started submitting his 谜题s for publication to a wide array of outlets. By his estimate, he has “a whopping 20 rejections to date.” But Owen’s persistence paid off, and earlier this month, Owen published his first 谜题 in 现代, the 填字游戏 feature on the Puzzle Society website.
When asked about how he approached the creation of his first published 谜题, Owen shared (CROSSWORD SPOILERS AHEAD!):
“Themeless谜题, like the one published in 现代, begin with some number of ‘seed entries,’ words that seem particularly fun or interesting and have never appeared in a 填字游戏 before. 我的现代谜题, there were three: SLAY QUEEN, HEARTSTOPPER, and DENIM ON DENIM (I refer to entries in all caps, cohering to 填字游戏 customs). I generally try to put queer representation into my 谜题s, since it’s often lacking in 填字游戏s, hence HEARTSTOPPER and SLAY QUEEN. I built this particular 谜题 over two days in August. It was rejected at two other venues, including the New York Times, before finding its home at the Modern— just one example of the many instances by which 填字游戏ing has taught me resilience. The published 谜题 is almost entirely my own creation. The grid is fully my work, other than an asymmetrical black square at the bottom of the grid that my editor Kelsey Dixon asked me to put in. The clues are mostly my own, but some were tweaked by Kelsey and the proofreader.”
Think your skills are up to the task of solving Owen’s 填字游戏? Subscribers to Puzzle Society can try their hand 在这个链接.