Behind the Scenes:For the last month I have been obsessed with completing crosswords from the NY Times app.
A new puzzle is published everyday and they become progressively harder as the week goes on.
I really enjoy them and I can do the Easy and Medium with not much trouble, but the hard and tricky ones are horrendous.
This clan needs more puzzle style events where anyone can dip in and have a go, therefore I wanted to try making our very own clan crossword.
The Aim:- To create a crossword puzzle in the style of the daily NY Times crossword.
- Stick to a theme based on Runescape gameplay.
- Make it difficult.
Creating the Crossword Clues:Putting together the clues is pretty difficult and I couldn't make it too difficult! All of the styles mentioned below have been used.
- Simple fill in the blanks
- Synonyms
- Word play
- Pop-culture phrases
The Binned Words:I realised fairly quickly that I had far too many long words and unfortunately there was absolutely no way to get them to fit in the square along with the rest of the clues.
- Tetracompass/tetra
- Tony
- Mattock
- Aether/aetherium
- Journal
- Cache
- Space and time
- Tome
- Anna Jones - really, really wanted this to fit
Creating the Answers:The crossword grid is 15x15 and I estimated that 30 answers would be enough to fill it.
For variety I started brainstorming arch words, but also wanted enough variety so that answers would not all be from the same source.
- NPCs
- Items
- Mysteries
- Achievements
- Landscape features
- Famous players
- Relics
- General words
The Rationale behind the Answers and their Clues:Here are my thoughts on answers and clues, perhaps it will help you to understand my way of thinking.
Across
- 1. Relic (item) - pretty generic arch word
- 2. Dagon (Item) - this word is referenced in so many places in Infernal Source. Dagon is a play on Days Gone Bye and Dagon Bye itself is also a mystery
- 3. Bin (landscape feature) - a landscape answer for variety
- 5. Stadiogaga (research) - Radio Ga Ga is a hit song from Queen, stadio is play on radio
- 9. Awe (relic) - Inspire awe is a relic power which gives 2% more experience when training combat skills
- 10. Seventysix (landscape) - now this one was absolutely evil
It's an important number and I wanted to incorporate it. At level 76 you receive an invitation to dig at the Warforge which is the last digsite (as of September 2020) - 13. Fur (item) - a really easy item clue
- 14. AJ (Famous player) - the name was so short so it was easy to include. If you managed to get 27 across, then this one should be easy
- 16. Chronotes (item) - a must have and simple clue
- 18. Red (item) - a simple fill in the blanks clue
- 19. Atonement (Mystery) - not a memorable mystery so the best way was to reference the Oscar winning film with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy
- 21. Oi (landscape) - a simple fill in the blank clue for a Saradomin site
- 22. Tea (item) - a typical vague crossword clue
- 23. Prisonbreak (achievement) - not a memorable achievement so the best way was to reference the TV show
- 26. Key (item) - anyone who has pored over casket odds will have seen this
- 27. Leme (Famous players) - The very first player to 99 and 120
- 28. Sprite (NPC?) - so this one tripped up a lot of people and didn't have the most helpful clue. Which was not helped by 25. Down. I did check and looked like Sprite is available outside of the UK market!
- 29. Tome - typical vague crossword clue
Down
- 1. Analyst (general) - a classic synonym-style clue
- 2. Dig (general) - I had the old wartime poster in my head, which encouraged UK citizens to grow food during WW2
- 3. Binding contract (item) - a nasty answer. The synonym-style clue was the best way represent it
- 4. Zanik (item) - I needed more NPCs and Zanik is quite unique since she works on your research team completely free of charge!
- 6. Dis (landscape) - now this word is seen everywhere in Infernal Source. Used a bit of slang "New phone, who dis?"
- 7. Gecu (Famous player) - Only four letters and if you got 27 across then this should be easy
- 8. Pylon (landscape) - From Starcraft "You must construct additional pylons!"
- 10. Sara (NPC) - It fit well. Other options could have been Arma, but Sara fits better
- 11. Archie (item/NPC) - this is the new skilling pet. Archie comics was founded in 1939 and have live action shows on Netflix such as Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
- 12. Here (general) - memorable phrase which appeared on old maps and a nod to future dragon content
- 15. Jim (NPC) - Jimmy is one of the intern researchers and Jim is also a bear in Runescape
- 17. Soil (item) - classic vague crossword clue
- 20. Black (item) - this is referencing the trimmed skillcape
- 22. Tool (item) - a classic slang clue
- 24. Sep (general) - the end of the grace period for comp
- 25. Ree (general) - a joke clue. Mog and I have been reeing every time Bal jnl received yet another dragon mattock