The New Future of Puzzlebrains...

[Scurra]

Puzzlebrains was originally set up in 2008 thanks to the hard work of Gill Wilby and David Brain, and has been greatly enjoyed and followed by a small, but enthusiastic group of Puzzlers. As you know, we have recently had a break to reassess and rethink the project. We are now ready to re-launch and hopefully to increase the membership and circulation of Puzzlebrains.
To this end, we have had some new ideas for this, but we wanted to make sure that you, our loyal subscribers, were the first people to know what we were planning!

Firstly, and most importantly, Puzzlebrains would like to take this opportunity to thank Gill for all of her hard work, dedication, goodwill, patience and commitment, and in particular would like to acknowledge that it was her vision and enthusiasm that set the project up in the first place. She has given us her blessing, and has said that she is happy to help out in any way she can but wishes to step back from being directly involved. We do anticipate that Gill will remain an enthusiastic contributor to the forum and to the puzzle solving fun (“fun” is the right word, isn’t it, Gill?!)

The first main difference is this: instead of paying a subscription fee for the magazines, we are offering a yearly membership to the Puzzlebrains “club”, which will give access to the puzzles and the discussion forum at puzzlebrains.co.uk, in exactly the same way that it currently operates. This will remain a private forum and protected from simple web searching (as at the moment.) Meanwhile, the site at puzzlebrains.com will be open to anyone and will contain some free puzzles and an invitation to join the “club” by paying for membership. The .com site will therefore be publicised more widely and should show up on web searches etc.

The annual membership will likely be around £25 which will include four brand new online issues on a regular quarterly schedule, plus one, larger printed magazine issue with some updated but previously-released puzzles and also some new material. This is a lower rate than before, but this is mainly because there will only be one actual printed issue in the year instead of five.

So, how do we go about finding new people and increasing our circulation? Well, one way to do this is to make use of new systems that enable products to be sold through what is called “crowdfunding”. The most popular of these is Kickstarter, but there are others.
Crowdfunding works by inviting a large number of people to contribute towards the costs of producing something beforehand (hence the “crowd”) and by using a common platform, people who are interested in one type of project can find other, similar ones that they can choose to back.

So the second difference is that we are planning to set up a project on Kickstarter to help to pay for a proper reprint of the Hunting of the Snark issue (mainly to pay for an artist and the printing costs), and to help relaunch the Puzzlebrains project by inviting people to either just buy the book or to sign up for a whole year and get four new issues as well as the reprint.

One reason for taking this approach is that there will be people who may be unsure about the whole “puzzles” thing; the idea is to try and attract them with a nice product (a reprint of The Hunting of the Snark poem with new illustrations) that just happens to contain puzzles!

So instead of sending out a regular subscription letter, we are going to invite previous subscribers to sign up to the Kickstarter project when it launches (sometime in October.) In addition, taking this route will also encourage new people to investigate Puzzlebrains since projects often become more attractive to others when they clearly already have some backing. We will explore alternative ways of making our presence felt, but this seems like the best way to, well, kickstart the relaunch.

[Some people may be thinking “but I’ve already seen the ‘Snark’ issue; why would I buy it all over again?” This is a fair point. Firstly, this is not just a reprint - the intention is to revise a lot of the content, and also to include some new material, plus of course, some stunning new artwork and the professional cover that we hope to commission. Secondly, this issue is included in the overall annual membership cost, meaning that your subscription would cover four completely new online issues in addition to the magazine.]

As well as tackling a Kickstarter project, some people may have noticed that we have started to make our presence felt on Facebook. As the relaunch progresses, we hope that this can also be used to attract some attention. There are also plans to get some coverage on websites that cover puzzles, although most of them feature different sorts of puzzles from those often found in Puzzlebrains.

And, of course, there are always the puzzles themselves! Not only will there be a small set of new puzzles posted on the website in a couple of week’s time (if you’ve been paying attention, you may already have a suspicion about the “theme” of the puzzles...), but there will also be an issue published at the start of December. This issue will not be counted as a part of the 2016 subscription, so effectively you will get five full issues plus a reprint of the Snark if you choose to take out membership.

We look forward to you joining us on a new leg of the adventure. We can’t stress how important it has been for Puzzlebrains that you have been with us so far. Now let’s see where we are going...

[Bunnylump]

Really excited about this, Scurra. I'm so pleased that you've decided to "go for it" and I am happy to do whatever I can to help make it work.

[strep98]

Oh how exciting, my little grey cells are being polished as we speak. Any help needed just shout. Will the subscription be payable at the beginning of January or before (I'm writing my Christmas list).

[Scurra]

For clarity: if you support the Kickstarter project, then whatever you put in will be collected sometime in November (when the project ends.)
I am not sure what will happen for 2017 just yet - let's get through 2016 first!

[chazzie]

Fantastic news Scurra.....really looking forward to this and supporting Puzzlebrains on its next journey.

Gill - many thanks for all your hard work up til now - it is appreciated....and glad you can sit back a bit and "enjoy" the puzzles going forwards.

[maisie ladybird]

That's great news! Happy to support in any way I can x

[Biscuit]

How exciting I'm definitely in. Will you be letting us know where to sign on to the kickstarting project and I'll do that.

Thanks again I know it takes a lot of time.

And thanks to gill too.

I'm so pleased there is a new leg to the journey.

Paula

[Wulfruna]

Major thanks to Gill who not only inspired the whole thing to happen but also kept the show on the road over the years. And thanks also to the key people who helped to devise many of those wonderful puzzles in addition to Scurra himself! Special appreciation to Bunnylump and LAT who have assisted with the practical management tasks in the past and will help to carry this forward into a new and exciting future......
And thanks to everyone for your patience and loyalty - the positive response is appreciated as it has needed quite a lot of thought as to the best way forward and how to spread the word.......
Lets go for it!

[Bunnylump]

I have to say that I am slightly concerned at how rusty my puzzle skills will be. I can feel some major collaboration coming on...

[maisie ladybird]

Me too! Digging tiles is hardly taxing and that's about all I've been doing recently.

[Bunnylump]

I know what you mean, I've gone from intensive use of my brain at work to digging and lunching. I have slightly slushy grey liquid sloshing about in my head at the moment I think!

[katsmom]

I've finally come to a (tiny-limited) point in my PhD where I have a bit of breathing room. Thanks to a pm sent out to the group I came back and looked at the site. Has it really been a year since I've been here?

Kickstarter! Sign me up! Please post on FB when you put it up.
A couple of questions:
Can I post the link for the Puzzlebrains site for my puzzling friends? (IPP affords me access to well over 500 puzzlers each August, and might help spread the word of what you are up to)
How do I get the back issues for 2014? I am missing 3. (I didn't realize there were puzzles out that year. I didn't realize much that year )

[Scurra]

Quick update: I will be posting a link to the Kickstarter project page tomorrow (Monday 2nd November.)
I will also be sending an email to most of the people on the forum, so apologies if you get told this information three or four times in different places over the next few days!

[giraffe]

Just caught up with last night's discussion , and will post my comment here, as I don't know if Scurra will revisit that thread on FB, and if I message him it won't be visible to others to contradict me.

The puzzle that I associate with hooking Kingsley (very much a beginner in every sense as she was probably only about 12 at the time) was the Lords one. It was one of those coded puzzles where each line is coded in a different way. I think it was one of yours although it may have been DVP (it must have been in a very early edition if it was one of yours and I think it was on the bottom half of a right hand page). I mention it because it is the type of puzzle that gets progressively more difficult in itself. The first line can be pretty obvious, and the second line needs to show that it uses a different method while still being quite easy and so on. We had one yesterday on SUMS, but it was much too difficult for a hooking puzzle.

[Laura]

Actually, yes, I have a very vivid memory of doing that one too, and ending up with a something-or-other-square and having to research what one of those was, but it was really satisfying to gradually untangle each line and know that you were on the right lines!

[giraffe]

I don't remember the puzzle content as am a goldfish brain, just where it was on the page and that I was sat in a certain car park killing time with Kingsley before a music exam. That must show something about my brain that I can remember tiny details but not of the puzzle itself!

[Bunnylump]

Yes, I agree. Those are exactly the sort of puzzle where you can gradually get more and more involved. Good call.

I think the puzzle that has been posted already just happens to be one of my favourite types (a pathfinder puzzle with a twist.) I think the problem with that particular puzzle is that it happens to have three very uncommon and difficult to spot words all in the bottom half of the grid, which makes that bit really difficult to untangle.

Giraffe, I'm REALLY glad that you have posted on here, because it's a lot more constructive to be able to see helpful suggestions in individual posts rather than in a simultaneous gabble on Facebook! My head just about exploded after that conversation last night!

[Wulfruna]

Maybe we should start a new thread about the sample puzzles themselves, rather than clogging up this one as well, which was really about the general principle of the Kickstarter project ?

[SparkOut]

13 days to go, halfway there, but the bulk of the obvious pool of backers has likely made their backing pledge already. How to widen the net to catch more interest, and secure more backing?

[Scurra]

Fingers crossed that I reach some more people in the next few days (yes, I'm actually doing something vaguely approaching "promotion"!)
If we're still in the same position after next weekend, then it's time for Plan B...