When I created my very first puzzle cache, I thought I was being extremely clever. Since then I have learned a little more about puzzle-making and realized that my puzzle failed in a few major ways:
- It didn't give the solver a starting point
For a puzzle to be fun (or sometimes even possible) to solve, the solver must be able to look at the puzzle and have some idea of what to do, or where the information is hidden. If it's a hard puzzle, it might still take a long time to actually figure everything out, but there must be some kind of starting point, a "hook" that the solver can grab onto and work from.
- It relied on esoteric knowledge
I come from a computing background, and I based my puzzle around computing concepts (hexadecimal numbers and HTML code) that probably aren't familiar to most of the general population. This means that to solve the problem, they either had to first study the subject to gain the necessary knowledge or rely on someone else who had the knowledge.
- It didn't have any source of feedback or progress built in
In a complex puzzle, especially one with multiple steps, it's important for the solver to be able to realize that they're making progress toward a solution. If they solve the first step, but the result looks just like the result of all their previous wrong attempts, they have no way of knowing that they're progressing toward a solution.
I learned a lot about making puzzles from this excellent article (among other sources), written by someone who makes some extremely clever and challenging puzzles. He discusses some of the important things to consider in designing a puzzle and some of the potential pitfalls to avoid. If you're in the habit of making your own puzzle caches (or are considering hiding your first), I highly recommend it.
Congratulations to coachprogram on being First to Find!