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☆ Got an Idea for a Toy? Toymakers Want to Hear From You.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Isaac Aronow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“I spent two very intense weeks working on it, every night, every weekend, all the time that I had,” he said. Mr. Bolt was hoping to create the design for Lego Ideas, a program the toymaker started in 2008 to solicit ideas online directly from fans. Typically, designers post their concept on the platform, and if a design gets 10,000 votes, the company considers it for production. This case was different, though: It was the first time the company had given fans a concept to work with. A panel of judges selected his set and four others for a shortlist, and in a vote fans chose his set as their favorite.

Persons: Lucas Bolt, “, ”, Bolt Organizations: & Locations: Amsterdam

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to get better at Connections, the newest game in the New York Times Games catalog. While there’s not a single best strategy, we’ve had a lot of fun over the past few months developing our own approaches. We spoke to a few experienced solvers and the game’s editors to get some tips. Don’t let the pursuit of a “perfect” solve stand in the way of having a good time and solving the puzzle. Have a PlanWe don’t expect you to know every possible way a category can come together, but it’s helpful to know the most common ways that they’re structured.

Persons: We’ve, there’s, we’ve, Don’t Organizations: New York Times Games

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on learning to solve Spelling Bee. Now that you’ve built your foundation with Spelling Bee, let’s put those skills into practice. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, read Part 1 where we cover the basics of Spelling Bee, a few tips to get you started and how to set attainable goals. In Part 2, we’ll be taking a look at some slightly more advanced solving tips, as well as how to be a good member of the “Hivemind,” the online community of die-hard Spelling Bee fans. Tackling the Spelling Bee ForumOn any given day, you can find yourself mired in a web of tricky letters and complex words.

Persons: let’s, you’ve, Jackie Frere, Isaac Aronow, we’ll Organizations: Games Locations: Spelling

Jackie, who as a child was schooled on Boggle and Scrabble by her mother and grandmother, considers herself terrible at Spelling Bee. Isaac has had a lifelong passion for word games, and at one point played Spelling Bee every day as a break from his college work. We set a few realistic goals for ourselves to see if we could become Queen Bees:Play Spelling Bee at least five times a week for four weeks. Use the tools within the app and the hints from the “Hive mind,” the online community of die-hard Spelling Bee fans. 😉If you’re at all familiar with the New York Times Crossword, you’ll notice a lot of similarities, but the Spelling Bee is also different in a few important ways.

Persons: Jackie, Isaac, ”, E, ike Organizations: Games, Queen Bees

☆ Sudoku Tips for Beginners: How to Solve Efficiently
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Isaac Aronow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Thomas Snyder, a three-time World Sudoku Championship winner, says that his advice for beginners is to think about how to look at the information a grid is giving you in a way that makes sense. First, look between the bold lines that separate groups of three rows or columns. Mr. Snyder says, “When looking this way, you don’t have to care about 1, 2, 3. You’ll begin recognizing patterns that will help you solve more efficiently. Nearly everyone we spoke to for this article said that having a good strategy with how you annotate your puzzle can jump-start your Sudoku solving.

☆ Mini to Maestro, Part 2: Intermediate Solving
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jackie Frere | Isaac Aronow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The themes become more complex, the clues get trickier, and you might find yourself going, “Huh?” more times that you might be comfortable with. That, in combination with the new clue types we’re about to show you, is part of what raises the difficulty level of Wednesday and Thursday puzzles. One devious type of clue to look out for is the question-mark clue. For example, if you see a question mark in the clue “Web site?” you can assume that some wordplay will be involved. Another difficult clue type can be seen inside quotes.

☆ Mini to Maestro, Part 1: Crosswords for Beginners
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jackie Frere | Isaac Aronow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Once you’ve gotten the hang of completing the Mini for about a week or so, it’s time to try a Monday puzzle. Diving into the dailyOpening up the daily crossword can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time solving. Yes, random facts and knowledge will come in handy when you’re filling out the crossword grid, but believe in yourself. “I start every puzzle the same way: I start in the northwest and work my way through,” she said. And they’re great at explaining what certain crossword clues are asking you to do, or how they might trick you.

☆ Mini to Maestro, Part 3: Advanced Puzzles
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jackie Frere | Isaac Aronow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The name is self-explanatory: It’s a grid with no theme answers. Because of the added space, themeless puzzles are afforded more room for fresher answers, which moves the needle toward their being naturally harder to solve. Sam Ezersky, a digital puzzles editor, said, “We save our fireworks for Friday and Saturday, if you will.”The other factor is that in themed puzzles, the construction is limited by the theme itself. You can use the skills you’ve already learned from the puzzles you solved earlier in the week to help you solve a themeless. “Light” has appeared in New York Times Crosswords 22 times since 1993, according to XWordInfo.com, an online database of New York Times Crossword puzzles.

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