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At last year’s Mystery Hunt, when I woke up early Sunday morning to discover that the coin had already been found, I turned to a teammate and said sadly, “I wish Mystery Hunt could go on forever…”

Blah blah you know what they say.

The length and difficulty of this year’s hunt has spawned a lot of good discussion. There are some interesting questions being thrown around: what makes for a good puzzle? What makes for a good hunt? Are hunt-puzzles and standalone-puzzles wildly different creatures? How do you write a hunt that won’t just be solved by the biggest team? What’s the best way to use back-solving and flavor text? Are there better mechanisms than timed-release or the sacrificing of puzzles, to make the hunt go faster when you need it to?

Apparently 70 hours straight of hunting was not enough for us. We need to spend the next several weeks dissecting the hunt, too. :)

Edit: Here’s a great round up of discussions by Sam Klein.

And here’s a continuation of my list from last year: the hunt’s best puzzles. Now with fewer spoilers!

2013 Dear Abby by Manya Tyutyunik (with help from Mary Fortune.) A “reading comprehension”-type puzzle with a great theme (but figuring out the theme is part of the puzzle.) Took me about 10 hours to solve by myself.

Halting Problem by Dan Gulotta. I didn’t work on this one myself, but the sheer joy it brought to a half dozen of my teammates demands I include it. A programming-themed puzzle that may require several different people to solve. Took our team maybe 50 person-hours.

2012 Yo Dawg, I Herd You Like Puzzle Hunts by Jordan Bennet Louis Smith. A mini puzzle hunt consisting of a cryptic, a double acrostic, a duck konundrum, a jigsaw puzzle, and a wordsearch. Maybe 24 person-hours? Took all afternoon for 4-6 people.

Picture an Acorn by Francis Heaney and Andrew Lin. A (really fun) picture-captioning puzzle. About 10 person-hours.

Revisiting History by Greg Clark and Skuld (with assistance from C Scott Ananian.) An opening-round puzzle with an enjoyable theme (made just obscure enough in the puzzle that I won’t mention it here.) 2-3 person-hours.

2011 Confirmed Machine 925 by Dave Shukan, with art by Mark Halpin. Another picture-captioning puzzle, another enjoyable-yet-hidden theme. The first puzzle I really helped solve at a Mystery Hunt. 10-15 person-hours.

Queasy Reaction by Tyler Hinman and Craig Kasper. This is one of those puzzles that relies more on dedication and hard work than “aha!” moments. Possibly I remember it so fondly because I made a new friend working through it over the course of five or six hours. (So, 10-12 person hours.)