Room Escape Artist

Today begins the second annual EnigMarch, a prompt-a-day puzzle creation challenge. Each day of this month, you (yes, you!) are encouraged to design a new puzzle inspired by that day’s single-word prompt. Prompts are posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter by @EnigMarchHQ.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a veteran puzzle designer, this challenge is an opportunity to level up your skills, engage with the puzzle community, and perhaps try something new. You can learn more in last year’s intro piece by REA writer and EnigMarch co-founder Sarah Willson.

Pro Tips from My Experience Last March

Last year, I was an active participant in EnigMarch, and I’d successfully designed 31 new puzzles by the end of the month. This was a deeply rewarding experience — even as a professional puzzle designer, it’s rare to get such a tight feedback loop on new puzzles.

That said, the daily cadence was also challenging to keep up, especially while traveling. As Lisa and David can attest, during an escape room marathon early in the month, I resorted to playtesting new puzzles on my teammates in the car rides between games!

Along the way, I learned some useful lessons which may help you to get the most out of your EnigMarch.

Your Puzzles Can Take Any Form

Puzzles can take any size and shape, from a single crossword clue to puzzle types you’d see in an escape room or puzzle hunt.

How you choose to interpret the prompts and what you do with your puzzles are completely up to you.

The EnigMarch website includes links to some useful references if you’re looking for inspiration or guidance.

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Find a way to engage with the EnigMarch challenge that is sustainable and enjoyable for you. Your goal should be regular practice, not burnout.

It’s OK to Get Behind

Whether you have to skip a day, combine multiple prompts into one puzzle, or just post a puzzle a few days later, all approaches are equally valid! However many puzzles you end up writing, it’ll probably be more than you’d have written otherwise.

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It’s Not a Competition

You’ll see a wide range of puzzles posted by designers of all levels throughout EnigMarch. While you can certainly be inspired by others’ creations, there are no “winners” and no pressure to outdo anybody else.

Engage with the Community

One of the greatest strengths of EnigMarch is the open and supportive community. Solve puzzles that other people post and share your own creations for others to solve.

Make sure to use the hashtag #enigmarch so other participants can find your puzzles! You can set up a simple answer checker for each of your puzzles at callingit.in.

This year, there is also a dedicated Discord for EnigMarch. You can also find EnigMarch channels on various other puzzle and escape room Discords.

Be Creative!

This is a chance to take some risks: try writing a puzzle type you’ve never written before, explore a more experimental way of presenting a puzzle, look for inspiration in your daily surroundings, or just take the time to practice the basics.

Follow Along

With all this in mind, I’m excitedly gearing up for EnigMarch year 2, and I have some fun surprises planned. I posted all of last year’s puzzles and will again be posting my creations this year on my puzzle Instagram @enigmida. Feel free to DM me there for hints or answer confirmation. I can’t wait to solve all your puzzles!