Ok, Are We Even?
◆ · By DrTom · Published 8 days ago
Meta Prompt
The meta answer is an apt title response
I’m back after being derailed by the band(s). This puzzle is a lot easier than it looks but because of that (since those that are easier than they look are often S.A.D. puzzles) I am going to give this a slightly higher difficulty rating than I think it should have. Don’t be led astray by things meant to distract, but even if you do it will probably turn out OK.
This was tested EXTENSIVELY (and rewritten MANY times). My long-suffering testers were Cinny and rjy and they really earned their pay because they kept nudging and suggesting until I think a MUCH better product emerged. However, I will let you be the judge of that.
Nudges will be Friday, unless of course too many people are struggling, and then they will be sooner. I will do the reveal on Sunday most likely because I seldom get solvers after Saturday. Therefore, put on your thinking caps and settle the score!
Kitten
Calico
֎ Persian
Puma
Lion
Nudges:
OK, I got busy and missed the Friday AM nudge deadline, so here they are:
Nudge 1] With a title like that there are one of two places you probably should have started
Nudge 2] With a bunch of numbered boxes, what might even mean?
Nudge 3] If you follow that line of thinking you may get to the next step!
Nudge 4] Length, what can be even in length? I mean you don’t have an answer yet, just the clue and I’d never make you count letters.
Nudge 5] Use that information and see if you can spell anything out.
REVEAL
This meta was very simple in that it told you exactly what to do, but being able to see it among everything else made it more difficult.
The title hints towards EVEN numbers, and many of you did exactly that, you started highlighting all the even numbers, but BOY were there a lot of them and initially it looked like gibberish until you had them all highlighted (see green – and sometimes two-toned – squares) and then it spelled out DO NOT LOOK HERE THE SECRET IS IN CLUE LENGTH. Well then what about clue length? Once again use the title, and look at the clues with an even number of words (pink or two-tone squares). They spell THE SCORE IS TIED, the meta answer to OK, Are We Even.
For a graphic of the solve go to:
Checking for previous play data...
Needed nudge 2 to make me try again (because I never saw the grid part originally). Impressive construction feat. Thanks. :)