About
Greetings puzzlers, and welcome to the Daily Krownundrum! I am Mitchell Clarke (he/him), or "DireKrow", a Australian puzzle author in my early thirties. I have a background in chemistry and information technology, and currently work casually on a mixture of small software development projects and fulfil various roles in a family business. During my free time I play and watch games, watch cartoons with friend, listen to music, host trivia games, and create or solve puzzles.
I started puzzling in earnest quite recently, in June of 2022. After starting, I quickly realized that I really enjoy setting puzzles. Previously I had only shared my creations with friends and acquaintances on Discord, but I finally feel confident enough to share some of what I do publicly. I am still quite new to the craft, but hope to continue learning and growing through my contributions to this blog. If you have any comments, suggestions or critiques of the puzzles, I'll be keen to hear them.
About The Blog
This blog will largely consist of puzzles I've set. I'm most interested in grid logic puzzles, sometimes called "Nikoli-style" puzzles, such as those featured on Puzz.link, so the majority of puzzles will be in that style. However, I may also write other kinds of logic puzzles, word puzzles, puzzle games, or even small puzzle hunts in future. There is some particular games I have a keen interest in as well, such as Lemmings and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, so content related to those games may eventually appear here as well.
Despite the "Daily" in the blog title, I do not intend to release a new puzzle every single day, but I will release them as regularly as I can. Standard logic puzzles will each be given their own blog post. Mini puzzles will be released in small batches sharing a single post. Each puzzles will consist of an image showcasing the puzzle, links that allow you to solve them online, a difficulty rating, a link to the rules (and an example puzzle). If I ever record any video walkthroughs, like those Thomas Snyder does for Grandmaster Puzzle, they will be included as well. If I work on a large project, such as an e-book of puzzles, then there will be a post showcasing those when they are released.
Logic puzzle difficulty will be measured using Krows. Roughly:
🐦 = A small, approachable puzzle. Can be solved through application of the puzzle's rules and simple deductions. Good for beginners.
🐦🐦 = A puzzle that is fun for everyone. Makes use of common deductions in the genre.
🐦🐦🐦 = A trickier puzzle. Break-ins may be tougher to spot and some steps may require specific deductions.
🐦🐦🐦🐦 = A challenging puzzle aimed at experienced solvers. Tougher deductions and some puzzle theory may be required.
🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦 = An unforgiving puzzle. Mastery of the genre is expected.
The difficulties will be estimates. Your solving experience may differ! Most puzzles on this blog will be 2-3 Krows, with 4 being rare and 5 being very rare, particularly while I'm still learning.
Usage Guidelines
For puzzles I've wholly created and posted for free directly to this blog:
- You do have permission to share these puzzles with others. I request you link to the blog posts where possible, rather than the online solvers of the puzzles themselves.
- You do have permission to stream or create videos of solutions to these puzzles. If you do, I'd love to hear about it!
- If you credit me, you do have permission to borrow these puzzles for non-commercial purposes (e.g. school worksheets). Please link to the blog in some way.
- You do NOT have permission to use these puzzles without credit, or to claim these puzzles as your own.
- You do NOT have permission to use these puzzles for commercial purposes (e.g. in a puzzle book to be sold).
These guidelines do not necessarily apply for any puzzles I share authored wholly or partly by other people, or for puzzles I've authored that are posted outside of this blog.
Contact
If you'd like to get in touch about anything related to the blog, you could:
- Leave a comment here on the blog.
- Contact me on Discord. I am in some puzzle related servers.
- Contact me on Twitter via DMs.
I do have an email, but would prefer someone contact me in one of these ways first so that my email could be shared privately with them if required.
If you would like me to set you some puzzles in the style of the ones on this blog, such as for a project, collaboration, or competition, contact me and we'll discuss it.
Happy puzzling everyone!