About
A publication about how puzzles get made
Not a puzzle site. A site about the decisions behind puzzles - the ones constructors argue over and solvers never see.
PuzzleMakers has been writing about crossword construction since 2017. The remit has widened since then: word search design, logic puzzle setting, the mathematics of uniqueness, and the practical business of getting a grid published.
The thing that holds it together is a bias towards craft. There is no shortage of places to solve a puzzle and comparatively few that explain why one puzzle is better than another. We are trying to be the second kind.
What we publish
Four sections, and every article belongs to exactly one of them.
- Crosswords - solving conventions, difficulty, cluing traditions and puzzle history.
- Word Search - the most underrated design problem in the hobby.
- Logic - sudoku and its family, nonograms, logic grids, and what makes a deduction fair.
- Constructing - the workbench: grids, fill, theme development, software and submission.
The complete list, newest first, is in the archive.
How we work
Three commitments, in the order they matter.
We link the source. Where a claim is checkable, the article links to the thing that checks it - a dictionary, a submission guideline, a published grid database, a paper. You should never have to take our word for something you could verify in one click.
We say when we are guessing. Some of what we publish is measurement, some is editorial judgement, and the two are labelled differently. An article that says our data shows means data; one that says in my view means one person's opinion.
We correct things. Publicly, in the article, without quietly editing the record. If you find an error, tell us.
The measure of a puzzle article is whether it changes what you do the next time you open a blank grid.
Who writes it
A small editorial team publishing under consistent desk names, so you always know which desk a piece came from. There are four: an editor who constructs, a contributing editor who sets cryptics, a data editor who counts things, and a staff writer who builds word searches for classrooms. Their beats and their work are listed on the masthead.
The weekly
One email on Sundays with the week's articles, a set of constructor notes and a fresh mini crossword. No sponsorship, no tracking pixels, one click to leave. Sign up here.
Contact
Corrections, questions, puzzle submissions and disagreements all go to the same place: the contact page. We read everything.
One good puzzle a week. No filler.
New articles, constructor notes and a fresh mini crossword every Sunday.