Messaging
Learn how to customize messaging for your puzzle.
These settings are available under the Messaging tab in the "Edit game" option on your dashboard.
About messaging
You can choose to have a start message, pause message, and end message for your puzzle. These messages can include text, images, media, links and even Google Forms. By default, the puzzle player only sees a dialog box at the end of the game. You can edit the end message as well as add a start and pause message, which the solver will also see in a dialog box.
Steps to change the messaging
- Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard.
- Find the game and click the "Edit Game" button.
- In the Messaging tab, there are three sub-panels: Start, Pause and End.
- For each of these panels, enter your desired text and/or other elements (see tip below).
- Click the "Update Game" button at the bottom of the page.
Messaging is highly customizable. You can:
- Format your text to have a different color, make it bold or underline it.
- Add images, or embed YouTube videos.
- Include Google Forms to the messaging dialog box to run a survey or collect information.
- Use the HTML view toggle at the top right of the panel if you'd like to directly edit the message.
Puzzle attribution
Puzzle attribution can be used to credit the authors of your game, and allow your players to connect with them. For each game, you can specify:
- Author name: The name appears below the game grid. If you are using a series picker, certain styles will display this information. By default, this field is automatically populated with the login name. If the author is someone other than the person who logged in, you can change this to their name. To omit the name, delete the author name from the author name field.
- Author email address: The email address of the author/puzzle writer.
- Link to author's home page: If specified, the author's name shown below the game grid is linked to this webpage.
- Copyright message: This is displayed when a player clicks on "Support" using the hamburger menu at the top left of a puzzle.
- Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard.
- Find the game and click the "Edit Game" button.
- In the Messaging tab, locate the "Puzzle attribution" panel.
- Update the input fields as desired.
- Click the "Update Game" button at the bottom of the page.
Multimedia messaging
Puzzles are more engaging with the addition of visual and audio elements. We encourage you to explore the potential of adding multimedia to your games.
Visual messaging
Visual messaging refers to customizations that affect the look and feel of your puzzles. You can customize the following elements:
Background image
Customize the background image that appears behind the game. This can be used to set the overall theme or atmosphere of your puzzle.
Series puzzle thumbnail
Set a custom thumbnail image that will be displayed in the series picker. This helps players identify your puzzle when browsing through available games.
For best results, follow these specifications when creating your thumbnail images:
Size and format requirements:
- Full icon size: 40 x 40px with 4px border radius
- Actual icon area: 34 x 34px with 1px border radius
- Supported formats: SVG, JPG, PNG
Light and dark mode examples:
Social sharing image
Define a custom image that will be visible when your players share the puzzle on social networks. This helps maintain your brand presence across social media.
Empty box image
For games with empty boxes (such as crosswords), you can customize the appearance of these empty spaces with your own image.
Completion animation
Choose a celebratory animation that displays when players successfully finish your puzzle. You can select from preset options or disable animations entirely.
When enabled, the selected animation will display on the entire screen when the puzzle is completed successfully or when the player reveals the puzzle solution.
For WordroW puzzles, completion animations only show if the player found the word. For Quiz puzzles, completion animations only show if the player answered all questions correctly.
For each visual messaging field, you can either provide a custom image URL or choose from our preset options.
- Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard.
- Find the game and click the "Edit Game" button next to it to enter the game editor mode.
- In the Messaging tab, locate the "Visual messaging" panel.
- Update the input fields as desired in each of the fields.
- Click the "Update Game" button at the bottom of the page.
The PuzzleMe platform allows you to use your media in several places. Some examples of media usage include using a puzzle backdrop image, images or audio inside crossword or Word Search clues, images for a Picdoku game, and game completion sounds. If you are on the Professional or Enterprise Plans, you can upload your media files into PuzzleMe. If you are on the Personal Plan, you will have to host them on a public website and provide the URL to PuzzleMe.
Example links
A puzzle picker with custom thumbnail images for a puzzle
A crossword with a background image. Try sharing this puzzle to see a custom share image.
An example crossword with a custom image for empty boxes
Audio messaging
These settings can be used to add audio effects to your puzzles. They are available under the Audio messaging section.
Correct Answer audio
This field takes an audio file URL as input. This audio is played whenever a correct word is entered.
Wrong Answer Audio
This field takes an audio file URL as input. This audio is played whenever a wrong word is entered.
Completion Sound
You can use a custom audio file URL for this, or choose from one of our preset sound effects.
This audio is played when a solver has finished solving the puzzle, or revealed the puzzle solution.
Completion sounds and animations are not displayed in contest mode.
Audio requirements
- The following audio file formats are supported - MP3, OGG, X-WAV, WMA and M4A
- While we do not enforce a file size limit, the audio file is loaded each time your solvers load the puzzle. Thus it is essential to choose a small audio file. You can either
- Use a small duration audio clip
- Use an audio file with a lower bitrate
Example
Click here for an example quiz with correct and wrong answer sounds.
Please ensure you have the right to use the audio in your puzzles. If you don't have the rights, consider using alternative sources of royalty free music.
Puzzle files
If you are uploading a puzzle file, you can also set some of its attributions and visual messaging offline before uploading.
If you are using Crossword Compiler:
- Please select "Information" from the "File" menu.
- A "Puzzle information" dialog box will pop open. Click on the "Puzzle Info" tab.
- Add the attributions and save the puzzle file. The table below lists what fields in Crossword Compiler map to what fields in PuzzleMe.
- Upload the puzzle file. The attributions you added will automatically be extracted from the puzzle file and applied to your imported puzzle.
| Crossword Compiler field | PuzzleMe setting |
|---|---|
| Title | Game title |
| Author | Author name |
| Copyright | Copyright message |
| Description | Start Message |
Image Credits
Media attributions/credits for the ones used in the puzzle demo.
Christmas wreath: Christmas icons created by Umeicon - Flaticon
Background: Image by Freepik
FAQ
I want to show a video in the end message. How do I do that?
A: Fun question! You can embed a video by inserting a direct YouTube URL or by using the 'Insert Hyperlink' function to link to a video hosted on your own server. Additionally, videos hosted on third-party platforms such as Vimeo or Dailymotion are supported. Ensure that the video URL is publicly accessible to guarantee proper playback.
How should I optimize images for web use?
A: Use light images optimized for the web, and serve them from a fast server. Using heavy images would slow down the page load speed.
What size should grid images be?
A: If you would like to use an image in the grid, ensure it is no larger than 100kB.