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Clue management

Objective

Explore the clue management functionality for crossword games on the PuzzleMe™ platform.

Clues​

Clues are an essential part of crossword games. They guide the players to the answer. They're designed to be playful to engage the user. In some cases, clues can be linked (interconnected). The PuzzleMe platform supports a variety of features to manage clues, allowing you to create an exciting crossword experience for your audience.

Crossword: a multimedia clue
Crossword: editing clues inside the game editor

Clue​

This is the clue itself in textual form. This is displayed in the clue panel, next to or below the crossword grid (depending on the display space available).

Crossword: clue panel

Media​

The PuzzleMe platform allows you to embed clues into your crossword in the form of text and multimedia such as images, videos or audio clips.

Crossword: multimedia clue with credits

Credits​

If you'd like to assign credits or attribution for any media attached to your clue, you can mention it here. For the users that take a closer look at your media using the multimedia button in the clue bar, they will be able to see this attribution.

This is displayed next to the clue text. It can also be accessed by clicking the multimedia button in the clue bar, below the menu bar on the top of the game frame.

Hint​

You can provide a further text hint for the players who might need it. To see this, select the word, go to the "Reveal" menu in the menu bar at the top, and click on "Show a hint".

Crossword: clue hint

Explanation​

The clue explanation will be visible to players after they complete the puzzle. This will be displayed right next to the clue text inside the clue panel.

Crossword: clue explanation

Word Length​

Cryptic crosswords often denote word lengths with the clues. For example, if the solution is "Eyes Wide Shut", then the word lengths would be denoted in the format (4,4,4).

  • If you are importing a puzzle file, the word lengths specified in the puzzle file for each clue are imported into PuzzleMe.
  • If you are creating the puzzle directly in PuzzleMe, by default the word length is specified as the length of the solution, without considering the length of individual words. For example, if the clue is "Eyes Wide Shut", the default word length would be displayed as (12).
Word lengths displayed next to clues

Word lengths are displayed only if "Show word lengths in clues" setting is turned ON for the puzzle.

Game editor​

You can manage clues inside the game editor. This can be done at any time, either when the game is being created, or later when you're editing it. Be sure to click the "Update Game" button at the bottom to save your changes!

Crossword: editing clues inside the game editor
Don't see clue details?
If your crossword entries don't have any clues, then you may not see any clue details next to these entries. The PuzzleMe dashboard hides these details by default when there are no clues present.

You can view and edit these details in the game editor by pressing the toggle button on the top right corner of the crossword entries panel.

Grid editor​

Clues can also be edited inside the grid editor. The grid editor packs more functionality for clue management than the game editor, including a clue database and the ability to link clues together.

Crossword: editing clues inside the grid editor
  1. In the navigation bar, go to the Clues dropdown.
  2. In the Clues dropdown menu, select "Edit clues". You are now in clue editor mode.
  3. In the clue panel next to the grid, select the clue that you'd like to edit.
  4. Inside the popup box, edit the clue fields. Once you're done, click on the "Save" button in the bottom right corner of the popup box.

Once you're done editing your clues, be sure to save your changes using the "Save Puzzle" button in the navigation bar at the top!

Edit Word lengths​

You can edit the default word lengths for puzzles you have created or imported.

Editing word length
  1. On the grid editor page, select the "Edit word lengths" option from the "Clues" menu. This option is displayed only if "Show word lengths in clues" setting is turned ON for the puzzle.
  2. Click on the clue whose word length you want to edit.
  3. In the "Word lengths", enter the length of the individual words, separated by a comma.
  4. Click "Save" to save the word length for the given clue.
  5. Repeast steps 2-4 for each clue whose word length you want to edit.
  6. Click "Save Puzzle" at the top of the page.

Clue database​

The PuzzleMe platform hosts a clue database that allows you to find engaging clues for your word entries. This database is compiled from a variety of sources, and we do specify the relevant publisher for each clue along with some additional information.

There are two ways to use the clue database:

  1. On a clue-by-clue basis: You can edit one clue at a time, browse through all the relevant clues for that word entry, and select the best one for your game.
  2. Autofill: Automatically retrieve the top suggestion for your clues for each word entry. You're free to edit and fine-tune the chosen clues afterward, of course!
Crossword: using the clue database
Crossword: autofill all clues with the clue database
info

The PuzzleMe platform does not currently offer any multimedia support within the clue database. If you use our clue database to add clues, you'll have to manually manage any media attachments for those clues.

Linking Clues​

Clue linking is an exciting feature that allows you to get creative with your puzzle design. This is a subtle feedback mechanism through which you can signal to your players that two or more words/clues are related to each other. This feature is fairly powerful, and as a result, we cover it in detail on the clue linking section.