Messaging

Objective

Learn how to manage messaging settings for a puzzle. These settings are common to different puzzle types.

Messaging settings

The messaging settings are visible in the Messaging tab in the "Edit game" option on your dashboard (illustrated in the brief video above), or in the form that you use to create puzzles for the first time.

In-game prompts

Example of in-game prompts.
A start and pause message has been added.
The end popup box is enabled by default, but you can add a message if you wish.

In-game prompts refer to popups with text and media that you can show to the player during the gameplay.

By default, the puzzle player only sees a popup box at the end of the game with their score. By adding a start and pause message, you can display a popup box at these stages of the gameplay as well. A user can pause (or unpause) a game by clicking the timer icon.

Steps to change the in-game prompts

Changing the in-game prompts

1. Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard.
2. Find the game and click the "Edit Game" button next to it to enter the game editor mode.
3. In the game editor mode, inside the Messaging tab, locate the Messaging panel. Inside this panel, there are three sub-panels: Start, Pause and End.
4. For each of these panels, enter your desired text.
5. Click the "Update Game" button at the bottom of the page.

tip

In-game prompts are 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 popups 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 HTML.

Puzzle attribution

Use of puzzle attribution. Left: Author name below the game grid; Right: in the series picker

Puzzle attribution display, inside the game

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:

1. Author name: This is visible below the game grid. If you're using the series picker component, then some styles display this information.
2. Author email address
3. Link to author's home page: If specified, the author's name shown below the game grid is linked to this webpage.
4. Copyright message: This message reflects any copyright attribution associated with the puzzle. It is displayed in the "About" popup accessed using the game bar at the top.
5. About message: This message contains any other information about the authors of a game. It is displayed in the "About" popup accessed using the game bar at the top.

Steps to change the in-game prompts

Changing the puzzle attribution information

1. Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard.
2. Find the game and click the "Edit Game" button next to it to enter the game editor mode.
3. In the game editor mode, inside the Messaging tab, locate the "Puzzle attribution" panel.
4. Update the input fields as desired. There should be separate inputs for each of the fields discussed above: author name, email, homepage link, copyright message and the about message.
5. Click the "Update Game" button at the bottom of the page.

Multimedia messaging

Visual messaging

Visual messaging demo: backdrop image, custom empty box image

Visual messaging refers to customizations that affect the look and feel of your puzzles. This includes tweaking the:

1. Backdrop image (behind the game grid)
2. Series puzzle thumbnail (displayed in the series picker)
3. Social sharing image (visible when your players share the puzzle on social networks)
4. Empty box styling (for games with empty boxes, such as the crossword)

Visual messaging highlights. Left: custom thumbnail inside the series picker; Right: custom image for sharing on social networks

Steps to change the visual messaging

Changing the visual messaging of the puzzle

info

Each input field for visual messaging expects a URL that links to an image. This means your image must be hosted somewhere online, either on your website or some other platform that allows a direct image file to be served.

Managing Puzzle Media

The PuzzleMe platform allows you to use your media in several places. Some examples include using a puzzle backdrop image, images or audio inside crossword clues, or images for a Picdoku game.

1. Go to the PuzzleMe dashboard.
2. Find the game and click the "Edit Game" button next to it to enter the game editor mode.
3. In the game editor mode, inside the Messaging tab, locate the "Visual messaging" panel.
4. Update the input fields as desired. There should be separate inputs for each of the fields discussed above: thumbnail image, backdrop image, image for sharing on social networks, and for applicable games, empty box image. For custom thumbnail images, please refer to the specifications below.

Specifications for thumbnail icons

5. Click the "Update Game" button at the bottom of the page.

tip

Here are some best practices for visual messaging customizations:

• Do not use an image with dark colors for page background. This could affect the readability of the puzzle content.
• Use light images optimized for the web, and serve them from a fast server. Using heavy images would slow down the page load speed.
• If you would like to use an image in the grid, ensure it is no larger than 100kB.

Examples

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.

Audio messaging settings

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.

Default completion sound options

This audio is played when a solver has finished solving the puzzle, or revealed the puzzle solution.

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
• Please provide a direct link to an audio file. Audio player embeds such as Spotify and Soundcloud are not currently supported.
• IMPORTANT - Please ensure you have the right to use the audio in your puzzles. If you don't have the rights, you should consider using alternative sources of royalty free music.

Example

Click here for an example quiz with correct and wrong answer sounds.

Puzzle files

If you are uploading a puzzle file, you can also set some of its attributions and visual messaging offline before uploading.

Setting attributions and messaging in Crossword Compiler

If you are using Crossword Compiler:

1. Please select "Information" from the "File" menu.
2. A "Puzzle information" dialog box will pop open. Click on the "Puzzle Info" tab.
3. Add the attributions and save the puzzle file. The table below lists what fields in Crossword Compiler map to what fields in PuzzleMe.
4. 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

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Image Credits

Media attributions/credits for the ones used in the puzzle demo.

1. Christmas wreath: Christmas icons created by Umeicon - Flaticon

2. Background: Image by Freepik

3. Reindeer: Reindeer icons created by Graphiqa - Flaticon

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.