a puzzle for the AllerHande site
commissioned by fabrique
design by fabrique

AllerHande is a free monthly magazine for customers of the Albert Heyn grocery stores.    it features articles and recipes, often centered round a food-related theme.

the online version of the magazine provides a database with all previously published recipes as well as a small collection of topical articles.
it also provides a means to solve and submit the monthly puzzle

the march 2003 puzzle is a simplified version of the classic crossword.    entering the described words reveals the main solution via the indexed cells.
the solution can be submitted to enter the prize draw

the puzzle is built using macromedia flash, and features basic keyboard- and mouse input.
it is configured using a small array of strings allowing for easy adaptation for future versions

an early version featured colour-coded cells, indicating whether the entered character was correct.    later this feature was omitted to keep the difficulty on the same level as the paper version of the puzzle.    this omission also led to the discarding of a rather nice scrambler that inhibited lazy puzzlers from reading the solution straight out of the binary file.

the april 2003 puzzle is a combination of a jigsaw- and a crossword-puzzle.    the pieces of the puzzle are to be placed on the grid in such a manner that a fully solved crossword appears.    when this is done correctly, the indexed letters in the grid form the solution to the puzzle, which -again- can be submitted to enter the prize draw.

the puzzle is built using macromedia flash, and features a mouse-only interface.
the pieces can be dragged and stacked. and an indicator on the main grid shows whether the piece matches the main grid's hints. if a piece is dropped on a spot that it doesn't fit, the piece is given an offset from the grid, clearly indicating the piece is not in place. this leads to a extremely intuitive interface.
this puzzle is also configured using a small array of strings allowing for easy adaptation for future alternate versions