Indie puzzle highlights: March 2021

Tons of creative stuff this month - let's dive in!

March 5: I Fold (Malaika Handa, 7xwords)

March 8: Puzzle 118 (Max, Max Puzzles)

March 10: Tail Mix (Zhouqin Burnikel, USA Today)

March 17: Chasm No. 1 (Ryan McCarty, McGrids)

March 19: Tracking System (Patrick Berry, A-Frame Games) - no specific spoilers in writeup

March 24: Freestyle 4.12 (Andrew Ries, Aries Freestyle)

March 25: Theft! (Chris Piuma, Wordgarbler)

March 27: Digital Release (Ricky Cruz, Cruzzles)

March 28: Themeless #10 (Michael, Southern Crosswords)

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I Fold (Malaika Handa)

It's been a long time since we've seen a meta that leads the solver on such a long and wonderful journey as Erik Agard's "Clip Show," which inspired Malaika to make this gem. Following in the footsteps of Chris King, she created a puzzle in the form of a paper fortune teller, which includes a word search, an unclued online crossword puzzle, some decryption, and more. A tour de force of imagination.

Puzzle 118 (Max)

I'm not sure what the smallest pangrammatic crossword is, but this one's gotta be close - it squeezes all 26 letters into a 7x7 grid without too much strain, which is a remarkable achievement.

Tail Mix (Zhouqin Burnikel)

It's always a good time for a periodic reminder of Zhouqin's mastery. Like many USA Today puzzles, this one only has three theme entries (HARD TO BEAT, STILL IN BETA, AID AND ABET), which allows for squeaky-clean fill; this one has a pair of delightful stacks of long downs (RUTABAGA/ARUGULA/SIDEBAR and CHARADE/LINES UP/SALT MINE) that sparkle without compromising the fill at all.

Chasm No. 1 (Ryan McCarty)

An astonishingly wide open themeless from Ryan's new site. It's called a "chasm" because of the cavernous center, which has 3 stagger-stacked 11s crossing 5 stagger-stacked 9s. The crossings are all smooth, somehow, and Ryan even manages to squeeze in fun bonuses (BADASSERY, SMASH CAKE, EDGELORD) in the corners.

Tracking System (Patrick Berry)

In case people are still working their way through Patrick's new variety puzzle pack, I won't spoil any details. Suffice it to say, the last puzzle in the pack uses the meta answers from the previous puzzles and incorporates them all into the grid in such a way that an astoundingly large percentage of the squares are actually triple-checked. But, this being Patrick Berry, you'd never guess it from the fill, which is pristine throughout.

Freestyle 4.12 (Andrew Ries)

A really remarkable piece of construction, anchored by triple-stacked 15s (CRITICAL DARLING/AUTOMATIC FEEDER/BETTER YOU THAN ME). Quite often, running stacked 15s across the center leads to an abundance of short fill to the exclusion of interesting long fill, but these 15s are judiciously chosen, and there are all sorts of interesting long entries in the rest of the grid: OUT MAGAZINE, I HAVE NO CLUE, KATY JURADO, NO YOU DIDN'T, HIT THE ROOF, PANTOMIMED, etc.

Theft! (Chris Piuma)

The grid for this puzzle has been used for two other indies recently, and Chris decided to steal it and do something new with it. Since the black squares in the grid are all arranged in T shapes, the fill in this puzzle obeys a tricky constraint: there are no T's whatsoever. The clues, on the other hand, have exactly two T's each, though they're so smoothly worded that when I test-solved this puzzle I didn't even notice the constraint. Lovely and subtle work.

Digital Release (Ricky Cruz)

The theme itself is pretty ordinary - the theme entries are phrases (CLAIR DE LUNE, CHAIR WARMER, AU CONTRAIRE, SCIENCE FAIR) where the string AIR has been replaced by CO2. But the grid is presented in a murky grayscale, so that the contents of many of the squares aren't even visible unless you're highlighting the word - simulating the experience of trying to navigate through a thick smog. A brilliant way to exploit the possibilities of the PuzzleMe applet, drawing attention to the disastrous ecological impact of NFTs.

Themeless #10 (Michael)

I think this is the first of Michael's puzzles that I've featured here, though he's been posting for a while and I always enjoy his work. This one was just particularly packed with excellent clues: [What edgeplay might be] for PIG LATIN, [Cook's gadgets] for IDEVICES, [Bong hit?] for PARASITE (not the first time I've seen that one, but still fantastic), and so on. And the central across entry, CAN I GET AN AMEN, is also excellent.