GL Collaborative Meta-Puzzle II

[Thok]

I'm ready to write a puzzle (and yes, I know I need to concentrate on double checking the meta as well.)

[LordKinbote]

I'm ready.

[Suspence]

PMs sent to Thok and LordKinbote. Still waiting to hear from Zag, jbvntx, Jack_Ian, jesus_saves, Oscar and gftt.

Remember, we also have room for one additional volunteer.
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[Zag]

Sorry, what are you waiting for from me? I still haven't received the target word or phrase that I'm supposed to be making a puzzle for, right?

[Suspence]

I asked all who volunteered to confirm they are still interested before I send their word. No need to spoil if anyone needed to drop out.

Anyhow, I assumed the above meant you were ready to go, so you now have your assigned solution via PM.
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[Suspence]

Scurra has just sent me a completed puzzle ! That was certainly fast. I'll take a look at it and share it out with our test solvers.

I have also tossed together a puzzle as a fill in for the spot vacated by MNOWAX, and I've PMd it to 3iff for a look.
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[Oscar]

I'm back and ready to receive my word

[Jack_Ian]

Back from Germany.
Ready to receive my assignment.

[Suspence]

PMs sent to Oscar and Jack_Ian.

3iff has made good progress on my replacement puzzle for MNOWAX's spot, so we should be in the editing stage shortly. Once that is done, we can pass it along to Thok for another round.

I am making slow progress on Scurra's puzzle. If I hit a standstill, I'll kick it around with Thok and 3iff.
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[j_s*]

if we are still sticking with the 2month deadline, i m in. If its shorter, or i m going to hold everything up, i m out.

[Suspence]

I was thinking of having at least drafts of all the puzzles by the end of June, which is 1.5 months. Will that work?
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[Thok]

I'm pretty sure I've solved the meta, so now I just need to write a puzzle.

[Suspence]

Thok has successfully solved the meta, so we should be all good to go.

Still waiting to get an all-clear from jbvntx, and gftt. We'll also have to see if j_s is OK with the timeline...
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[jbvntx]

Yes, I'm still in.
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jbv

[Suspence]

PM sent to jbvntx
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[novice]

I've submitted a puzzle for testing.

[Elethiomel]

Me too.

[Suspence]

3iff has completed my replacement puzzle, so I'll be cleaning it up and sending it over to Thok.

I've passed El's puzzle along to 3iff for test solving.

I'm nearly through Scurra's (I think), so I'll be passing that along to 3iff/Thok as well.

I'll take a shot at novice's once I'm done with Scurra's.
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[Jack_Ian]

Still busy at work but hope to create my puzzle over the week-end.
I have a fair idea what I'm going to do.

[3iff]

I've now been let loose on solving real entries. You should continue to direct puzzles to Suspense, and he will dole them out to us guinea-pigs as necessary.

If I do contact you regarding your puzzle or you decide to contact me, please do not offer me ANY extra information unless I specifically ask for it, and I shall try to avoid requesting hints unless I'm really stuck.

If you decide to change the puzzle because of something we mention then please let us have the updates as soon as possible.

[Suspence]

PROGRESS UPDATES

Still waiting to hear back from gftt and j_s. I will send them PMs, but they never log in anyway

I have received puzzles from Scurra, novice, and El.

I have stalled a little more than halfway through test-solving Scurra's puzzle, so I've sent it to 3iff for another set of eyes.

3iff started work on El's puzzle and has made good progress, but we will likely be collaborating to finish it out.

We haven't started on novice's puzzle yet, though I have a PM out to Thok to see if he has time to take it on.

3iff has successfully solved the puzzle I wrote as a fill-in, but I'm not totally happy with it. We'll play it by ear. If we get any new volunteers, or someone wants to take on another one, I would consider that spot still open.
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[jesus_saves]

almost never log in. :-p

I get emails for PMs, so then I login.

[Suspence]

It appears j_s will need to relinquish the spot due to time constraints, so we have another opening.
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[Zag]

I'm doing pretty well on mine. I have the difficult part done, but still have a few hours of grunt work. I should finish it within a couple of days. If you don't have anyone to take over j_s's piece, I can do it.

[3iff]

Just to say...don't rush these...solving them is not a quick job.

[Elethiomel]

I sympathize with that (<evil chuckle>). If more test solvers are needed, I'll volunteer to spoil myself a bit more. Problem is, I'm not a very proficient solver. Or maybe that's a good thing for a test solver.

[3iff]

[Zag]

One of the first steps in solving mine is a cryptic crossword, so one of the cryptic masters like El might be needed to solve it.

[Suspence]

[Suspence]

PROGRESS UPDATE

Active Puzzles:

Scurra's - I started on this one, but got a bit stuck, so shared with 3iff. We are furiously working on this one and making slow progress.

Elethiomel's - 3iff started with this one, and we are now collaborating.

novice's - Thok is working on this one, and is making progress. I'll begin collaborating on this with him shortly.

Zag's - Has been received, but we haven't had time to look at it yet. Once we get one of these other ones cracked, it is next in line.
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[Zag]

Well get to it man!!

I just sent a small update on the clues for the cryptic puzzle portion. One of them was wrong and I tuned the others a bit for readability and elegance.

I rather like this puzzle. There are four "ah ha!" moments that are required: two pretty minor and two a little trickier. I don't THINK that either will be a barrier for this crowd, but it's always so hard to know whether or not someone will think of that, or if it will just be stupidly obvious. What I like about the puzzle is that there is stuff to do before you get to any "ah ha!" which gets you engaged enough and time enough to get them.

[Suspence]

We'll have to make sure we spread out the release of Zag, novice, and El's when we put out the meta. Don't want people to get burned out on all these cryptics.
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[3iff]

I'm pretty much burned out on cryptics already, and I'm only halfway through El's collection.

Hopefully, Zag's will be nice and easy (some hope!)

[Thok]

Mental Note: Write a puzzle that doesn't have any cryptics in it

[Jack_Ian]

Update: First Draft 90% complete. Just need to put it together and send it off.

First draft sent (via e-mail).

[Suspence]

Jack_Ian's first draft has been received. We now have 3 puzzles in the midst of test-solving, and 2 in queue.

We're still making slow progress on all three we are currently working on. Hopefully we'll have a major breakthrough soon and we'll be able to get started on Zag's and Jack_Ian's.
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[3iff]

Major breakthrough has happened. Awaiting confirmation from Suspence.

Oops, celebration was premature...

[Suspence]

But not too premature... 3iff has successfully solved El's puzzle, so that is one down. We're clarifying just a few things, but the puzzle is pretty close to finalized.

3iff will now be moving on to Zag's puzzle.

We're still working on Scurra's, but the going is slow. I have a PM into Scurra for some possible edits. We may need minor changes to the as-yet unsolved parts because we just aren't getting there.

For the puzzle by novice, Thok and I have completed the first part. We're moving on to the second.

Jack_Ian's puzzle looks very interesting as well, so hopefully we'll be working on it soon.
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[Suspence]

PROGRESS UPDATE

Thanks to the kindness of the mods, 3iff, Thok and I now have our own private little spot on the GL for test solving. Kudos to Zag and MNOWAX.

There's been a flurry of activity, and all 5 submitted puzzles are now in various stages of test solving, so that is great. El's puzzle has been successfully solved, we are ironing out one final wrinkle.

I have not heard back from gftt, so we may have another open spot. As it stands right now, we have at least two, possibly three open spots.

Zag has volunteered to write a second puzzle, so I'll probably take him up on that offer, unless we get new volunteers any time soon.

Anyone? Anyone? Or have we used up the whole VSP population already?
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[Jack_Ian]

I'll take another one