Metapuzzle

A metapuzzle is a puzzle that uses the solutions to a set of smaller component puzzles to create or provide the data for one final puzzle. The game designer Cliff Johnson described the form as a collection of puzzles that, when solved, each yield a piece of a master puzzle; in a simple example, five component puzzles might yield the answers BLACK, HAMMER, FROST, KNIFE, and UNION, each of which combines with a single word, such as JACK, to form a new compound word or phrase, so that JACK itself becomes the metapuzzle's answer. A related shortcut called backsolving lets a solver guess at a component puzzle's answer by reasoning backward from a partly known metapuzzle solution, though this approach is not always reliable. Metapuzzles are especially common in organized puzzle hunts, competitive events built around chains of interlocking puzzles, with the MIT Mystery Hunt and the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt among the best known examples. The form also appears in puzzle video games, puzzle books and print collections, and online puzzle series. Metapuzzles moved into wider public awareness around 2008, when the crossword constructor Matt Gaffney began publishing crossword metapuzzles, and the format grew markedly more popular through the 2010s.