EnigMarch is a daily puzzle creation challenge that took place in March 2022. Everyday of the month, a one-word prompt was given, to inspire all sorts of puzzles to all sorts of creative people. See the list of prompts on the EnigMarch website. Search for the hashtag #enigmarch in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit to see all the puzzles that have been made, there are tons of amazing creations!
I found this event an excellent idea, and challenged myself to create a puzzle everyday during the whole month, following the prompts. It was exhausting but also extremely motivating and enriching! You can check all my puzzles in Solving Fun’s Facebook page, and also in the current page below.
Given the context, don’t expect perfectly polished puzzles: some of them are rather experimental, most have not been playtested. But I still believe some of them are quite nice and worth looking at. Some stats:
- I published about 38 puzzles in March (one everyday, sometimes several mini-puzzles). Most of them were created from scratch, using only the inspiration of the prompt.
- Most puzzles are in English, 9 are in French, 2 are in Spanish, and one of them is trilingual (English-French-Spanish).
Énigmes en français: jour 2 jour 5 jour 7 (trilingue) jour 12 jour 14 jour 17 jour 19 jour 25 jour 26 jour 29
Acertijos en español: día 3 día 7 (trilingüe) día 9
I love getting feedback on my puzzles. Please let me know if you solve them, or if you need a hint.
[Advertisement!] If you like what you’re seeing, you can hire me to construct a custom puzzle for any of your needs! Since 2020 I’ve been designing custom puzzles and puzzle hunts for specific events and clients, in English, Spanish, and French (see list).
Below are all the puzzles I created for EnigMarch, together with some comments, the link to the Facebook post, and sometimes a link to an answer-checker (where you can verify your answer, in a spoiler-free way). To see an image in full size, right-click and choose “open image in new tab”.
Note: Most of the illustrations are not by me, credits for those are given in the comments of the Facebook posts.
Day 1: Initial
For starters, I made a puzzle using initials in a (hopefully) unusual way, also including some facts about EnigMarch. There’s an obvious answer, and a more subtle one.
Facebook post
Answer-checker
Day 2: Rhyme (rime)
I felt more comfortable making rhymes in French.
Voici donc un poème en français, mais il a été découpé en petits morceaux.
Facebook post
Day 3: Shadow (sombra)
A cute puzzle in Spanish.
Acertijo en español inspirado por la temática sombra.
Facebook post
Day 4: Lock
I got inspired by the prompt to make a puzzlehunt-style puzzle. This could be more time-consuming to solve than a regular one-picture puzzle, but hopefully it’s fun and satisfying.
Below are only the first 2 images. You’ll find the 12 pictures of the “objects” in the Facebook post. Alternatively you can use the PDF version.
Day 5: Present (présent)
I made a puzzle without words, in French.
Énigme sans mots, mais en français!
Facebook post
Day 6: Island
I had a lot of fun making this geography-themed puzzle. It’s a light puzzlehunt-style puzzle, for which you’ll need to do some research, but hopefully not tedious.
Facebook post
Day 7: Translate / Traduire / Traducir
A trilingual puzzle!. Probably my favorite construction this month, based on an idea I’ve had for a while. The “weird translation” gimmick is very fun to play with, but there was also an important geometry aspect to this construction, it took me a while to get it right and I’m very happy with the result. This should be fun to solve, especially if you speak a little bit of the 3 languages; but it should be solvable with the use of dictionnaries anyway. The answer is a 12-letter word, that works in English and in French.
Facebook post (I’ve added a few hints in the comments of this post)
Day 8: Sharp
I love using real objects in puzzles, and this day’s prompt inspired me to use a very well-known marker pen, to make a very easy, but hopefully cute puzzle.
Facebook post
Day 9: Trick (Truco)
An easy (hopefully elegant) puzzle in Spanish. (you only need to know one specific word to solve it). Translation of the text: Magic! I’ve got a new trick, but the trajectory of the magic wand must be very precise. Note: no animals were harmed in the making of this trick.
Acertijo en español inspirado por la temática truco.
Facebook post
Day 10: Blank
This puzzle starts with a seemingly totally blank image… But it’s just the start! I got a first funny idea, then got carried away and kept adding to it… making it actually quite long to solve, but hopefully interesting. Let me know if you need hints, some steps are very experimental and might not work perfectly depending on your material.
Facebook post
Day 11: Dots
A puzzle without words, but with a lot of dots. I had drawn this idea in a corner of a notebook a while ago, I was glad that it was made of dots so I used it for that prompt!
Facebook post
Day 12: Branch (branche)
I got an idea in French for that day. It’s probably solvable with some basic knowledge of French.
Énigme en français inspirée par le thème branche.
Facebook post
Day 13: Nostalgia
I recently replayed the game Guess who? with my nieces, and I hadn’t played since my childhood. It inspired me for this nostalgic puzzle.
Facebook post
Day 14: Irrational / Irrationnel
Of course March 14th is a very mathematical day, so I made this strongly thematic puzzle, probably quick to solve!
Facebook post
I also made a version in French, which is only slightly different.
Énigme français sur le thème irrationnel.
Facebook post
Day 15: Bug
That day, I got an issue with my computer today and couldn’t work on the puzzle. Can someone help me solve my problem? Hopefully you won’t need technical skills!
… just kidding, of course this is a puzzle! A fun one I had made a few years ago for some friends, but had not yet circulated publicly.
See this page for the complete error message (and an answer-checker).
Facebook post
Day 16: Hex
I had made this Hex grid puzzle a while ago, for a project I never got to finish. This prompt motivated me to integrate it in a light story and add a fun message to it.
Facebook post
The grid in PDF version
Answer-checker
Day 17: Rainbow / Arc-en-ciel
Rainbow being a very inspiring theme, I ended up making 3 little puzzles. The third one is probably the hardest.
Facebook post
Answer-checkers: Mini-puzzle 1, Mini-puzzle 2, Mini-puzzle 3
I also made a French version of Mini-Puzzle 1.
Énigme en français sur le thème arc-en-ciel.
Facebook post
Day 18: Spell
I had this idea with trajectories of a magic wand for a while, and that prompt pushed me to flesh out the idea. It’s a light puzzlehunt-type puzzle, should take more than 10 minutes but less than one hour to solve. One of my favorite creation of this month, I think this is fun to solve and the final answer works well.
Full copy-able text available in the comments of the Facebook post
Answer-checker
Day 19: Hidden
A very “homemade” wordplay puzzle.
Facebook post
I also made a puzzle in French inspired by the prompt.
Énigme en français inspirée par le thème caché. Attention, il y a un piège, la réponse est en 9 lettres.
Facebook post
Day 20: Tracks
Inspired by the prompt, and an idea I’ve had a while ago but had done nothing with until now, I made this mysterious puzzle which is one of my favorite this month. It should be quite satisfying to solve, with two interesting ahas.
Facebook post
Day 21: Constellation
That day I made two very different puzzles, both very experimental and maybe confusing to solve. Don’t hesitate to ask for hints for those!
Facebook post
Day 22: Mirror
Mirror was, in some sense, a central theme of my work as a mathematician, so I had so many ideas for this prompt… I ended up making this “classification” puzzle, an idea I had in mind for a while. Once you solve it, you can try to answer a bonus question: why is there nothing in the black regions?
Facebook post
Day 23: Escape
I had to throw many ideas before finding one that worked well, but I’m pretty happy with this one (and a few solvers told me they liked it particularly). This is a puzzle on the theme of escape rooms, but it’s not the type of puzzle you’d find in an escape room. I’d say it’s a relatively light puzzlehunt-style puzzle, it probably takes more than 10 min, less than 1 hour to solve.
Full text (copy-able) is available in the first comment of the Facebook post.
A detailed list of hints (and the full solution) is available.
Day 24: Bird
This puzzle uses a technique I saw in a puzzle posted on Reddit a few years ago (can’t find the link anymore), and I love this trick.
Facebook post
Day 25: Chance / Hasard
Another puzzle inspired by my love of geometry.
Facebook post
I also made a (totally different) puzzle in French. Quite heavy on wordplay, would recommend looking at it only if you speak French fluently.
Énigme en français sur le thème Chance/hasard.
Facebook post
Day 26: Name
I made a puzzle inspired (quite literally) by the famous quote “What’s in a name?…”. It was a rather ambitious idea and took me way too long to construct (both for the puzzle design and for the graphical design). It’s probably a bit long to solve, though hopefully interesting and not too tedious.
Facebook post
A PDF version is available.
Answer-checker.
I also made a puzzle in French that day, probably easy, though it requires a bit of research.
Énigme en français inspirée par le thème Nom.
Facebook post
Day 27: Suit
A fun picture puzzle, probably not too hard.
Facebook post
Day 28: Map
I used the opportunity of this prompt to flesh out a puzzle idea I’d had for a while. It makes for a light puzzlehunt-style puzzle, that should be fun to solve if you like some wordplay and geography.
Facebook post
Day 29: Note
A puzzle I had composed last year, and that fits well with that day’s theme. Works both in English and in French.
Facebook post
Day 30: Phantom
It took me a while to find a satisfying idea for this theme, but I’m finally quite happy about the result, inspired by the movie Ghostbusters. Hopefully cute and quick to solve.
Facebook post
Day 31: Meta
I didn’t want to make a real metapuzzle (i.e., a puzzle that uses the answers of all previous puzzles), because I didn’t want to force people to solve all my 30 previous puzzles to be able to work on this last one. But I still wanted to use the opportunity to push people to look at my puzzles, so here’s what I did…
Facebook post
Solving Fun 