Thoughts on Clue Making

It was a tough task coming up with clues. We didn't just want clues, we wanted cool clues, the kind which wouldn't drive you up the wall while solving it and yet when the eureka! moment comes would inspire an immense feeling of satisfaction. We made a conscious effort to include textual, visual, audio, edible, physical, software, game-playing clues to vary the overall experience and to reduce fatigue and boredom. We based off many clues on previous experience, game websites, online research and hours of experimentation, but it was still very hard to estimate whether a clue would be too difficult, too easy or just right. Here's some comments on the final clues:

X Marks the Spot
I really enjoyed the double-crossing bit. We probably should have included more hints on having to intersect the lines twice, but I personally felt that this would serve as a memorable talking point after the game and therefore, hints should be omitted.

Q Software
As someone who is quite inexperienced with windows programming, it took me a while to figure out how to create the software without having to deal with nasty Microsoft .NET issues so it can run on every single windows laptop. The clue itself is quite straightforward which was welcomed by most teams. Some teams managed to play around enough with the programs to discover the free hint. In case your team didn't, if you called Mission Control and tried to pick-up M, you get a free hint. Some classics heard were "If I told you you have a good body, would you hold it against me?" (TTT), and "Are you tired? Because you have been running around in my mind the whole night." (either Pussies or Cha-Ching!). The Poker Showdown clue started out as a text conversation, but it wasn't really that intuitive to understand, hence the change to the slide show format.

Soap
Most of the games I've played involved breaking open stuff, so I was quite adamant we had one too. This clue turned out well because we were lucky to be able to find a way to slice open the soap, insert the clue, and then seal it back nicely. The soap box was also glued back well enough to avoid suspicion. Lots of time was spent manufacturing this clue, but the descriptions of teams shaving, scraping and smashing open the soap bar, as well as the many looks of disbelief when they finally found the clue made it all worthwhile.

Japanese Cards
This is a TOUGH clue. When Olivia first showed us, it took multiple efforts before progress was made. The telephone number formed when you arrange the cards in the right sequence gives you the Terminal One Arrival Information. We originally required the teams to find the belt number for the only flight coming in from Osaka, and would have planted our agent there. But flight timing issues gave us problems, and we had to give that up in the end.

X-Ray
Originally called Arrows, we managed to find a good reference to the location as well as to the plot. Ideally, this is what all clues should have. Future Game Controls take note!

Taboo Game
This is the most last-minute clue, and we pretty much decided some of the rules/forfeits when the teams arrived. The original idea is to play a variation of poker, but fear of landing the organisers behind bars for illegal gambling and gathering dealt the idea its death blow.

Group Photo

Here's the group photo at the end of The Game. Thanks to everyone for playing!

Game Statistics

For the teams who made it to the finish, we've uploaded a spreadsheet with the individual clue timings and the overall standings, after factoring in the penalties. (We've also included Royal Flush, who had to abandon the Game on the last clue after their team driver was urgently recalled to work, on account of the fact that they really ought to have completed the Game. Moreover, it was such a heartbreak for GC to see one of the frontrunners drop out so late.) You can find the spreadsheet here. Once again, congratulations to the teams who finished, and especially to those who completed all 16 clues!

Clue 1 - Crap, where is Dryden? (leading to Civilian War Memorial)

Clue 1 was issued to teams in 2 parts. The actual clue merely tells agents that their task, after eliminating Fisher, is to look for Dryden, and that all the information needed has already been provided. The "meat" of the clue is contained in the Casino Guide which had earlier been distributed to teams as part of their mission kit. In particular, the passage on the game of Craps, on page 12 of the guide, has the word "Dryden" scribbled in the top corner as a signpost.

The passage on Craps is an acrostic that was adapted from wikipedia (as were all the other passages). Reading down the first letter of each line gives the message "considerthefirstletterofthefourthwords", while reading down the first letter of the fourth word of each line gives the answer to the clue, "civilianwarmemorialfrontsidebeachroad". The clue was hidden on the main podium of the memorial, in some bushes in the corner closest to St Andrew's Cathedral.

GC initially rated this clue easy. However, given that it was the first clue, many teams had not "gotten into GC's minds" yet, and as such an inordinate number of hints was given out. As the Game progressed, teams would have gotten a better feel for how answers are embedded into clues. For this particular clue, some teams guessed Fisher Street and another even wanted to search in the National Library for all poems written by John Dryden!

Meta-Clue

The meta-clue, which was worth a 2 hour time bonus, was given out in the form of a file reference tagged to all 16 clues. The 16 file references were:

/54.73.20.68.63.44/, 20.68.63.44/68.73, 63.44/68.73.69.65
/68.73.69.65.68.65/, 69.65.68.65/65.77, 68.65/65.77.73.20
/65.77.73.20.20.61/, 73.20.20.61/20.6F, 20.61/20.6F.20.42
/20.6F.20.42.69.64/, 20.42.69.64/70.72, 69.64/70.72.22.69
/70.72.22.69.73.2E/, 22.69.73.2E/61.64, 73.2E/61.64.54.74
/61.64.54.74.20.22/

Essentially, the file references can be arranged into a 6x6 matrix of 2 digit numbers (highlighted red, above), where the /s identify the position of the line breaks. Rather than advancing row-by-row, each successive file reference advances by 1/3 of a line. This ensures that even if there was a need to skip clues during the Game, teams would still be able to piece together the entire matrix (provided no 3 consecutive clues are skipped and the first 2 and last 2 clues are not skipped).

Having constructed the 6x6 matrix, the 2nd column of the 4th row and the last column of the next row should be dead give-aways that the numbers encoded in this matrix are hexadecimal. (Coincidentally, there are also exactly 16 clues in the Game.) The penultimate step is figuring out that these numbers reference into the ASCII table, which gives the following matrix of characters:

Ts hcD
hsiehe
ews  a
 o Bid
pr"is.
adTt "

Reading from top-to-bottom and left-to-right, we get The password is "The Bitch is Dead." As an after-note, 2 features of the meta-clue make it near impossible to solve prematurely: the non-decimal E and F appear only after clue #8, and by having the matrix read from top to bottom, the message only begins to make sense after the 5th line is completed. 2 teams, including the eventual winner of the Game successfully deciphered this clue.

Feedback on The Casino Royale Game

Just a general thread for people to give comments on anything under the sun to do with The Casino Royale Game. Some points to start of: # of phone lines, # of teams, clues which were compromised (such as clue #5 - Clarke Quay), entry fee, timing and duration of the Game, theme...