In April 2017, an intriguing story unfolded on Reddit. For April Fool's Day, they conducted a small experiment: create a blank canvas for users to edit anonymously, named Place.
The rules were simple. Each user could choose a pixel from a palette of 16 colors and place it anywhere on the canvas. They could use any colors they liked, but had to wait 5 minutes before placing the next pixel.
After 72 hours, the outcome was astonishing. A collaborative piece of art that even surprised its creators. From a blank canvas and simple rules emerged this:
Every pixel you see was placed by hand. Each icon, each flag, each meme was meticulously created by over a million people.
I discovered Place when it was almost over. A fantastic post by sudoscript tells its complete story.
The experiment began without any announcement, and users started placing pixels randomly, just to see what they could do. Within minutes, the first drawings appeared on Place. They were quite basic:
But working alone, one could only place a pixel every 5 minutes. Creating something complex would take too much time, and someone came up with the idea of using a grid for collaborative drawing, starting with an innocent Dickbutt.
From there, the community began to coordinate for more complex creations, and drawings started to appear rapidly:
Over the next three days, various factions formed, teams with specific goals, battles for canvas dominance, coordination between different projects…
For example, a group from 4chan called The Void attempted to fill the map with black pixels.
Here's the final image. Clicking on it takes you to an atlas explaining each part of the artwork:
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Ever opened a large image like this one and struggled to view it comfortably due to zoom issues?
Ian Gilman has come up with a solution. With OpenSeaDragon, you can turn a large image into a map that allows gradual zooming with your mouse wheel. Click on the image to see the result:
The source code is publicly available and can be embedded in a webpage.
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To grasp what a riddle game is, I recommend clicking the image to visit the website before diving into this post.
El Desafío
El Desafío is a riddle game. Riddle games are a series of levels, each presenting a puzzle (often involving lateral thinking). Solving one leads to the next level by altering some text in the URL.
Riddle games like Cicada 3301 have gained significant attention. Cicada 3301 is an enigmatic organization that annually releases puzzles to identify top crypto-analysts. It's speculated to be a recruitment tool for the NSA, CIA, MI6, or hacker groups.
One of the few Spanish riddle games was featured on the now-defunct Javi Moya's blog.
Other notable riddle games on the internet include:
- Ma's Reversing: One of the first and most famous web riddle games. Many levels in other games are inspired by this one.
- Chevismo: An intriguing Spanish game. It requires cryptographic techniques to solve, with each level unlocking an explanation of how it could have been solved cryptographically—great for learning about cryptography.
- Python Challenge: Perfect for those wanting to learn Python. Each level provides clues to be solved using Python programming, introducing useful and lesser-known libraries and functions.
- MindGame: Another Spanish riddle game, similar to the classics.
If you've checked the above, you'll notice they all share a similar style. Over time, this genre has developed common characteristics and levels. There are even dedicated communities for riddle games.
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