Behind the Games
Behind the Games
Notes on clues, sports data, game design, and the strange little problems that show up when you build a new puzzle every day.
I make Yearbook and Roster Relay, and I spend a probably unreasonable amount of time thinking about clues, sports data, scoring rules, and tiny details most players should never have to notice. These are notes from that process.
Yearbook
How a Yearbook Puzzle Gets Made
A look at how Hindsight Games turns a year into four sourced, progressively helpful Yearbook clues—and why the process got more complicated over time.
Read note →YearbookWhat Makes a Good Yearbook Clue?
Recognizability, nostalgia, fairness, difficulty, and the “oh yeah” moment behind a good Yearbook clue.
Read note →YearbookHow I Use AI in Yearbook — and What I Don’t Let It Decide
How AI helps word Yearbook clues while sources, facts, game design, QA, and final editorial judgment stay under human control.
Read note →YearbookThe Barbenheimer Problem: When the Source Is Right but the Answer Is Wrong
A small Yearbook edge case about why technically related sources can still produce the wrong reveal.
Read note →Roster Relay
Why Roster Relay Rarity Measures Fame, Not Just Career Length
How Roster Relay tries to reward obscure sports memory without pretending to mathematically solve fame.
Read note →Roster RelayHow Roster Relay Chooses a Daily Puzzle
Recognizable endpoints, route length, hub resistance, cooldowns, and why variety matters when choosing a Roster Relay puzzle.
Read note →Roster RelayThe Roster Relay Scoring Loophole
Why repeatedly naming players from the same roster was fun but shouldn’t pad Links or Rarity, and how the scoring changed.
Read note →Roster RelayWhy “They Were Teammates” Is Harder Than It Sounds
Franchise moves, trades, overlapping seasons, duplicate connections, and the messy sports data behind a simple Roster Relay rule.
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