Amnesia, the Game

 

On the morning of April 10th, 1999, a group of 150 people gathered at the top of a nondescript parking lot on the Stanford campus, not knowing what to expect. Along with them was a faction calling themselves Game Control, who would dictate their fates for the next 24 to 36 hours. Unfortunately for the players, Game Control was only marginally more clueful than they were.

Our first attempt at running a Game didn't quite go as smoothly as we planned. There were a few more run-ins with the police than we wanted. There were a few more problems with clues and locations than we expected. And there was a lot more rain than anyone could have possibly imagined. However, despite all the troubles, we weren't horrified enough to scare ourselves away from the possibility of thinking about considering running another Game.

There is an excellent summary of Amnesia, The Game created by Team Advil. It's so good, that I don't feel obligated to give a good summary of Amnesia. We also sent out a wrap-up of Amnesia through email, which I have formatted slightly into an HTML version of our wrap-up.

Team Advil's summary is missing samples of some of the clues, which I (having stored most of them on my computer) can easily provide.

So, on with the list:

Seeding problem: Number Weave
When I came up with the number weave, I though it was a pretty good open-ended problem. Then, I sat down and tried to come up with a solution and realized that it wasn't all that difficult to mathematically determine the optimal solution. Then I though about it a little more and realized it was possible to get a super-optimal solution by bending the rules slightly - that is, by not taping the strips together and slipping the ends of other strips in between the fold. One team came up with this idea, and we let it fly, allowing them to slip past a whole bunch of other teams that had been tied for 1st place on this one.
Seeding problem: Pipe Cube
I'm quite happy with how the pipe cube problem came out. I actually just distributed the curves on the cube randomly, though I now realize that it could have been a much tougher puzzle with a little bit more planning. At least there weren't as many ties for first on this one as there were for the number weave.
The art clue (8.5MB .zip file)
This was a cool clue. And the solution to this clue is one of the coolest, unknown locations on Stanford's campus.
The mirror clue
Analogy clue: Page 1, Page 2
I just have to say that the grid we used for the analogy clue was the first one we completed that fit. I think with work, we could have come up with a much better grid - especially one which didn't contain multiple pairs which used the same analogy relation (Opposites was pretty badly abused in our grid, I think). Still, I think the art I did for this clue was pretty cool.
The maze clue
The rebus clue
The different pictures clue: Page 1, Page 2
I had tons and tons of fun coming up with the words and drawing the pictures for this clue. I wanted to make the clue harder, but some of the other GC members objected.
The Morse code clue
A simple clue put in only as revenge for the previous years' Morse code clues - which our team invariably failed at. Additionally, we have failed at Morse code clues since Amnesia, as well, tripping up in both Espionage and Willy Wonka due to Morse Code.
The food clue
The colored letters
As bad as this clue looks on a computer screen, it was way worse during twilight, printed on paper.
The letter grid
The time clue
I wanted to make this clue harder, too. Good thing we didn't, because it was apparently pretty hard the way we presented it here.