Hey, puzzle friends! We’ve got some fantastic news. Shipping is wrapped, all of your digital goodies are ready to download, and every Chums invite has officially gone out

We began a staggered rollout of the Chums site last week, and all invites have now been sent. If you haven’t spotted yours yet, check your spam or promotions folders. You can also search for the subject line “Welcome to Chums – Your Invite is Here!” If you are having any issues finding it, reach out to us here and we’ll get you sorted.

If you pledged for an additional Chums subscription, you should have received a separate email with your extra code. If you can't locate that, let us know here.

All the physical goods have been shipped out for everyone that has completed their pledge. A small number of shipments are still making their way to folks, but you should have your tracking numbers. If you have not received your shipment and have not received a tracking number, reach out to us here so we can look into it for you.

If your pledge is still incomplete, please reach out as soon as possible so we can help you finish it. Fulfillment for this campaign concludes on February 1st, and we can’t guarantee product availability or shipping prices after that date.

A reminder, all your digital items have been loaded into Backerkit and are ready for you to download.  If you aren't familiar with accessing your digital files, this support article might be helpful.

If run into any trouble finding or downloading your files, reach out and we'll get you sorted.

Everything we made for this campaign along with all of our other products are available on our store at shop.lonesharkgames.com. 

Some items are extremely limited. For example, if you want an additional copy of The Hunting of the Shark, now’s the time. Once it’s gone, it won’t be reprinted.

Thanks again for being rad and supporting The Hunting of the Shark. We’re thrilled to have you in the waters with us.

The Sharks

Hello, puzzle friendos! We have some exciting news for you. The tl;dr is that shipping is complete, The 12 Days of Cryptics has ended, and the Chums is launching today! We go into each of those things in detail below.

All copies of The Hunting of the Shark, Mindspaces, and the rest of our puzzle projects shipped to backers in December.

If you're in the U.S. and ordered physical copies of our books, you should already have received the items pledged for. Those all went out in the second and third weeks of December. So, if you haven't received your copies, you should let us know ASAP.

As for Canada, all copies got across the border on December 11, and then... well, then it got tricky. For three weeks, the books got stuck somewhere in Mississauga, Ontario. We're not sure why. We asked lots of questions but didn't get any satisfying answers. But a few days after Christmas, we received word that the packages were moving out of Mississauga. They all are either delivered or in transit across Canada. If you haven't gotten yours, check the tracking number you were emailed directly by QuarterMaster Logistics. If a week or more passes and you don't have it, let us know.

We're really sorry about this. International shipping has been a bit more challenging than usual lately. We don't know if our Canadian shipments got caught up in a tariff fight, or it was a stuck-in-the-snow situation, or there's some sort of "Mississauga Triangle" that's gone unreported on Atlas Obscura. Regardless, your package should either be at your door now or on its way shortly.

It's January, which means we are officially beginning the launch of Chums, the puzzle subscription you signed up for when you purchased any version of The Hunting of the Shark. If you did not purchase the book, you will still be able to sign up directly on the site.

Chums is where we will share new puzzle content each month, including puzzlehunts, paper puzzles, puzzle book outtakes, and more. You will receive a monthly notification when new content is available, and your personal dashboard will show everything you have access to. Subscribers of the Shark of the Year level will also receive discounts on puzzle releases, early samplers, and other perks. Think of it as a puzzle focused version of Patreon.

Since everyone who pledged for Chums on this BackerKit campaign has the same subscription, we are organizing access by calendar year. If you have one, your Shark of the Year subscription runs from January through December 2026, and you will be able to see all content released so far, no matter when you log in. New subscribers will follow the same model. If someone joins in March, they will still receive the January and February content. We also offer a Shark Bites tier for those who want a smaller amount of free content.

Starting today we are doing a staggered rollout of the Chums site. This approach lets us monitor performance and address issues as they appear so that the experience is smooth for everyone. Over the next week or so, you will receive an email with instructions for creating your account, so keep an eye on your inbox. If everything stays on track, we expect Chums to be fully rolled out by January 15.

If you purchased an additional subscription to Chums, you will receive multiple emails with your invite information. 

Chums is still evolving, and we will continue making improvements. If you have feedback, we would love to hear it.

January's upload is the Gen Con Monster Hunt. If you've got a copy of The Hunting of the Shark, you can see that the Gen Con Time Warp is our first Gen Con puzzle event, and then the next one is Around the World in 80 Puzzles. That was the first hunt called the Gen Con Puzzle Hunt. But in between was 2004's Monster Hunt, a very special hunt because it focuses on all the variations of one puzzle type: the matchmaker.

A matchmaker is a puzzle where you match each item on the left side of a puzzle to an item on the right side. When you find a match, draw a line between the pair. In the middle of the puzzle are letters your line may cross. The crossed letters spell an answer. 

The Monster Hunt contains 28 matchmaker puzzles, plus a heavily revised metapuzzle. (The original involved walking the Gen Con 2004 exhibit hall, which, unless you have a time machine, you're not doing this year.)

We hope you enjoy the Monster Hunt and all that Chums brings you throughout the year!

If you're one of the many people on this campaign who pledged for a subscription to our holiday bonanza The 12 Days of Cryptics, you should have received our tiny little Christmas miracle in your email. Now that it's done, we've added it to your downloads on BackerKit!

If you didn't sign up, you still can! Just put a few chocolate coins down here and you'll get all of The 12 Days of Cryptics and the Con Cryptic Bonus Pack. From the feedback we're getting, people seemed to really like this fresh new set of cryptic puzzles. If you like that kind of thing, maybe you will be too!

So, go check your Chums account and enjoy the holiday puzzlement. We'll be back soon with another update on how all of this is going. And here's a Happy New Year from all of us at Shark HQ to you and yours!

The Sharks

Hey everyone! Today we start The 12 Days of Cryptics. If you signed up for it, you should have gotten an email today which describes how it will work. If you don't see one, check your spam folder. If you still can't find it, use our Talk to Us page to let us know.

Each day you'll receive an email with a cryptic puzzle. You'll also get a PDF each day with all the previous puzzles and answers so far. That will continue until the last puzzle goes out on January 5th. Then finally, on Epiphany, you'll get the full PDF of The 12 Days of Cryptics, as well as the Con Cryptic Bonus Pack. 

So, watch your email for puzzles! Happy holidays from all the Sharks!

The Sharks

Here's a Hunting of the Shark shipping update!

All packages for US backers have been shipped from our fulfiller's warehouse in Florida. So, if you're in the US and you ordered a physical copy of The Hunting of the Shark, Mindspaces, or any other project from us through this campaign or the BackerKit campaign, it should be on the way to you or already arrived at your house. 

If you're in the US and you haven't gotten a tracking number from us, please let us know at our contact page. Select "I have a question about a crowdfunding campaign."

If you got your books, we'd love it you'd post pictures on your social media and share it with friends. If you know anyone who'd like to preorder copies, we just put the books up on our store. You can send them there if you like! (Shipments will not go out until we're sure all Kickstarter backer packages have been sent.)

All orders to Canada have been packed by our fulfiller and tracking numbers have been generated. They have not yet left the warehouse, because they need to be trucked up north with a bunch of other stuff. That should happen soon. We'll let you know when we see them leave Florida.

If you’ve received your tracking number, it may take a few more days to show movement while the truck travels from Florida to Canada. Once FedEx scans it in Canada, updates should appear.

Every digital file has been placed into the downloads section of your BackerKit account. You can go there now and download The Hunting of the Shark, Mindspaces, or anything else.

The exception is The 12 Days of Christmas, which will begin its release next week. With Christmas just around the corner, everyone who ordered The 12 Days of Cryptics and the Con Cryptic Bonus Pack has been entered into our email system. Starting on December 24th, you'll start getting daily emails filled with holiday puzzle goodness. You'll get 24 puzzles in all, a veritable advent calendar of cryptic craziness.

If you know anyone who wants to puzzle along with you, they can go to our store and pre-register. 

The Hunting of the Shark does not have its answers included. But we did make a PDF answer file available for you in your Hunting downloads. Just download the puzzle file and unzip it. You'll see the book and the answers.

The Puzzlevania Map does not have answers, because there is no canonical set of answers to that optimization puzzle. We'd love to see yours when you've got the best score you can.

PuzzCulture just ran a phenomenal retrospective of our 2013 White Heffalump gift exchange, which we ran in public with many of our celebrity and designer friends. It's a ripping read, so if you'd like some extra holiday cheer, go to the PuzzCulture site and read all about it. You'll be glad you did.

We're excited to see US shipping done for this campaign and Canada shipping coming along. We hope you enjoy the mountain of puzzles we're sending you. If you like them, please tell us!

Wishing you a happy holidays from all of us at Shark HQ,

The Sharks

Hey, we know we just hit you up about The Hunting of the Shark a couple days ago, but we have new information!

If you need to update your address and have not let Quartermaster know, your window to do so is rapidly closing. Again, if you didn't move, then you don't need to do anything. But if you want to change your address for any reason, and you haven't told Quartermaster, you need to do so immediately.

If your address has not changed since you provided it in the PledgeManager, you can ignore this step, as they have your correct address on file.

If you don't see the email, double check your junk mail folder. If you still don't see your email, first verify your address needs to be updated by visiting the PledgeManager. If the correct address is in the system there, you do not need to update your address. If the address is incorrect, send a note to QML support.

We cannot change your address for you; you'll need to either reply to QML's email or let them know via their support form.

After address verification closes, Quartermaster will start preparing your packages for shipping, then sending them out. You will get a tracking number via email directly from Quartermaster when your package is sent. (If you live in Canada, you'll get a tracking number when your package is readied for shipping, but it might take a bit to be sent because packages are all trucked to Canada and then posted.)

That process will be staggered over the next few weeks. Some backers may receive verifications or shipping notices before others. If you see someone say they got a notification, and you haven't gotten yours yet, hang loose. It'll be on its way soon.

With shipping beginning next week, we've readied the PDF versions of The Hunting of the Shark and the Puzzlevania Map. You should recieve an email shortly from BackerKit with your download links.

If you run into any issues or have any questions, please reach out to us at https://lonesharkgames.com/talk-to-us/ and select "I have a question about a crowdfunding campaign."

The Puzzlevania Map is a two-sided 20"x30" map, and you probably don't have a printer bed that big, so follow the printing instructions we've included in the download for best results.

We have put the finishing touches on The 12 Days of Cryptics, our holiday-themed variety cryptic crossword event. Here's how it will work. Starting Christmas Eve, you’ll get an email with a sample puzzle and instructions for the event. On Christmas Day, an email will give you a link to the puzzle for Day 1. The next day, you’ll get an email with a link to the puzzle for Day 2 and a link to the solution file for Day 1. That sequence will continue until Day 12, when you’ll get links for the Day 12 puzzle and the Day 11 solution.

 

Then, on the day of Epiphany, you’ll get the special Con Cryptic Pack with twelve more of Mike’s variety cryptic crosswords, many of which had their debut at the National Puzzlers' League conventions. That’s twenty-four variety cryptics, a veritable advent calendar of puzzles. 

If you didn't get The 12 Days of Cryptics during its campaign, fret not! You can head over to our store and get setup with it today! 

We're still working on release details on Chums, which will be available sometime after The 12 Days of Cryptics concludes.

That's all the info for today. More when shipping is underway!

Sharky