The idea is called Puzzuka, the largest puzzle ever built. The Puzzuka puzzle has been created virtually on the Internet, and the whole world is challenged to solve it. It is free to work on the puzzle, and we will deliver advertising on the puzzle to raise funds for non-profit organisations.
People who work on the puzzle are called Players, and every player gets a small part of the puzzle, called a mini-puzzle. They solve it in their Internet browser, and then that part of the entire structure is marked as complete. Players can solve as many mini-puzzles as they like.
So how big is it? Puzzuka contains over 260 million mini-puzzles, over 40 billion pieces. There are a number of technical difficulties to representing such a huge puzzle graphically. First of all, could we make all of these mini-puzzles relate to a single image? Second, could we show people visually how much of the puzzle is solved so they can see a final image emerge?
It soon became clear that a single image would not yield to 40 billion pieces and still be useful. The puzzle pieces would be smaller than the pixels used to display the image! An impossible situation. So we had to redefine the problem. Unlike maths and physics, computer science often allows this so long as the solution is still useful. It turns out that redefining the problem made the solution even more useful.
We created a thing called a puzzle structure. Each mini-puzzle in this structure is created from a stand-alone image that can be scrambled and easily solved by one person. We created the structure from all the mini-puzzles by linking them together. The mini-puzzles were linked together in levels so that parts of mini-puzzles on an upper level connect to mini-puzzles on the level below. The mini-puzzle on the upper level can’t be solved until all of it’s lower level connected mini-puzzles have been solved.
This pyramid structure allows us to start solving mini-puzzles on the lowest level, and progress upward until we arrive at the final mini-puzzle. The final mini-puzzle lives on it’s own right at the top of the puzzle pyramid.
What’s great about this structure is that we can now deliver any images we like on the mini-puzzles. At the last minute, our puzzle engine cuts up the image and scrambles it to match the mini-puzzle in the puzzle structure. In fact, we are now not limited to only images, we can cut up videos on mini-puzzles, and even use the scrambled mini-puzzle to create other types of interactive games.
So now we have this huge, blank Puzzuka puzzle structure online. We are filling the mini-puzzles with interesting images while we wait for the online advertising community to catch on. These mini-puzzles don’t generate funds, but they will get the ball rolling.
As an incentive to players, we are sourcing product giveaways to hide under random mini-puzzles. Players then stand a chance to win as they solve, and this should drive the project, especially as more advertisers come on board, and the quality of the prizes increases. At the moment the chances of winning are about 1 in 3000. Chances will increase as more sponsors join the cause, and we throw more exciting giveaways into the mix.
Our aim is to generate funds that will help drive education initiatives. Currently, we have teamed up with Enfants du Monde (Children of the World) to help us launch the project. We have agreed to give 20% of the funds generated to Enfants du Monde to help them with their important work in developing countries. The remaining funds will be allocated to other similar initiatives. In fact, I am working on an idea to have Puzzuka players determine how the funds raised are spent. This will allow people to get more involved in the project.
We will need at least 500,000 players a month in order to attract advertiser interest. When that happens, the quality and quantity of giveaways will increase, and that should drive player traffic further. It’s like a big engine that we need to get started. We’re sure that once it takes, it will run by itself.
We are calling on everyone who cares about the future of humanity, and who cares about what they can win, to sign up and play Puzzuka. Get everyone you know to sign up also, and play at least one puzzle a day. Form groups and challenge each other, see who can do the most, and in the shortest times.
We, humanity, face some interesting challenges over the next few decades. The more we are prepared for it, the better we will cope. Future generations, the first of which is already here, will require special skills to meet the challenges they face too. Education is the most powerful tool we have to prepare ourselves and our children. Let’s pull together to make this an extraordinary source of resources for the thousands of people working to improve life for us all.
We have many great ideas for Puzzuka and related initiatives, and we are a small team. We’d appreciate all the help we can get. If you’d like to get involved and help, please contact us via the Puzzuka.
Celebrities, Businesses, Organisations and Governments, please lend us your muscle.
Great love and appreciation,
André
