The Atlantic is making a big push into games
Daily puzzle games are seemingly everywhere right now, and starting today, you'll be able to add a new stop to your puzzle rotation: The Atlantic.
The publication is launching a new hub for its growing game offerings, including already available games like Bracket City and Caleb's Inferno Crossword Puzzle, as well as some new puzzles. You'll be able to access the hub on both the web and in The Atlantic's app.
Caleb Madison, The Atlantic's director of games, gave The Verge a demo of most of the games available in the hub ahead of today's launch:
Bracket City, which The Atlantic licensed earlier this year, requires you to solve clues nested in brackets that eventually resolve into a fun fact about that day in history.
Stacks, a new game, is kind of like Tetris meets Wordle, Madison says. You have a bank of words that you have to place in the correct order, on top of letters already on the board, to form other words.
In Fluxis, another new game, you try to figure out words that build off the previous word and incorporate some kind of characteristic. Madison showed me an example of needing to build an adjective off the word 'checkerboard' — he went with 'arduous.'
Caleb's Inferno Crossword Puzzle, which is already included in the monthly Atlantic magazine and available online, is last game Madison showed me. Caleb's crossword is a narrow rectangle instead of a square, but as you move farther down the puzzle, the clues get more difficult to solve.
Madison doesn't necessarily see The Atlantic's games as replacing your visits to other daily puzzles. 'I think people have a pretty ravenous diet for new games, so I don't think coming to The Atlantic precludes any of these other amazing games that are at The New York Times or Apple News or LinkedIn,' Madison says. 'What I feel like The Atlantic has to offer that's different from those publications is a little bit more of a bespoken, artisanal aesthetic.'
Madison also tries to bring an 'aesthetic narrative component' to games to help them feel 'immersive and special.' Bracket City, for example, has some city-themed elements sprinkled throughout, like the 'fan mail' email being mayor@bracket.city.
Like with The New York Times, some aspects of The Atlantic 's games will only be available if you're a paid subscriber. Bracket City and all of its archives are free. The full archives for Stacks, Fluxis, and The Atlantic 's daily mini crossword will be behind a paywall, however; nonsubscribers will only have access to the three most recent puzzles for those games. All of the Caleb's Inferno crossword puzzles are exclusive to subscribers.
Madison says he has 'a lot of plans' for more games, including long-form games of some kind. 'I'm trying to make no assumptions as to what that would look like and just forge forward creatively to see what a more layered day-to-day experience would be like.' He didn't want to give anything specific away, but he says, 'I am excited to innovate in the game space and bring unique and authentic, long-form game experiences to The Atlantic users and to people online.'
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