Take for example a cube of 7 by 7 by 7 letters. There are 343 letters inside and we have 49 “words” which go in Up-Down direction, intersecting 49 Left-Right “words” and intersecting 49 North-South “words”.
Those “words” may be words, more or less common, or a sequence of two words. Might be a blank between those two, the so called black field. But I think it is much better without blanks. A thin separator may be drawn instead, and we have a so called Italian crossword. Now in 3D.
A crossworder in the above 7 x 7 x 7 case gets between 147 and 294 queries. Each letter figured out, has another two orthogonal questions which are a bit easier to solve now. This “orthogonality” makes crosswords interesting in the first place and here in 3D we have twice the “orthogonality” of a 2D crossword.
Maybe I should try some field tests?
Leaving some clues incomplete so they can only be solved by approach from other dimensions after figuring out the relative position of each sub-puzzle?
Perhaps. This could be tested. All for the maximal pleasure of a crosswords solver.
This seems like it would work a lot better as a computer program, where the crossword cube can be rotated by the user to see the different fields. Otherwise a 7 x 7 x 7 seems like it would be too large for a newspaper, where real estate is limited (not to mention the difficulty in doing the “depth” part of the crossword). Making it virtual (either a standalone app, web app, steam game) solves most of the potential problems.
It’s a whole new ball game, actually.
Take for example a cube of 7 by 7 by 7 letters. There are 343 letters inside and we have 49 “words” which go in Up-Down direction, intersecting 49 Left-Right “words” and intersecting 49 North-South “words”.
Those “words” may be words, more or less common, or a sequence of two words. Might be a blank between those two, the so called black field. But I think it is much better without blanks. A thin separator may be drawn instead, and we have a so called Italian crossword. Now in 3D.
A crossworder in the above 7 x 7 x 7 case gets between 147 and 294 queries. Each letter figured out, has another two orthogonal questions which are a bit easier to solve now. This “orthogonality” makes crosswords interesting in the first place and here in 3D we have twice the “orthogonality” of a 2D crossword.
Maybe I should try some field tests?
Perhaps. This could be tested. All for the maximal pleasure of a crosswords solver.
This seems like it would work a lot better as a computer program, where the crossword cube can be rotated by the user to see the different fields. Otherwise a 7 x 7 x 7 seems like it would be too large for a newspaper, where real estate is limited (not to mention the difficulty in doing the “depth” part of the crossword). Making it virtual (either a standalone app, web app, steam game) solves most of the potential problems.
Well, here is a low-tech version of a user interface. Printed (3D) crossword. Or at least printable. Perhaps it would do for some.
http://www.critticall.com/cubus_maximus/test.html
The virtual spaces could be also somewhat filled with them, yes.