About…
Welcome to kindahardpuzzles! There are loads of excellent online crosswords and paper-and-pencil puzzles here in several inventive forms that I think will appeal to serious crossword fans and other puzzle lovers who are looking for something, you know, kinda hard. You can print individual puzzles or whole books, and it’s all free (except, obviously, for the paper and toner). On the Puzzles page, click on a puzzle name for a brief description. When you find one that sounds interesting, click on a corresponding volume to open a PDF of the book from which to print puzzle pages. A quick suggestion from someone who hates to waste paper: Don’t forget to specify the pages — or you may have the unhappy experience of inadvertently pushing out 30 sheets.
In reality, of course, I really don't know if you'll find our puzzles kind of hard, but that's what I’m aiming for. As I see it, there are two kinds of puzzle solvers: Those for whom puzzles are a pastime, and those who solve for a mental challenge. For the former group, the pleasure of puzzling mostly derives from a sort of relaxing immersion, not unlike watching a good TV show, topped off by a sense of satisfaction in completing a task well. This group is probably the largest sector of the puzzle-solving population, and it is the group targeted by most puzzle sites. As for the latter group, they might sometimes enjoy a similar sort of experience, but they also don't mind — in fact, they positively relish — hitting a few bumps along the path to completion. They like slamming up against their apparent limits and finding a way to push through them using persistence and little flashes of insight. For them, finding just the right level of difficulty becomes paramount. They want something challenging but not so challenging that it leads ultimately to failure and frustration — something, in other words, kinda hard but not fantastically hard. Our name announces the fact that we want to serve this second group, and I see it as our responsibility to give our customers an opportunity to find that sweet spot of challenge within the pages of our books.
More About…
I have been working for puzzle magazines for nearly 30 years as an editor, constructor, programmer, and typesetter. I’m also an avid solver. That is, I’ve been involved in every aspect of the business… except the business aspect. This site (launched in March of 2024) represents, I guess, my attempt to close that circle.
I wrote all of the programs that generate these puzzle diagrams, as well as those used to edit and typeset them, but the work hasn't been entirely of a technical nature; I also created thousands of the crossword-style clues represented here, and grabbed the remainder from public domain sources. The enormous word lists used in the diagrams have been painstakingly gathered and curated over a number of years from dictionary sources, old crosswords, and the musty corners of my imagination. The point is that all of the inaccuracies and insensitivities that you are sure to find are entirely my responsibility. Let me apologize in advance for any error or offense but also ask for your indulgence. Use the contact form to tell me all of the things I'm doing wrong...and right.
Along those lines, I want to quickly acknowledge an issue endemic to the puzzle world that the clues and solutions are skewed toward people like the editor; in this case, a middle class American majority culture male boomer. I have made an effort to be inclusive of other people’s cultures, especially younger people and people of color, but progress has been limited at best.
Today the site contains 12 different puzzle varieties, nine with just a single volume while three of the titles have two volumes. Each volume contains 24 or more big puzzles. More varieties and more volumes are on the way. One or two new ones a month, I think. The supplementation process may be slow for a few of the titles, since, my humble PC takes almost a month just to crank out enough material for a single volume. I’ve just recently (6/9/24) added interactive crosswords, so you can solve online and on your phone. Speaking of phones, this site more or less requires a printer, so mobile devices are of limited utility here for now.
If you do enjoy the puzzles and you can afford to do so, I would appreciate any financial support you can give… if only to cover the site fees and the electric bills. Not trying to get rich here, but I dream of being able to hire a part-time assistant!
I hope you like the puzzles!
I’ve snuck in page of my philosophical speculations called Anti-Jump Muscles Relaxed. It’s about as strange as it sounds, but I’m rather proud of it. For those interested in such things, please take a look.