AI Image Vowelless № 1

"Debonair osprey holding up a pencil, anime"

Happy March! I'm back with an impromptu puzzle that was really just an excuse to play around with the Bing Image Creator which uses DALL·E to generate AI images from prompts. The images can range from all sorts of styles, subjects, and unhinged combinations thereof imaginable.

The puzzle clues are all fill-in-the-blanks of prompts I used to generate the associated images. Each fill-in-the-blank answer is then put into the grid without any vowels like a standard vowelless crossword. For example, the entry MIND-BLOWING would become MNDBLWNG, and AVERAGE JOE would become VRGJ. To avoid complications, no entries will contain the letter "Y". The enumeration of each of the full entries is listed after its clue for assistance. 

This puzzle may be hit or miss on difficulty with the general ambiguity of deciphering images in addition to inputting only consonants in the grid, but do give it your best shot! I also encourage playing around with the AI image creator yourself while it's still in its preview phase. Hope you enjoy!

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🎂 Birthday Vowelless 🎂

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Happy August! I'm celebrating a big birthday this month, and you can probably guess what it is based on the grid shape... For my birthday I've decided to make a vowelless crossword with a hidden ✧bonus answer✧!

In a vowelless crossword all vowels are removed from the answers in the grid. For example, the entry MIND-BLOWING would become MNDBLWNG, and I HAVE NO IDEA would become HVND. To avoid complications, no entries will contain the letter "Y". The enumeration of each full entry is listed after its clue for assistance. 

The (hopefully) apt bonus answer is a famous time in history.

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Collab № 3 (Themeless w/ Adrian Johnson)

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Hi everyone - we're back with another collab! Apologies for missing the typical post on the 17th - I got busy with vacation and work obligations, but hopefully this puzzle makes up for it!

Excited to collaborate with Adrian, whose themeless puzzles have been everywhere lately (LA Times, Universal, & AVCX to name a few), and for good reason with such great entries and clever clues. He also has some older puzzles on his site ajxwords. This puzzle with its unusual 15x16 shape was quite a lot of fun to put together.

A note from Adrian:

Ryan is a true wizard of the crossworld, and it was a privilege to collaborate with him on this funky puzzle! As soon as one of my favorite songs burst out from my bottom seed corner, I knew I had to make a puzzle work. Who better to help me see it through than one of the greats?

Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 12 (Themeless)

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Happy June! A Chasm this month with one of my favorite open middle grid patterns.  I'm happy with the variety of lively answers I was able to squeeze into this one.

Thanks to Quiara Vasquez for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 11 (Themeless)

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Happy May! It's been a busy month so far, but I really love this time of year as everything begins warming up.

This month's chasm puzzle grew from me wanting to include a reference to "Heartstopper," the LGBTQ+ webcomic turned Netflix show.  The show came out earlier this month when I was having a pretty stressful week, and turned out to be one of the most heartwarming things I've watched in a long time.  Naturally, I went and tore through the entire webcomic in a couple of sittings as well... 

I've recently been trying to consume a lot of feel-good queer content, which I didn't have growing up and would have really helped with my own coming out experience around ten years ago.  "Heartstopper" is a series I connect with in particular because I relate strongly with both of the main characters - Charlie in his physicality, love of music, and general nerdiness, and Nick with his coming out journey that echoes mine.

Anyway, enough waxing poetic. I'm happy with the way this puzzle came out - it's a 17x17 with some fun clues and interesting entries. The corner quad stacks were a bit of a challenge to put together, but they eventually worked out :-)

Look out for a mainstream collab later this week... Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!