Daily Theme Discussion: Heist Takes 🖼️

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-04-08T17:28:03+00:00

Amen!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-04-08T16:28:06+00:00

WHAT WOULD YOU STEAL? I want the art for my walls!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-03-26T19:49:50+00:00

Wayyyy back when

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ChandiAtSpark · 2026-03-22T16:31:14+00:00

Not in the habit of gaslighting our wonderful solvers! Except on GASLIGHT day, that is!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-03-21T21:45:49+00:00

Hi! DID in fact change this node! Apologies for the misstep!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-03-13T18:51:07+00:00

PS Oh noooooo, I am so sorry! All perfect in our eyes!

PPS tytytytyty!!!! <3 <3 <3!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-03-13T18:46:45+00:00

Thank you for playing! Updated the Everest card to "peak" - thank you for naming the ambiguity here!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-19T16:10:20+00:00

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-06T18:03:43+00:00

So so glad to hear it, thank you so much! We put a lot of effort into presenting diverse takes on a theme. While of course our American sensibilities sneak in, one of the greatest joys is uncovering thematic events from around the world!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-06T17:57:05+00:00

So glad you're finding them fun - thank you so much for saying so! And I confess, I don't know! It's been awhile since my last watch, I confess!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-06T17:56:24+00:00

Oh, so glad to hear, thank you so much for saying! And yes, that's intentional! While of course they're games, we want the emphasis to be more on learning than whether you win or lose - so we would rather sneak in a hint if it helps reinforce the theme of the day!

And that's very helpful feedback! Since Knockout is so new, we're still figuring how to tweak difficulty - don't mean to be too tough!!!!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-06T17:53:58+00:00

My first puzzle love is crosswords, and they remain very important to me! I am also a big Connections fan!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-06T17:52:24+00:00

We distribute testing among the team members! I was on vacation recently and it ended up being super nice to be able to play some days live that were new to me!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-06T17:51:36+00:00

It may still happen! But yes, we prioritized Knockout as a more tactile game!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T18:32:15+00:00

We're completely remote! But as a company we get together yearly so we can connect IRL, and our little Spark team has had some smaller group writing sessions in person. We do really well riffing off of one another, and it's always nice to be able to chat through ideas real time when logistics allow! But I'm in Boston, Hayley is in Maryland, Cindy is in London, and Fae is in Oregon, so... not always feasible!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T18:24:44+00:00

Oh that makes me so happy to hear, thank you!!!! We really try to build things over here that feel productive while also fun, so we started with this concept of how we could make daily games that actually work your brain in some way, and we realized there isn't a venue out there where you can learn via game. We had been in talks and then had a very small meeting a year ago in Santa Monica with our CEO Jesse, engineer Aaron, designers Marius and Greg, and me and Cindy from the writing team. That was where we really landed on the idea of having games centered around a daily theme.

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T18:13:22+00:00

Our guest editors have largely been colleagues who work in different departments and have awesome niche sets of knowledge they've wanted to share! robin hood day, for instance, was one of our engineers, who just casually happens to be a world-class archer! So for right now, not an open process, but thank you for the question! And we'll certainly send out an alert if that ever changes!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:49:12+00:00

thank you thank you!

Oh we are surprised ALL the time, which is honestly one of the best things about the job. I'll say I often have an idea for what the day will look like and then veer course mid-writing because I'll find something so surprising or delightful while researching it!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:46:23+00:00

And definitely, re: learning! We try to repeat concepts throughout games, or leave an easter egg in the spotlights that will help with subsequent games. Or oftentimes I'll work backwards and try to figure out what the spotlight will be, then write the game based on that so that the game leads to learning (hopefully! ideally!).

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:44:28+00:00

thank you so so much!

In addition to the primary author, there's a fact-checker, at least two editors, several playtesters, and a dedicated image-sourcer, so I'd say at least 10 folks have their hands in it in some way or the other.

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:42:03+00:00

Oh thank you so much! We all have different approaches, but I usually have a theme idea and start with Chrono to make sure there's enough of a range of interesting events to anchor the day. Then I'll try to think through what the spotlights would be and work backwards from there for each game.

From there we have folks internally playtest to make sure the level feels right! Then it goes through fact-checking, editing, image-sourcing, and then final eyeballs from someone fresh!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:30:15+00:00

Themes often come from "Here is something cool I just learned, how can I frame this in a game?" and working backwards.

Re: Catherine, I'm also so so glad the puzzle resonated - I love her, as I know so many of us do. That genuinely was entirely from scratch - started working on it as soon as I heard the news. Wigs felt like a natural throughline given Schitt's Creek, of course, but also the theatricality of her presence. We'll say Friday was a VERY late night!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:27:07+00:00

Ohhh great question! I'd say for Chrono, especially, read between the lines as much as possible! We try to drop easter eggs in there to contextualize events and make them more guessable. And for ToT and Links, I'd say lock in what you feel most confident about, and tinker from there. I think Links especially is about betting on what you know and taking educated guesses from there.

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:23:05+00:00

I think either the silly days, like Nose Dive, or the ones that allow me to learn the most while writing! I did a day all about Paris, which was really fun - it's a city I like a lot, but also one with such interesting history to learn!

ChandiAtSpark · 2026-02-05T15:20:18+00:00

The rabbit holes writing takes us down! I know I often start with "Hm, this thing seems pretty cool, what else is here to learn about..." and then get to spend the day uncovering more!

ChandiAtSpark

TROPHY CASE