What is Topple all about?

Topple is a digital puzzle magazine designed to give fans of newspaper puzzles more options on a monthly basis.  Every issue is distributed through this website as a PDF, or Portable Document Format.  Once downloaded, the player has a couple options.  One way to go is to look at the magazine on a device of your choice as you play the games mentally or with a pencil and spare sheet of paper.  The ideal option, however, is to print it all out and enjoy the full tactile experience that puzzles deserve.  You can even use a stapler if you're feeling frisky.

 

Where does the name come from?

Essentially, the philosophy that originated this publication was born out of observations on newspapers today.  Rather than be truly open to printing new types of puzzles, many newspapers just grab a few established types they know will do well enough and quickly go on about the business of journalism.  It's an understandable position, but one that stifles innovation.  In turn, this sort of behavior even limits puzzle-centric publishers such as Dell.  From a business perspective, would they rather publish a volume of word search puzzles, or a volume of experimental puzzles no one has seen before?

This stagnation is epitomized by what I call the Duopoly, the two puzzles that are most likely to take up valuable real estate in your local paper.  You already know what the puzzles are: crossword and sudoku.  Though they are great puzzles, they are both over a century old.  When I was pitching a puzzle I had developed to newspapers, I sometimes included a cheeky slogan that succinctly expressed my concerns about the puzzle industry: "Topple the Duopoly!"

This is the origin of the magazine's name.

 

What kind of puzzles can I expect?

As you might guess, we are keen on publishing new and exciting puzzles types that are experimental and hardly known.  That said, we're not averse to publishing established work either.  We'll actually include the Duopoly once we hit the 20 puzzles per issue range.  We want to give puzzles room to breathe, not completely stamp out a certain type permanently.

The first two issues only contain puzzles invented by Topple staff, but issues after that include logic puzzles such as Masyu and Nurikabe.

A sampler of the puzzles found in the magazine has been added to the site.  It can be seen here.