A Promotional Puzzle
THEME:
This puzzle "zooms in" on one of the most famous city parks in the world.
It demonstrates how effective small-scale PuzzleMaps can be.
The park has many distinct areas and features but no fixed boundaries, so the pieces are completely arbitrary.
The arrangement could easily be different but the idea remains the same: learning your way around a special place no matter what size it is.
• Total pieces = 33
• Total vertices = 1,907
CLUES: Most areas within the park already have a well-known name, but a few had to be borrowed from a playground or other feature. Most have a distinctive landmark as well. Noting a prominent sculpture and the typical activities in each area lets the puzzle double as a visitor guide.
BASEMAP:
An OSM street map was selected for this puzzle that has a clean style and shows a lot of park detail at smaller scales.
This helps confirm the identity of each piece as it is correctly placed.
• Min Zoom = 12
• Max Zoom = 18
VARIATIONS: Any area of interest can be made into a PuzzleMap. This would be a great way to promote visitors and to prepare them with useful knowledge about what they will encounter. This could be done for any city, county, state or federal park or open space. PuzzleMap could also be used to promote commercial venues like summer camps, ski resorts, beach fronts and even shopping malls.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES: To help solvers get started, the rectangular shape was modified by including Grand Army Plaza, the Natural History Museum and the roundabouts at the northern end. This also provided a statue clue for 3 corner pieces. SpherAware can create PuzzleMaps with arbitrary pieces if a client is unable to provide the GIS data. Aerial imagery may also work as a good basemap for small-scale puzzles.