If you love escape rooms, puzzles, or doing the daily Wordle, then you won’t want to miss Key Clues, the campus-wide puzzle hunt returning to campus this winter, from January 27 to February 3, 2025.
Key Clues was founded in fall 2022 as a wellness activity for students from the Faculty of Mathematics. In fall 2023, its second iteration saw the puzzles – and the participants – move beyond Math.
Now, for the first time, Key Clues will feature an immersive narrative and creative design in addition to fifteen custom-designed puzzles. Students, post-docs, staff, faculty, and alumni from across the University of Waterloo are invited to sign up in teams to compete for the coveted Enigma Cup.
"Key Clues is a low-stakes, high-enjoyment competition in which everyone can take part!” says Ty Ghaswala, Key Clues founder and assistant professor (teaching stream) with the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing. “Whether you’re a literature expert, fancy yourself a whiz at word games, or happen to possess an alarming amount of knowledge about constellations or 80s arcade games, there’s something for everyone. This year, particularly, I suspect that having a team with a very wide general knowledge base will be an invaluable asset!”
Ghaswala and his team of volunteer “enigmatologists” have been working since May 2024 to develop and test the puzzles, design, and narrative for this year’s competition. “Key Clues 2025 features the participant receiving a series of cryptic messages from The Watcher, a mysterious figure with ties to Waterloo’s forgotten past,” says Elisabetta Paiano, Digital Communications Officer for the Faculty of Mathematics and co-creative director of this year’s competition. “It’s been so fun to transform the competition from a collection of puzzles to a cohesive, cool experience. Think Alfred Hitchcock, film noir, Cold War spy vs. spy vibes.”
Though this is only the third Key Clues, Ghaswala has been involved with puzzle hunts since he was an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne back in 2008. “Puzzles are the best!” he says. “There’s nothing like the feeling of staring at something which looks impossible to figure out, only to notice some pattern or have a stroke of insight to make progress and have that sought-after ‘aha’ moment. Plus, putting together a team is a great way to reconnect with old friends or make new ones. As one of our enigmatologists told me this year, 'Is there a better way to get to know someone than to solve a puzzle with them?'”
Participants are welcome to sign up in teams, or as individuals to be matched up prior to the beginning of the competition. To learn more, visit the Key Clues website, check out puzzles from the fall 2023 hunt, and attend the January 20 kick-off event at 3:00 o’clock in the DC Fishbowl, which will include the early release of two puzzles!