Why are online puzzle games having a moment? | The Vergecast

Hooked on LinkedIn’s Queens? Gotta extend your Wordle streak in the New York Times games app before you start your day? You’re in good company on today’s Vergecast episode. Allison Johnson is joined by Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, world-class puzzle champs and hosts of the delightful Cracking the Cryptic, a YouTube channel where they solve a puzzle on camera every single day.
They specialize in Sudoku — and not just the classic number games you might be familiar with. Simon and Mark tackle mind-bending, seemingly impossible puzzles, working through it all in realtime, sometimes over the course of several hours. What happens when you get stuck? How can you tell the difference between a puzzle made by a human and a computer-generated one? Why are we addicted to puzzle games all of a sudden? They help us crack the clues.

0:00 Intro
00:45 Meet the Puzzle Champions: Simon and Mark
00:58 The World of Cracking the Cryptic
02:49 Understanding Classic and Variant Sudoku
04:27 The Art of Handmade Puzzles
07:49 Building a Community Around Puzzles
10:10 The Challenges of Solving Live
22:39 The Miracle Sudoku Phenomenon
30:21 Introduction to Mark LaVoy and Project Indigo
32:06 The Evolution of Computational Photography
34:05 Understanding HDR and Ultra HDR
40:05 Discussing HDR Photography
40:54 Tone Mapping and Artistic HDR
43:02 Project Indigo's HDR Approach
45:34 RAW Capabilities in Project Indigo
54:22 Generative AI in Photography
01:01:21 Future of Smartphone Camera Hardware
01:04:28 Project Indigo's Experimental Features
01:09:53 Listener Question: Camera Bumps
01:16:11 Conclusion

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Post from The Verge on September 02, 2025

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