Eric Harshbarger has an interest in “eclectic things”. All “geeky”, he says. The 40-year-old also sleeps for 12 hours a day but justifies the large amount of slumber time, pointing out he doesn’t waste time watching television or have a wife or children. He pauses to reflect. “Maybe those things are connected?”
Basically, Mr Harshbarger who lives in Auburn, Alabama, the city in which he was born and where he also did his degree and postgraduate studies, likes a quiet life. And that means no mobile phone either. “I don’t need to be in constant contact all the time. I’m intrigued to see how long I can manage before I cave in.”
The lack of mobile phone is intriguing. After all, Mr Harshbarger is no Luddite. His first job was writing Java code at Sun Microsystems in San Francisco, he has had a website since the mid-1990s and is active on Facebook. More to the point, some of his work involves creating apps for mobile devices.
Mr Harshbarger designs and builds puzzles for a living. Some are computer games – like Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton’s Secret Life, an alternative reality game which uses an interactive narrative to deliver a story that can be altered by participants’ actions. Some are worldwide scavenger hunts which involve clues and are used by companies to market products. Others are toy kits to be assembled by children and adults – for example, his Digits-in-a-box game which asks players to pack ten plastic numbers (0-9) into a clear cube.
He has consulted on television programmes, most recently the BBC’s The Code,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. a three-part documentary about maths (hidden in the show and accompanying website were clues to a treasure that viewers were invited to find). His income is a mixture of consultancy, royalties and contract work.
However, there are some areas that Mr Harshbarger, who when he is not working likes to hold puzzle parties and play in Scrabble tournaments, does not touch.This page contains information about molds, He steers clear of crosswords and jigsaws. “I enjoy them but I don’t do them,” he explains.
His passion for puzzles stems from his childhood, when his grandparents used to give them to him as presents.
To be good at puzzles, he believes, you need to be a logical thinker. To this end his degrees in maths serve him well. Patience is also important, he muses, “because you have to realise that you are going to invent a lot of bad puzzles. It’s very easy to make a hard puzzle; it’s very hard to make a good one. The hardest part of puzzle-making is creating a puzzle that is difficult, that the player knows is difficult and yet is still fun to try to solve.”
Testing is key. Computer programmes can help but usually he tries them on his friends.
Before puzzles became a job, he created Lego sculptures, chiefly for companies and trade shows for which he would charge several thousand dollars.You can find best china Precision injection molds manufacturers from here! One of the largest pieces he built was at the height of the dotcom boom,We are passionate about polished tiles. when he made a desk for an executive at a technology company, for $10,000.
On the side, Mr Harshbarger was building up a personal catalogue of puzzles that now contains the details of thousands and which he delves into for reference.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,
The moment when his hobby became a full-time career came seven years ago when Mind Candy, the British gaming company which is now best known for the children’s online game Moshi Monsters, was looking for puzzle makers to work on Perplex City, its alternative reality game. The game invited players to look for The Cube, a scientific and spiritual artefact valued by the people of a fictional metropolis that had been stolen and buried on earth. The winner of the game, which started in 2005 and ended in 2007, received 10,000. One of Mr Harshbarger’s favourite puzzles in that game used a Rubik’s Cube-based alphabet – players were instructed to twist it according to precise instructions and follow the information on the resulting faces.
Mr Harshbarger, who confesses he enjoys making puzzles more than solving them, won’t be drawn on his annual income. However, he divulges that a typical hourly fee is about $60 to $70 though “it’s not the kind of job that has a daily routine – much like computer work, it comes and goes”.
Puzzle-setting, however, isn’t for everyone. “You need to have had an interest all your life. If thinking about them beyond solving them is interesting to you then yes, maybe it’s worth considering as a job. There’s a lot of finesse and subtlety to it.”
The job market for puzzle creators is small, though opportunities have increased, he notes, in the last five to 10 years as the industry has experienced a resurgence. This is due to large companies setting them as marketing campaigns and also in the educational field, both for young and old generations; puzzles are said to keep the brain active.
Basically, Mr Harshbarger who lives in Auburn, Alabama, the city in which he was born and where he also did his degree and postgraduate studies, likes a quiet life. And that means no mobile phone either. “I don’t need to be in constant contact all the time. I’m intrigued to see how long I can manage before I cave in.”
The lack of mobile phone is intriguing. After all, Mr Harshbarger is no Luddite. His first job was writing Java code at Sun Microsystems in San Francisco, he has had a website since the mid-1990s and is active on Facebook. More to the point, some of his work involves creating apps for mobile devices.
Mr Harshbarger designs and builds puzzles for a living. Some are computer games – like Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton’s Secret Life, an alternative reality game which uses an interactive narrative to deliver a story that can be altered by participants’ actions. Some are worldwide scavenger hunts which involve clues and are used by companies to market products. Others are toy kits to be assembled by children and adults – for example, his Digits-in-a-box game which asks players to pack ten plastic numbers (0-9) into a clear cube.
He has consulted on television programmes, most recently the BBC’s The Code,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. a three-part documentary about maths (hidden in the show and accompanying website were clues to a treasure that viewers were invited to find). His income is a mixture of consultancy, royalties and contract work.
However, there are some areas that Mr Harshbarger, who when he is not working likes to hold puzzle parties and play in Scrabble tournaments, does not touch.This page contains information about molds, He steers clear of crosswords and jigsaws. “I enjoy them but I don’t do them,” he explains.
His passion for puzzles stems from his childhood, when his grandparents used to give them to him as presents.
To be good at puzzles, he believes, you need to be a logical thinker. To this end his degrees in maths serve him well. Patience is also important, he muses, “because you have to realise that you are going to invent a lot of bad puzzles. It’s very easy to make a hard puzzle; it’s very hard to make a good one. The hardest part of puzzle-making is creating a puzzle that is difficult, that the player knows is difficult and yet is still fun to try to solve.”
Testing is key. Computer programmes can help but usually he tries them on his friends.
Before puzzles became a job, he created Lego sculptures, chiefly for companies and trade shows for which he would charge several thousand dollars.You can find best china Precision injection molds manufacturers from here! One of the largest pieces he built was at the height of the dotcom boom,We are passionate about polished tiles. when he made a desk for an executive at a technology company, for $10,000.
On the side, Mr Harshbarger was building up a personal catalogue of puzzles that now contains the details of thousands and which he delves into for reference.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,
The moment when his hobby became a full-time career came seven years ago when Mind Candy, the British gaming company which is now best known for the children’s online game Moshi Monsters, was looking for puzzle makers to work on Perplex City, its alternative reality game. The game invited players to look for The Cube, a scientific and spiritual artefact valued by the people of a fictional metropolis that had been stolen and buried on earth. The winner of the game, which started in 2005 and ended in 2007, received 10,000. One of Mr Harshbarger’s favourite puzzles in that game used a Rubik’s Cube-based alphabet – players were instructed to twist it according to precise instructions and follow the information on the resulting faces.
Mr Harshbarger, who confesses he enjoys making puzzles more than solving them, won’t be drawn on his annual income. However, he divulges that a typical hourly fee is about $60 to $70 though “it’s not the kind of job that has a daily routine – much like computer work, it comes and goes”.
Puzzle-setting, however, isn’t for everyone. “You need to have had an interest all your life. If thinking about them beyond solving them is interesting to you then yes, maybe it’s worth considering as a job. There’s a lot of finesse and subtlety to it.”
The job market for puzzle creators is small, though opportunities have increased, he notes, in the last five to 10 years as the industry has experienced a resurgence. This is due to large companies setting them as marketing campaigns and also in the educational field, both for young and old generations; puzzles are said to keep the brain active.
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