Out of Shape #4: The Game’s Abloom
For those who like to puzzle their way to the anthers.
You would think, of all days to provide you with a puzzle made of squares, we would pick Boxing Day, but … well, would we be us if we gave you what you expected?
There's not a universal taxonomic resource for crossword folks — we know this puzzle format as both a "petal pusher" and a "flower power." If you do know these puzzles, you likely expect the innermost regions to be shaded out; here every cell gets filled.
The deeper we get into Out of Shape, the trickier it becomes to set up online solving, but we're not licked yet. (Thanks to Alex Boisvert for tips and inspiration.) However, seasoned Rackenfrackists will know that we make sure our indicators are appropriate to the grid shape in question. Online players get the same clues in a very different grid; caveat solver. (I tried to make that fancy and Latin but it turns out the Latin isn't fancy in the least.)
Thanks to Andy Stilp and John Sams for the test solves, and to and our editor Will Nediger.