Two puzzles that were not fun, and a creek that was

Two days ago we set out to make a daily puzzle, the kind people do with coffee. The first try was a sheet of paper you fold until the marks line up. It measured well and played badly: the folds hid what you needed to see. The second was a dark cave where you ping for hidden moths and count what the rings return. It measured even better, and it was not fun either. Counting is work. Both were taken down the same day they went up.

The third try borrowed instead of inventing. Turn the stones until the water runs from the spring to the lake: the rotate-the-tile puzzle has been with us since the 1990s, and it is calm and clear and people already love it. What makes ours ours is the place. Each day is a stretch of Shoal Creek, Monday at Seiders Springs, Sunday at the mouth by the library, the same stretch for everyone from midnight. The sheet is drawn after the 1839 plan of Austin, where the creek is the city's western edge, with the plan's shaded capitals, a compass, a sheet number and a surveyor's hand. The water runs as a narrow ribbon with strokes along its banks, the way the plan draws the river. You can play today's creek now; it is free and will stay free on the site.

Tachline grew past the wrist: a public scoreboard through Game Center, an iPad version, and a first Apple TV version where up and down on the remote stand in for the Crown. Floating Ink's browser version got its sound, the same drop meeting water as on the phone. Five apps got the screenshot size Apple requires that none of them had. The little Linux machine that does the Android work got its security patches and a new kernel.

One honest thing. We measured the first two puzzles carefully and the measurements could not see "not fun." Fun is judged by a person in the first hour, on a rough sketch, before any craft goes in. That rule now sits above all the others.

Sources and thanks

• L. J. Pilie, Plan of the City of Austin, 1839, Texas State Library and Archives Commission; the Sanborn fire insurance maps of Austin, 1885 and 1889, UT Libraries; all public domain.
• The creek's facts from the Shoal Creek Conservancy (support them) and Wikipedia.
• The puzzle's family: Simon Tatham's Net, NetWalk and Infinity Loop, with thanks.
• The first drafts and the checks had help from Artisanal Intelligence; every line here was read and chosen by a person.