In high school, I loved completing crossword puzzles with my friends on a website called downforacross.com. The site is an archive of crossword puzzles ranging from random minis to LA Times Dailies and New York Times Sundays, and it allows multiple players to collaboratively complete a puzzle under timed conditions.
Thus, a crossword puzzle in Down for a Cross employs all the typical mechanics of a digital crossword—each one has a beautiful, geometric layout that encourages strategic thinking and puzzle solving; the clues of the crossword puzzle are often themed and tend to correspond with one another; the mechanics of the game allow one to easily overwrite existing letters and switch between down and across fluidly. However, Down for a Cross puzzles are different from traditional crosswords in that they are multiplayer games, meaning that mechanics also include a chat box, the ability to overwrite one another’s answers, and a clock to induce time pressure.
Thus, the dynamics of a Down for a Cross puzzle are similar to traditional crosswords in that they emphasize crossword completion, encourage players to reconceptualize their guesses as new answers arise, and facilitate a mental seesawing as players divide their attention between the clues and the board and the clues again. However, Down for a Cross puzzles are unique in that mechanisms like the chat box (and in-person discussion, as I used to employ when I played with friends in class) encourage dynamics like cooperative, simultaneous gameplay and dialogic interactions, which alter players’ guesses and create a feedback system in which “particular states or changes affect the overall gameplay” (Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek 3).
Finally, the aesthetics of Down for a Cross include challenge—the zero-sum goal being crossword completion—discovery, in that players are challenged to venture into the recesses of their knowledge and reinvigorate lost knowledge, or that new facts or ways of thinking are revealed to them as one answer facilitates the completion of another; and narrative, in that crosswords are often themed to tell a comprehensive story about a particular topic. Down for a Cross, with its collaborative elements, also fulfills the fellowship aesthetic—players must work together, become “emotionally invested” (Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek 2), share knowledge, and communicate thoroughly to complete a common goal.
