KEEP THE CHANGE

Ricky Cruz, 22, of Glendale, Calif., is a video game concept artist — a maker of detailed designs for other artists to use when creating 3-D game environments. He says this puzzle is an attempt to turn a crossword "into a fun visual experience." The unusual grid alone tells you something novel is up.

This is Ricky's third puzzle for The Times, and his first Sunday.

I love crosswords that implement another game in the grid, but often there's the hangup of requiring a notepad to explain the gimmick. I'm fine with coming across them in other puzzles, but for my own puzzles I'm a purist; if it can't be done without a notepad, it's not worth it for me to construct. So going into this, I wanted to make sure the whole thing was self-contained, which was a success.

The big change the editing team made theme-wise is that the differences are already circled, which is a bit of a let-down, but probably for the best, as the clues I wrote to explain BLACK and WHITE felt convoluted. Seeing as those squares are shaded and circled, I'm eager to see if the intended format will be present in the .PUZ file, which doesn't do shaded squares.

I'm very happy with the fill in this puzzle; if I were redoing it now, though, I'd redo the shaded areas and make them sparkling; as the first areas filled, I could've done better than SEN/DOA/DO AWAY/KSU, as much as they pass. Clue-wise, I like the edits that Will and co. made, and I'm delighted to see the gaming-adjacent clues that survived the edit. I'm stoked to have my first Sunday puzzle in the Times; I hope it's enjoyable for everyone.

Also, I'd like to re-extend the invitation to join the Crossword Discord Server, where we talk about solving and construction. I'm considering adding roles and channels for mentorship and collaborations soon, especially if there's a demand for that in the Discord-space.

I love the idea behind this one because my kids do a ton of SPOT THE DIFFERENCES puzzles. Both of them are eagle-eyed detectives, not stopping until they catch every single difference.

"Why don't we do something else?" Dad said while stifling a yawn. "Anything else. Cleaning out the drains, perhaps? Poking my knees with needles?"

"I thought you said persistence was of the utmost importance, Daddy," Tess said, with an innocently cocked head.

"Grit," Jake said, nodding. "Daddy always says that the one quality that best correlates with success is tenacity."

Having children is the best.

You could argue that technically, SPOT THE DIFFERENCE is correct, since the singular difference could apply to the image as a whole.

NO, DADDY, YOU CAN'T GET AWAY ON A SEMANTIC LOOPHOLE!

I also wondered whether TELL LEFT FROM RIGHT was a valid, in-the-language phrase. I found a couple of Bible references about left hand vs. right hand, some sites on dyslexia, blah blah blah that's good enough--

YOU ALWAYS SAY, DO THE JOB COMPLETELY AND THE RIGHT WAY, DADDY!

Can you tell that sheltering in place up here in Seattle is getting to me?

The intention behind this puzzle was spot on, riffing on a well-known children's puzzle type. The execution left me with way too many questions: why repeat BLACK and WHITE in isolated regions when they're already circled? (I disagree with the editorial choice to add circles; it kills any possibility of an a-ha moment.) Why those particular letters in the 5x5 squares? Why BLACK and WHITE, when spot the differences puzzles focus on hard-to-see, subtle changes?

You might wonder why I keep encouraging my kids to ask why. I ask myself that every day.

A great seed of an idea today, one that would have been tons of fun to brainstorm.