See the 4 answer words debuted by Ashleigh Silveira.
D | I | S | C | R | A | S | P | M | A | P | S | |||
O | R | E | O | A | N | T | E | P | U | R | S | E | ||
L | O | E | B | C | A | E | N | I | D | E | A | S | ||
A | N | S | Y | E | L | P | R | E | H | A | S | H | ||
P | O | P | T | A | B | S | A | U | C | E | ||||
S | N | O | B | B | Y | U | N | T | E | N | D | E | D | |
T | A | B | I | P | O | S | E | L | Y | |||||
T | E | R | R | A | N | O | D | A | P | P | L | E | ||
I | C | U | R | U | N | E | F | O | O | |||||
S | O | N | I | C | A | R | E | O | O | P | S | I | E | |
C | R | I | E | S | W | O | O | I | N | G | ||||
S | P | I | K | E | D | G | E | N | T | T | A | R | ||
E | L | S | I | E | L | A | O | S | V | I | B | E | ||
A | I | L | E | D | O | M | N | I | M | O | O | T | ||
R | E | A | R | T | E | S | T | I | N | X | S |
ASHLEIGH: A while back I was solving a NYT puzzle with "Highway to Hell" and "Stairway to Heaven" step answers. This was the kind of music I grew up listening to, so I of course, LOVED this puzzle. It got me thinking of what other things would work as "steps" in a puzzle and the phrase "step your game up" came to me. I also really love board games, so I ran with it.
At first, I also experimented with some video games as the theme answers (which would have been a nice gift for my husband and his best friend, Nick, who wrote the clues for the puzzle), but the board games made for the nicest grouping.
I then just fiddled around with making the games fit in a way that would allow for a nice grid, and once that was all done, I passed the puzzle off to Nick Shepard for clue writing.
NICK: I'm a software developer with a love for wordplay. I spend most of my time either in the coding matrix or editing my emails to use some periods instead of all exclamation points so that I don't sound crazy!
My friend and co-contributor, Ashleigh and I, are major board game enthusiasts, so a puzzle featuring some of the classics seemed like an appropriate nod. My favorite clue in the puzzle is "Inner ear? COB" because I am originally from Indiana and am forever a sucker for a corny pun.
I hope everyone enjoys my first published crossword, and there will be more fun to be had in the future.