We get asked about helping with puzzle creation more than anything else and we love that people are excited enough to want to contribute.

Creating puzzles for each year's event is like writing chapters in a book. Every puzzle connects to every other one—difficulty curves, hint systems, narrative continuity. When you change an element in one, you may need to adjust five others. Books aren't written by committee or one chapter at a time by different authors. They require a consistent voice and vision, and so does each year's Thanks for Nothing.

Adding more people to our puzzle-making process—even talented, dedicated friends—means more coordination, more deliberation, more overhead. This makes the process slower and less enjoyable for us.

We do this for fun, and if it starts to feel more like work, we'd rather just do something else. Another part of the fun is keeping the puzzles a secret, so that everyone—including TFN crew members—can play and be surprised on the day of the event.