I'd like to begin this morning with a huge thanks to those of you who have provided valuable feedback on the new version of the site. This morning a special thanks goes to Geoff, and to Sue; both of these puzzle players have helped us puzzle out some of the bugs in the daily section of the site.

Thanks to their observations, several bugs have been fixed, and significant improvements have been made on some of the games.  We still have features to add, and bugs to fix; we're working on these!

Snowflake Maker

One of the features we didn't have time to finish before the changeover was the Snowflake Maker. The new version of this game has some significant improvements and added features over the old one.  Here are some things you'll notice when you try the snowflake maker:

• You can now choose different types of symmetry.  Click one of the shapes at the top of the page to choose any symmetry from triangular to nonagonal.  Hexagonal is the default.
• The snowstorms you create won't just appear on a black background; there is a "time of day" feature which cycles between day and night.  This makes things more interesting for you as you design your snowflakes, since, depending on the mix of dark and light colors you use, you can make the snowflake look vastly different in the daytime than it does at night.
• If you want to, you can use different colors, not just shades of gray. Use the intensity, brightness and hue selectors to fine tune your color selections.
• We've put a symmetry template on the canvas, to help you orient yourself when you start drawing.

Here's the link to the snowflake maker. Snowflake Maker. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Don't want to make a snowflake? Click here to get a random snowstorm.