Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb… game on!

Today, we officially launched our daily lineup of thinking-oriented games, delivered by LinkedIn News.?

Games are all about connection for us. LinkedIn’s mission has always been to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. And, as the world of work has shifted in the last 20 years since LinkedIn’s founding, so has the way people connect with each other.

I’m excited to share a bit more about our first games, and how we’ve designed them to build the future of how we’ll stay in touch with our colleagues, reignite relationships from past phases of our professional lives, and make the connections that will shape what’s next. Let’s dive in!

Pinpoint is our word association game —?there’s five words inside a grid, and your objective is to guess (or pinpoint, dare I say!) what common category all the words belong to. But there’s a twist: the five words are hidden, and only one is revealed at a time. You want to guess the category in as few reveals as possible.?

Queens is our logic game. The goal here is to fill the grid with queens (??) such that there is one —?and only one — queen in every row, column, and region…with no queens touching each other. There’s only one right answer, and it’s always possible to solve without guessing. And, of course, it’s a race against the clock!

Crossclimb is our trivia game. Think of it as a combination of a crossword and a word ladder: you use a mix of your trivia and word knowledge to fill out the words in the ladder. As you fill in words, you’ll rearrange them such that each word in the ladder differs by only one letter —?which unlocks two final clues to win the game.

We’ve designed each game to only take a few minutes, and fit right into your work schedule — whether it’s prepping your mind on the commute in, taking a quick mental break between meetings, or unwinding after a long day. There will be only one edition of each game each day, crafted by the best puzzle makers in the world: our daily Pinpoints and Crossclimbs are created by Paolo Pasco, this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion and LinkedIn’s Games Editor. And our Queens grids will be created by a roundup of talented creators, with this month’s grids crafted by Thomas Snyder, three-time World Sudoku Champion.?

But the best part? It’s what happens after you play. Of course you’ll be able to see your score and streak, and share it to start all the fun banter, celebrations, and conversations with your connections. But we’re taking it several steps further, in a way that only LinkedIn can…?

• Connections who played: After playing, you can see which of your connections have also played today’s game (don’t worry —?we won’t show your score unless you explicitly share it). You’ll likely notice people you haven’t caught up with in a while are playing too, reminding you that it’s time to grab coffee again!
• School leaderboards: We’re bringing back your college rivalries (or, if you’re currently a student, we’re letting you channel that rivalry in a new way!). After you play, you’ll be able to see how your alma mater fared against its rivals… and rally fellow alums to make it to the top. You may even reignite a connection with a college friend you haven’t seen in years.
• Company leaderboards: Nothing unites a team like some friendly competition —?and now it goes beyond that after-work softball league. Each industry now has its own leaderboard, and you and your teammates can rally together to beat your competitors. It’s a fun, new way to kick off the day on your team, regardless of where you’re all located.
• Join the broader conversation: Our News team will make posts daily about each game, where you’ll have the chance to engage with the broader puzzling community on LinkedIn on tips and tricks, chat with our creators, meet new connections, and more.

I couldn’t be more excited about today. It’s day 1 in our foray into thinking-oriented games, and I can’t wait to see where this journey takes us. It’s time we turn over a new leaf in how we deepen and reignite relationships at work, and put fun at the heart of it.

It’s also 6:30am, which means it’s time for me to get my daily round of Queens in. I’ll see you on the leaderboard!

You can find the games at lnkd.in/pinpoint, lnkd.in/queens, and lnkd.in/crossclimb, in the LinkedIn News section on desktop, and in the My Network tab on both desktop and mobile. If you're on iOS or Android, please update to the latest app!