It’s game on!: How The Lions’ Pride Media Group brings games to life
By Sophia Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief
At The Lions’ Pride Media Group, we’re always seeking ways to enhance our content and fully engage our readers. What better way to do that than with games?
This semester, we launched “Puzzle Monday,” a weekly game (typically a crossword) posted on our social media to kick off the week. Each Puzzle Monday is themed around the season or events happening on campus.
To take this a step further, though, we thought we would extend our games to appear in our print issues.
Campus News Editor Josie Osborne of The Lions’ Pride Media Group immediately began brainstorming.
“My inspiration for the crossword was, of course, the New York Times,” said Osborne. “Often last semester, my friends and I would sit around and work on completing them together, so I wanted to bring something to the newspaper that others might enjoy just as much as we did.”
Her process begins with brainstorming, and from there, the clues are inputted into a crossword demo program. This program allows Osborne to piece the actual words together in the shape of the crossword grid. Lastly, she uses Adobe Express to finalize the grid and design the background specific to the theme.
“I always learn something new when I am making the crosswords; it wasn’t until making the one for February that I knew Saint Valentine was beheaded! I hope that the readers can also learn new things in playing my crosswords.” said Osborne.
Online and Multimedia Editor Bao Han of The Lions’ Pride Media Group also works alongside Osborne to bring our crosswords to life, but in a slightly different fashion.
After our first printed puzzle debuted in November 2024, Han began wondering how he could transfer that design to The Lions’ Pride Media Group website. After much research, he came across a platform called Amuse Labs, where anyone can create and share games.
“I got to meet with one of the designers in Amuse Labs, and she showed me how to create and customize the games that fit best on the web,” said Han. “The design looked simple, yet powerfully built, with its enjoyable features that work perfectly on any devices.”
After two months of hard work and trial and error, the digital game page was born.
“We now have a new version of Puzzle Monday so that people can interact, play, and share to everyone.”
