I’m Nathan Curtis, the Tortoise of Tortoiseshell Studio. I’ve been making puzzles professionally since 2015, and recreationally going back much farther.

As a constructor, I have a wide range of specialties. Most of my regular constructing work centers around cryptic crosswords and variety crossword formats like Pathfinder and Marching Bands, with the occasional logic puzzle thrown in for good measure. My puzzles have appeared in Will Shortz’s WordPlay and the AVCX, and I also post regular variety puzzles on my Patreon. I have also written several puzzle hunts, including multiple instances of the Dimensions puzzle hunt at the National Museum of Mathematics as well as Verwald’s Treasures, which I published myself after crowdfunding on Kickstarter. I have also collaborated with other constructors to create puzzle hunts, including the Miskatonic University Game, the online hunt Burn After Solving, and several events for the Boston Area Puzzle Hunt League.

Although I dabbled in solving newspaper crosswords and puzzles in Games Magazine as a kid, I first seriously got into puzzling in 2003 at the MIT Mystery Hunt. I have taken part in the Mystery Hunt every year since, solving with many teams, and my first attempts at puzzle hunt construction came from writing warm-up hunts for my team. Since 2007, I have been a member of the National Puzzlers’ League, where I go by the nom Tortoise.

Before I became a professional puzzle constructor, I previously worked as a composer, and before that, a math teacher. To me, all three of these pursuits come from a desire to connect with others and share my passions. Growing up as an autistic kid, I was always fascinated by patterns, and I was especially drawn to subjects where abstract patterns intersected with meaning. Whether it be the proof of a mathematical theorem, the emotional effect of a sonata, or the interplay of letters and words in a puzzle, these sorts of connections have been an essential facet of my intellectual pursuits. To me, writing puzzles is a way to share a part of my world to those who are curious. Happy solving!