It has been a while since I am running the Daily Brain Games series, and I think that time has come for a change in the game plan.

„Use it or lose it" applies to our brain, so my primary intention with these puzzles is to provide some mental stimulation to as many people as possible. And this is exactly where changes are necessary. In the previous setting, only the first one had a chance to solve the puzzle from zero. All the others were usually discouraged by the fact that the answer had already been posted. With this new construction, I hope more people will try to give good solutions.

This is not a contest (yet – but we are always hoping) with a whale sponsor behind it, so do not expect high rewards. The main goal here is to have a few minutes of fun every day, the reward may only come as the topping on the cake.

So let's see the details...

The new game plan:

I will publish one puzzle of varying type and difficulty from Monday to Friday but instead of mentioning the date in the title, upcoming puzzles will be numbered for identification purposes.
I have my very busy daily schedule at home and at my workplace, so I cannot tell you in advance when I am posting. This is part of the game that I will post at random times (same as before).

To encourage participation, not only the first one sending a good answer will be rewarded, but there will be other rewards as detailed below. BUT this requires that the answers are not visible, so I will ask you NOT TO POST YOUR ANSWERS UNDER THE PUZZLES! To see how you can send your answers, just read a little bit further...

To participate in the contest, please do the following:

1. Upvote the post.

2. Send your answer to me either as a private message on Discord (@ksolymosi#5065) or in an e-mail message ([email protected]). If you use Discord, please make sure that your Discord name is the same as your Steemit name, otherwise, it will be difficult for me to find you...

3. Comment on the post containing the puzzle mentioning where I should look for your answer (for example „Answer sent via Discord").

Important

Don't post your solution under the post containing the puzzle because then you ruin the game of others!

The answer should contain the identification number of the puzzle, too (for example DBG 1).

Answers should arrive until I post the results on the next day (usually between 12.00 am and 8.00 pm UTC+1, but exceptions might occur...). This leaves approximately a 12-24 hour time window to send me your answers. (Answers arriving later will not be considered.)

It is possible to correct your answer by sending another solution, but only the last message will be considered for the reward. (So if you send the good answer first and then send another message with a wrong one, then, unfortunately, the wrong one will „participate" in the game.)

Please do not ask clarifying questions. I do my best to phrase instructions as clearly as possible. So everyone should work from the amount of information given in the post.

Announcing the correct solution and the winners

Please do not expect any replies from me to your message containing the solution. I will not send answers to individual messages but announce the correct solution and the winners in the next DBG post.

At weekends, I will also post weekly and monthly leaderboards showing the summarized scores of all participants.

Rewards and scoring

Daily rewards and scoring:

There will be two daily winners:

• The person sending the first correct answer will receive 1 SBD plus 6 XP
• There will be a small, random reward given to someone who had sent a correct answer. It is 0.25 SBD + 3 XP.

Everyone else sending a correct answer will get 1 XP.

If there is a draw, rewards will be split. (If two persons have sent the correct answer at the very same time and they were the first, then both persons will receive 0.5 SBD plus 3 XP.)

Weekly rewards and scoring:

The three persons collecting the most XP within a week will receive an extra reward:

• First: 3 SBD plus 20 XP
• Second: 2 SBD plus 15 XP
• Third: 1 SBD plus 10 XP

If there is a draw, rewards will be split accordingly.

Monthly rewards and scoring:

The three persons collecting the most XP within a month will receive another extra reward:

• First: 6 SBD plus 40 XP
• Second: 4 SBD plus 30 XP
• Third: 2 SBD plus 20 XP

If there is a draw, rewards will be split accordingly.

Support and donations

There will be an additional weekly reward to those who donate or fundraise the most SBD to support the DBG posts during the given week.
You can raise funds in these ways:

• by upvoting DBG posts
• by buying upvotes from upvote bots (most bots post a reply mentioning the name of the donator, but if that was missing, just post the steemd or steemit screenshot under the post as a proof).
• by donating an amount to the contest (to do this send the amount directly to my @ksolymosi account and write „Donation to DBG" in the memo)

Top fundraisers will receive the following weekly rewards:

• The „golden supporter" of the week (fundraising the highest amount) will get back 40% of his/her donation plus 20 XP
• The „silver supporter" of the week will get back 20% of his/her donation plus 15 XP
• The „bronze supporter" of the week will get back 10% of his/her donation plus 10 XP

Supporters will be announced in the weekly leaderboards.

Well, I hope you will like this new framework and the system will be able to produce the funds for all of your rewards. (Obviously, I am willing to finance it for a couple of weeks, but not unlimitedly. Therefore please note that I am still testing the setting during the upcoming weeks and reserve the right to change any of the above-mentioned conditions or even to return to the previous system if I consider it necessary.)

Cover image source
Author: Julia Freeman-Woolpert (a member of freeimages.com)