I don't have a ton of connections right now for sharing and I'm okay with that, I'm not trying to make the next popular word search puzzle, just wanting to share something fun I made in a place where the people that appreciate that might find it. I'll definitely take full advantage of everything itch offers though in terms of making it findable and appealing.
I was curious about the breakdown of landscape/portrait, that is good to know. I've been working on landscape and printer-friendly versions. (Did it suck to make updates/edits to your puzzle book and have to copy those changes across different versions? I'm already a little annoyed at that lol, though I know it's helpful!)
And I needed to hear the point you made about enjoying a too-easy puzzle but giving up on a too-hard puzzle. I'm going no-holds-barred for my brother - he's getting the hardest version I can make because that's what he wants - but to make it enjoyable for anyone approaching there are definitely a few things I want to tweak now. I was initially thinking it was kind of cheap to put multiple ways to solve/discover something, but thinking back through my own experience with 12 Word Searches, I realize that giving multiple paths allows the player to have multiple "a-ha" moments where they realize all of the pieces that come together, not just the one path they took.
Again, thank you for sharing some thoughts! I will be sure to share the project here once it is publicly accessible.