I Built a Mario-Themed Crossword in Markdown (And You Can Too)
Who says markdown is just for README files? I turned my favorite text format into a full-blown Mario crossword puzzle — and learned something about creativity along the way.
Look, I love markdown. Like, I really love it. I write everything in markdown — my shopping lists, my D&D notes, passive-aggressive notes to my roommate about the dishes. So when I was messing around in our markdown editor one night, I thought: could I build a crossword puzzle in this thing?
Spoiler: yes. And it wasn't even that hard.
The Grid Problem
First hurdle: markdown doesn't exactly come with a crossword layout plugin. But tables? Oh, tables are fair game. So I built a 15x15 grid using markdown table syntax. Each cell got either a blank space (for the white squares) or a ### code (for the black ones, because they block the answers, get it?). Here's what a slice looked like:
| M | A | R | I | O | ## | B | R | O | S |
|---|---|---|---|----|----|---|---|---|---|
| L | L | J | U | M | P | E | R | ## | L |Yeah, that's not perfectly aligned in the raw markdown. But that's the charm. It's handmade.
The Clues
This was the fun part. I came up with 30 clues across and down. Some were easy — "Princess who's always in another castle" (PEACH). Some were nerdy references that maybe three people on earth would get — "Wario's first kart color in Mario Kart 64" (PURPLE, if you're wondering). And some were just dumb jokes: "What Yoshi says when he finds a bargain" (YAHOO — talk about product placement).
I formatted the clues as a regular list below the grid, with a little (Across) or (Down) tag. Clean, readable, very un-mysterious. The opposite of a real crossword, basically.
Why This Matters
Okay, so nobody's going to publish my Mario crossword in the New York Times. But here's the thing: using a tool for something it "wasn't designed for" is one of the best ways to actually get good at it. I learned more about markdown tables, escape characters, and formatting tricks in that one evening than I had in weeks of writing boring READMEs.
Plus, I sent the file to my friend Dave and he solved it in 12 minutes. Best 12 minutes of validation I've had all year.
Try It Yourself
Open up the markdown editor, pick a theme you love — movies, your cat, the periodic table, whatever — and build a grid. You don't need any coding skills. Just brackets, pipes, and a little bit of bad pun energy. If I can do it while eating cereal at 11 PM, you can absolutely do it.