Puzzles in Games

December 15, 2021

based on:

chapter twelve of The art of game design: a book of lenses by Jesse Schell

Jesse gives us a great guideline on how to develop and implement puzzles into our games, she writes about ten puzzle principles that a game designer should follow, they are as follows:

"Puzzle Principle #1: Make the Goal Easily Understood "

Puzzle Principle #2: Make It Easy to Get Started

Puzzle Principle #3: Give a Sense of Progress

Puzzle Principle #4: Give a Sense of Solvability

Puzzle Principle #5: Increase Difficulty Gradually

Puzzle Principle #6: Parallelism Lets the Player Rest

Puzzle Principle #7: Pyramid Structure Extends Interest

Puzzle Principle #8: Hints Extend Interest

Puzzle Principle #9: Give the Answer!

Puzzle Principle #10: Perceptual Shifts are a Double-Edged Sword "

many of the principles are self-explanatory, such as making the goal easily understood, but others may need a bit more context, such as giving a sense of progress.

The example the book gives for this is a game called "twenty questions", where the player is rewarded with progress for every question asked, for a digital game this could be done by changing the game world or giving audio/visual queues to the player.

People may get confused between principles 3 and 4, giving a sense of progress or solvability sound similar, the key difference is that the player should know that the puzzle can be solved before starting the puzzle. For example, a Rubix cube is solved when purchased, or in some games they have tutorials, showing how to do simple versions of a puzzle, then when you actually get to the puzzle you know that it can be solved.

Parallelism Lets the Player Rest, this is basically allowing the player freedom, for example, if you have two rooms in a game that need to be unlocked via a puzzle, then the player can choose which puzzle to attempt first, if they get stuck they can stop, and progress on the second puzzle, this allows the player to have a break, and make the rooms look more like a mountain they can climb, rather than a wall they can't get passed.

Pyramid Structure Extends Interest, this basically means to create a few smaller puzzles that lead to a bigger puzzle. For example, an escape room would have a big pyramid structure, where the player has to complete a lot of small puzzles in order to complete the last puzzle.

lastly, the Perceptual shifts are a double-edged sword, basically, you force the player to change their perspective in order to complete the puzzle, this can be bad, because if the player cannot shift their perspective then they cannot progress, so Jesse writes to use it sparingly, and personally, I think this should only be used after some easier 'tutorials' of the mechanic have been shown to the player.

Personally, I find that this is a great guide to making puzzles because as a game designer, you know the solution from the start, so seeing the difficulty in your puzzle can be difficult. The best way to test for these is through game testers, if the tester cannot complete a puzzle in a certain time frame, then it's too difficult and should be improved.

Puzzle Principle #2: Make It Easy to Get Started references:

Brzezinshi, J. 2009, Schell, Jesse. The art of game design: a book of lenses.(Brief article), American Library Association CHOICE.