Puzzle Me That
Of course, up to now, I’ve been talking about the kinds of puzzles that you find in story-based games, but there are so many more types of puzzles. The puzzle genre is the broadest in video games, and these games vary widely in content and gameplay. Let’s look at some of the different types of puzzle games:
- Logic puzzles are often found in adventure games like the classic games from LucasArts and Sierra. They rely on players finding inventory items and then combining them to solve the puzzle. Make sure the relationship between the items and the solution makes sense (no cat mustaches!) and make it easy for players to combine and test items as they seek the solution.
- In match three puzzles like the Bejeweled series or Dungeon Raid series, players match three or more icons (or jewels or pirate skulls or quilted teddy bears) for points. Match three expert Jasper Juul splits these “breaker” games into four design foundations: manipulation, match...