Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5. Puzzles
Puzzles are very popular and are liked by both game developers and players because
they do not need much screen space and can perfectly fit device resolution. Game-
playisgenerallybasedonseveralbasicrules,andonlyfewgamepiecesarerequired.
But the variety of game situations is very high, so such games are costly but effective;
the assets are simple, but the game process is very addictive. Many of these games
are played over and over again because there are an almost infinite number of com-
binations and new challenges are born constantly. These combinations and new chal-
lenges make the players feel very much connected to puzzles.
Making connections
Card/board games are about the comparison of game elements, but puzzle games
in general are about relations between objects. One detail must be connected with a
corresponding detail. The following figure shows a simple puzzle game:
There is a poetic or even philosophical aspect to puzzles: a player attempts to as-
semble something that once was broken into pieces. He is almost like
Kai
, a charac-
ter from the
Hans Christian Andersen
fairy tale,
The Snow Queen
, who was trying to
assemble a word—"eternity"—from fragments of broken ice. In a broad sense, each
puzzle is an image disassembled into components that are shuffled; some of the de-
tails are hidden, some traps and obstacles are scattered, and after that, this "dish" is
presented to the player. Now he must find all the invisible strings that connect the ele-
ments and must re-form the image. Come to think of it, the most ancient puzzle will
have been that of a ceramic vase, accidentally broken, and the craftsman who pieced
it back together will have been the first puzzle player.
The following figure shows the infographics for the Tower of Hanoi:
