There is no right way to create a puzzle, just as there is no right way to create a character, a system or a soundtrack for a game. What exists are methods and processes designed and created to help the designer in their work. This and the next few articles will cover exactly that: methods, processes, ideas and approaches that help the designer create excellent puzzles.
In this article, we will explore how the definition of WHAT a puzzle is, is intrinsically linked to HOW to create a puzzle. After understanding that the definition alone is limited, we will explore a practical approach to puzzle design.
The What is a puzzle? article explores some puzzle definitions and presents a new one. This is the definition we use here, so to find out how to create a puzzle, we need to understand how this new definition of puzzle impacts design in practice.
A puzzle is any playful cognitive challenge, usually with only one solution, where all changes of state are either controlled or can be deduced by the player.
Cognitive challenge.
The designer needs to create a challenge focused primarily on the active use of the player's mental abilities. The game can require other skills, as long as it doesn't demand too much of them. An example of this is the game Portal, in which the player still needs to aim and shoot the portals (a precision challenge), but this is always quite secondary and easy to do.
Usually with only one solution.
This means that firstly, every puzzle has a solution, and secondly, that there are puzzles with more than one solution, but usually either these alternative solutions are a design flaw, for example in a puzzle that has a super easy solution that the designer didn't realize, or the alternative solution is just a slightly different way of executing the same idea.
All state changes are either controlled or can be deduced by the player.
The practical effects of this statement are simple, it means that the challenge cannot have randomness, inaccessible hidden information, or any other type of rule that generates unpredictable results.
Clarifying the practical effects of the definition on the design is important for us to understand what we’re dealing with and what constraints exist when designing this type of challenge. But in practice, it doesn’t help us much in creating new puzzles. For that, we need to go beyond the definition, into the world of ideas and experiences. What we need is an approach to puzzle design.
How do you create a puzzle? The best answer I know to this question is: have a vision.
<aside> 📌 Vision
A clear and specific goal.
</aside>
I've seen people, including myself, trying to create a puzzle without knowing exactly where they wanted to end up, adding various elements in an arbitrary way within an equally arbitrary space, hoping that a puzzle would emerge from it. Although this is a valid exploratory process, it usually has a very unpredictable and unproductive end result. Occasionally, we may even find something fun or interesting, but more often than not we are left with a meaningless mess or a generic puzzle with nothing special about it.
The approach we're going to explore here is the opposite of that, it's about accomplishing a vision through a puzzle. To achieve this, all we need to do is to focus on creating a puzzle around a clear and specific goal.
By emphasizing the need for a vision when creating a puzzle, this approach brings clarity and intention to the design process, without limiting creative freedom. The designer can define the most varied goal, such as: introducing a mechanic, making a joke, subverting a learned behavior, crossing two or more mechanics in an unexpected way, etc.
This approach to puzzle design depends very much on the designer's vision for the puzzle. If the designer creates the puzzle around something boring, the puzzle will become boring. The same happens if the designer creates the puzzle around an idea that was once good, but it has been used so many times that it has lost its appeal.