ABSTRACT
Puzzles are wonderful mechanisms that form key parts of many games. Sometimes they are very visible, and other times they are so enmeshed into the gameplay as to make them hidden, but what all puzzles have in common is that they make the player stop and think. Examining with the Lens #35: The Lens of Head and Hands, puzzles are firmly on the “head” side. It can be argued that any time a player stops during gameplay to think, they are solving a puzzle. The relationship between puzzles and games is tricky. In Chapter 3, we talked about how every game is “a problem-solving activity, approached playfully. ” Puzzles, too, are problem-solving activities — does this make them games? In this chapter we will explore how to make good puzzles, and the best ways incorporate puzzles into games. But first, we too should stop and think, to better understand the puzzle-game relationship.
