Week 15 Scott Kim “What is a Puzzle” T.Fullerton (2008)

Scott Kim “What is a Puzzle” T.Fullerton (2008)

What is a puzzle?

The Random house Dictonary defines a puzzle as a toy or other contrivance designed to amuse by-pre-senting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort. A humorous insightful definition is a simple task with a bad user interface.  An example of this is twisting the faces of a Rubik’s Cube is a deliberately bad user interface for the simple task of turning all the faces solid colours.

Is it Fun?

There are several thinks that make a puzzle fun:

·         Novel: Puzzles are a form of play and play starts by suspending the rules of everyday life, giving you permission to do things that aren’t practical

·         Not too easy but not too hard: Puzzles that are too easy are disappointing but puzzles that are too hard are discouraging. Nonetheless, the perceived lack of difficulty helps keeps you interested.

·         Tricky: to solve this puzzle, you must change how you interpret the picture.

Puzzles versus Games

Some game designers categorize puzzles as a subspecies of games. Chris Crawford distinguishes four types of play activities, ranging from most to least interactive.

·         Games are rule based systems in which the goal is for one player to win. They involve opposing players who acknowledge and respond to one another’s actions. The difference between games and puzzles has little to do with mechanics: we can easily turn many puzzles and athletic challenges into games and vice versa.

·         Puzzles are rule based systems like games but the goal is to find a solution, not only to beat an opponent. Unlike games, puzzles have little replay value/

·         Toys are manipulated like puzzles but there is no fixed goal.

·         Stories involve fantast play, like toys, but they cannot be changed or manipulated

For example with computer entertainment software:

·         Quake is a game that includes some puzzles.

·         The Incredible Machine is a series of puzzles that includes a toy like construction set building puzzles.

·         SimCity is a toy that players make more puzzle-like by setting their own goals.

·         Myst is a story that happens to be told partly through puzzles