Finding Great Puzzles

Over the years, my thinking on this has shifted a lot. At first glance, finding great puzzles seems pretty simple. You pick one up, play it, and think either "that's great" or "that's boring" and there you have it. But it starts getting tricky when you have a lot of puzzles that are good in their own right, but you want to pick the best ones (and not just your favorites).

Below, I'm going to outline the approach that I take when evaluating puzzles. It's the analysis that I've applied to every single puzzle that I've considered for my Best Puzzles guide. It starts with these questions:

What actually defines a "puzzle", what kind of stuff are we comparing here?

"Puzzle" can mean different things, to different people, and in different contexts. To be able to make any kind of useful comparisons, we need to narrow the scope. Within the context of this site, I'm limiting myself to things with the following characteristics:

• It presents a challenge to be solved. Not just a game.
• The challenge is in solving it yourself, not just in a competition with others.
• It's not only abstract or text based, but has physical form (real object). So, not riddles, math problems, etc.
• Most people would enjoy playing and solving it.

The last point filters out those puzzles which are extremely niche. So, we're not interested in anything that require some kind of special skills or knowledge. The only segmentation I'll admit is by age ranges, but otherwise, any person within the target age range should be able to have fun solving the puzzle (even if they can't find a solution).

What's the primary consideration to distinguish the best puzzles?

This is the key thing about puzzles, and specifically puzzles, that I think most people are missing. It comes down to this:

The best puzzles are challenging and satisfying at the same time!

A really great puzzle presents a monumental challenge while still being incredibly fun to solve. Solving something really hard, while staying engaged and enjoying the process, is one of the most satisfying experiences you can have. It's a feeling of accomplishment and discovery, but getting there shouldn't feel like work or be loaded with fruitless frustrations.

This is actually the defining characteristic of puzzles compared to other form of entertainment. A puzzle that epitomizes and maximizes this characteristic will be among the best puzzles out there.

The caveat though, is that different people can handle different levels of challenge. That's why in my Best Puzzles guide, I make sure to specify the age ranges that would enjoy each particular puzzle. I also heavily favor those puzzles that have a good progression of difficulty, because these types of puzzles naturally allow any person to get to their sweet spot in terms of difficulty and then grow from there.

What else is there?

On top of the main criterion above, we'll need to assume that the puzzle meets the basics prerequisites that make at least a "good" puzzle: an interesting concept, good design, good quality, etc.

I combine these elements together into a series of questions that I ask about each puzzle that I review. This is all in the following section, and all of these questions are answered in my reviews.

What about scores?

I also break down some properties of puzzles into scores. I do not use the scores themselves to compute ranking, but they're useful for making quick comparison. The reason that I don't use the scores for ranking is the following:

Puzzles are art, not science. Turning everything into scores and numbers is how you end up with the same boring drivel that's sold everywhere.

Additionally, any quantitative scheme that I could come up with would be based on my experience. Assuming for a moment that I came up with some kind of fancy numbers to rank Puzzles, I would validate it by seeing if it matches up with what I'd expect... so instead, I skip all that and start by leveraging my experience directly.

I think I've probably played more puzzles than most people will in their lifetimes, and I take this seriously. But at the end of the day, this is just the opinion of a guy who's really into puzzles. I'll let you be the judge.

Detailed Criteria and Metrics

The criteria that I'm using fall into three broad categories. Below, I describe each category in turn and the associated questions that guide my thinking. These questions also form the basis for several concrete metrics that I score each puzzle on, which like I said previously, are not used for ranking because they typically fail to tell the full story.

Core Concept and Mechanics

Here, we take a high-level view of what this puzzle is about and the basic principles it comes down to. For now, we're not concerned with anything tangible about how the actual puzzle was made or other details. The best puzzles have an elegance to them by being simple to understand yet complex and multi-dimensional in their solutions. Here are the types of questions I'm looking to answer:

1. Is the core concept easy to understand?
2. Is it something that's exciting and appealing right away?
3. Does it naturally lead to difficult challenges?
4. Does it require engaging a variety of skills, senses, and ways of thinking?
5. Is there a balance between experimentation/discovery and strategic thinking?
6. Is the frustration balanced out by satisfaction?

Associated Scores:

Sensory Engagement: Is it hands-on? are there visual details to attune to? This score determines the quality of attention we're devoting to the task of solving the puzzle, and contributes greatly to ongoing engagement and satisfaction. This covers a vital part of question 4.

Mental Workout: How much balance and variety there is to the thinking and solving methods we're using. Relates to questions 4 and 5.

Design and Implementation

Now, we think about the details of the puzzle and how it looks and feels. Broadly, this is everything that the manufacturers did to adapt the core concept and transform it into a real physical object. Regardless of how good the concept it, a puzzle needs to have an excellent design and quality. I'm asking questions such as:

1. Which aspects of the design enhance the puzzle?
2. Which aspects of the design are instead a hindrance?
3. Is it easy to play, or do you have to read and memorize a long instruction booklet?
4. Are there any glaring shortcomings, any frustrations unrelated to the core concept of the puzzle?
5. How is the quality of the materials and manufacturing?

Associated Scores:

Design: Overall, how good the design is. Answers questions 1, 2, 3 and possibly 4.

Quality: Pretty straightforward again: the answer to question 5 and possibly 4.

As A Game

Here we zoom out a bit, and look beyond the puzzle itself to the value it's providing. These are aspects of the game that are mostly unrelated to the puzzle, but still significantly affect the experience of playing it. Some questions here are:

1. How is the difficulty level, and does it match expectations?
2. If there are several challenges in the game, is there a good difficulty progression?
3. How are the aesthetics including the packaging, would you want to give this as a gift?
4. Simply put, how much fun is it to play with this?
5. How much value, meaning actual hours of quality entertainment relative to price, are you getting?

Associated Score:

Entertainment Value: The value in terms of hours of fun. Answers questions 4 and 5.

Other Metrics (Scores)

These are things which don't directly influence ranking, but have a lot of informational value.

Wow! Factor: This is something that is always a part of the very best puzzles. It's a sense of discovering something new and awe-inspiring, that might give a thrill and even goosebumps. It's something that draws on all the other elements that go into the puzzle: the elegance of the design, the complexity of the solution, and the actual physical characteristics of design and quality. All those things combine to create that kind of experience.

Age Range: Which ages could play this puzzle, and which ages are most likely to actually get a kick out of it?

Drawbacks: Not really a score, but it's important to note down the negatives, even for puzzles which are really good. Some types of drawbacks might bug certain types of people more than others.