0:00

I'm pulling my driveway. We all know what that

0:03

means. It's time for a third drive to work.

0:06

Okay, so today in

0:08

honor of all the puzzles in Murders

0:10

of Car Love Manor, I

0:13

decided to do a podcast about

0:15

puzzles. So today is about

0:17

puzzle design, not specifically the Murders

0:20

of Car Love Manor puzzles, but just

0:22

puzzles in general. So I'm going to

0:24

talk about the difference between game design

0:27

and puzzle design, how they're similar, how

0:29

they're different. But today is

0:31

all about designing puzzles. Okay,

0:33

so a little background on

0:37

my puzzle making background. I

0:39

grew up not just a giant fan of

0:41

games, which I did, but also a huge

0:43

fan of puzzles. I did lots and

0:45

lots of puzzles growing up, logic

0:48

puzzles and crosswords

0:50

and cryptocrosswords and all

0:53

sorts of different puzzles. I really am a huge puzzle

0:55

fan. In fact, for

0:57

those that know my history with Wizards,

0:59

my very first interaction with Wizards of

1:01

the Coast was making a thing called

1:03

Magic the Puzzling. And basically

1:05

those were magic puzzles where you take the

1:07

game of magic, you have a game in

1:10

progress, and then you have some goal. Usually

1:12

it's win the game that turn. But

1:15

anyway, the way I started

1:17

out in magic, my first foothold in

1:19

the door was making magic puzzles. Also,

1:23

I talked about this, I

1:25

had a podcast on it. My wife and I

1:27

really like throwing parties. One of the

1:29

things I always do at parties is I make paper puzzles, which

1:32

are things for people to solve at the thing.

1:36

My family also has a huge hobby

1:38

of escape rooms. Whenever

1:40

we go on vacation, even sometimes here in

1:42

Seattle, we'll do escape rooms. And we've done

1:44

20 plus escape rooms and

1:47

my family really enjoys it. It's a lot of fun. And

1:51

escape rooms are sort of a series of puzzles. For

1:53

those that have never done escape room, you get

1:55

put in a room, you have a time, usually

1:58

an hour, and then you have to to

2:00

solve a series of puzzles to get out of the room.

2:02

And the puzzles are sequential, and usually there's a meta

2:04

puzzle. But anyway, we do that. And

2:08

I mean, I'm just, I'm a frequent doer of

2:10

puzzles. I loved Games Magazine back

2:12

when that was a magazine that existed. And

2:15

I was part

2:17

of the team that made the puzzles for Murders

2:19

at Carl of Manor. I did a podcast with

2:22

Mark Gottlieb about it. So

2:24

anyway, so let me first talk about what

2:27

is the difference between game design

2:29

and puzzle design? And

2:32

there's one core difference, I think.

2:35

In making a game, you are

2:37

trying to make an experience that

2:39

each player has their own experience.

2:42

That I'm trying to like, both

2:44

puzzles and games are about sort

2:47

of mental challenge. Can you do

2:49

the thing provided? Games are

2:51

a little more open-ended, will give you a go in

2:53

rules, and then everybody in some

2:55

level does it their own way. That

2:57

usually a game isn't about doing it how everybody

2:59

else did it, is about forging

3:02

your own path. Puzzles are

3:04

a little more the opposite, which is a

3:07

lot of puzzles have a singular

3:09

answer. So real quickly,

3:11

there are what we call open puzzles and

3:13

closed puzzles. So a closed puzzle is, there's

3:15

a singular answer. Everybody gets to the same answer. We're

3:18

all trying to find the same thing. That's a more

3:20

traditional puzzle. An open-ended puzzle is

3:22

sometimes you're given a challenge, and then

3:24

you're trying to do the best you

3:26

can do. And the idea

3:28

is, it's how

3:30

well can I do within that? Mark

3:32

Gottlieb, who is a master puzzle designer, tends

3:35

to refer to the open puzzles as more

3:37

puzzle games. The good

3:39

example there is, think of the game Boggle. So

3:41

for those who have never played Boggle, it's a

3:43

Hasbro game. You roll a

3:45

series of cubes that have letters on them.

3:47

Normal Boggle is four by four, big Boggle

3:50

is five by five. And

3:52

then you are finding words

3:54

by connecting letters. Now

3:57

I have done Boggle puzzles, and usually a

3:59

Boggle puzzle. is you purposely

4:01

place the letters and then you've hidden, like there's

4:03

some theme you have to figure out. Like, oh,

4:06

it's all the Beatles or something. So

4:09

I would say sort of

4:11

the boggle game and a boggle puzzle,

4:14

it very much is a puzzle game. Really

4:17

the big question is like in boggle,

4:19

you're competing against other people. Puzzles

4:22

are normally in a

4:24

vacuum, puzzles tend to be more solitary, but

4:27

there are group puzzles. For example, the escape

4:29

rooms they talked about, my whole family does

4:31

them. Now in escape room there's

4:33

multiple puzzles and different people might be working at

4:35

different puzzles simultaneously or sometimes

4:37

you team up to work on puzzles. So

4:40

puzzles having can be a team experience. The

4:42

majority of puzzles are done solo, majority

4:45

of puzzles usually are done solo. Traditional puzzles

4:47

like you do in a magazine, usually those

4:49

are solo experiences, not always. Some people like

4:51

doing the crossroads with their

4:53

spots or something. Okay,

4:57

so the

5:00

key difference, like I said, is most

5:02

puzzles are more closed puzzles we're talking

5:04

and in a closed puzzle, there usually

5:06

is a singular answer or answers. Everybody

5:09

doing the puzzle is getting to the same place.

5:12

Unlike a game where you're all kind of getting

5:14

there from different places. Now, it

5:17

is possible to make a puzzle that has multiple

5:19

answers, there's multiple ways to get to the answer,

5:21

that is possible. But you

5:23

usually are going to a signified the same

5:25

answer in which games, games

5:28

more there's an open-ended goal. So let

5:30

me start getting into how we actually design puzzles. And

5:33

the structure I decided I'd use today is I

5:36

wrote an article many years ago called

5:40

10 Things Every Game Needs. I

5:42

then did a series of podcasts, one

5:45

podcast on each of the 10 things. So

5:48

I was gonna use that as a guideline for

5:50

talking about making puzzles and talking about a lot

5:52

of the core to puzzle

5:54

design. And it'll let me

5:56

talk a little bit about the differences between puzzles and

5:59

games. Not everything. I

6:01

mean the interesting thing is when you talk

6:03

about the ten things every game needs puzzles

6:05

are close There's a few differences, but they're

6:07

pretty close. Okay, so let's

6:09

start number one was a goal or

6:11

goals So in a game I

6:14

have to tell you what what it is you're trying to do Puzzles

6:17

are very similar when you start a

6:19

puzzle. I have to tell you what's the end state

6:22

of the puzzle How do you solve the puzzle? What

6:24

are you looking for? Now

6:26

there are some puzzles in

6:29

which understanding what the puzzle is doing

6:31

can be part of the puzzle There

6:34

are some puzzles where the goal is nebulous.

6:36

So most puzzles I tell you up front

6:39

It's a crossword puzzle still is fill in

6:41

this grid or you know, it's

6:43

a word search find these words You know most

6:45

of the time if the puzzle I'm telling you

6:48

what to do It is possible

6:50

to do a puzzle in which the goal

6:52

itself figuring out the goal is part of

6:54

the puzzle so Games

6:57

are a little clear in what the goal is Usually

6:59

puzzles are pretty clear But it is possible to

7:02

make a puzzle in which part of the puzzle's

7:04

figuring out what the puzzle is That's

7:07

one of the things that puzzles can do

7:09

the game games really need to be a

7:11

lot clearer from what you're doing Games don't

7:13

want to be nebulous where puzzles at times

7:15

can be a little more nebulous now that

7:17

said there needs to be a goal There

7:19

needs to be What are

7:21

you trying to do in the puzzle? You know you

7:24

even if the even if the puzzle doer

7:26

is sort of solving that along the way

7:28

there doesn't need to be like for Example

7:30

there is an answer to a puzzle maybe

7:32

multiple answers But there's an answer or answers

7:34

to a puzzle and a lot of times

7:36

the core goal of a puzzle is to

7:38

get the answer Or answers now

7:41

in a meta puzzle. So what a meta puzzle

7:43

is is you do puzzles and that leads you

7:45

to other puzzles? Normally

7:47

in a escape room that's a meta

7:49

puzzle you'll solve smaller puzzles that have

7:51

answers that help give you Give

7:54

you more things to solve other puzzles And

7:57

sometimes like emergency call of manner there

7:59

are 12 individual puzzles you do, you

8:01

get an answer to those 12 puzzles.

8:03

The answers to those 12 puzzles makes

8:05

a 13th puzzle. Traditionally,

8:08

that's how a meta puzzle works, is the answers

8:11

to the small puzzles are themselves a larger puzzle.

8:14

Sometimes what they do in escape rooms is in

8:17

order to solve some of the puzzles, you need

8:19

to solve other puzzles because they open up material

8:21

that you need to solve the other puzzles. So

8:25

technically a meta puzzle is where the answers give you

8:27

the solution to a new puzzle. There

8:29

are sequential puzzles where I have to solve one

8:31

puzzle before I can solve the other puzzle. A

8:34

lot of times like treasure hunts, for example, the

8:37

clues can be a little puzzle you have to solve that

8:39

sends you somewhere, then you get the next clue, which is

8:41

the next puzzle, for example. Okay,

8:44

so you do need goals, you're trying

8:46

to do something. Traditionally

8:49

with a puzzle, there's an answer. That's

8:51

something games don't inherently have an answer,

8:55

where puzzles by

8:57

default have an answer. There are puzzles that

8:59

sort of either don't have one answer or

9:01

are a little more nebulous. But mostly puzzles

9:03

have an answer. Okay, number

9:05

two, the rules. Now

9:07

in a game, the rules sort of

9:10

define what you can and can't do. In

9:12

a puzzle, the rules are

9:15

more set up by the str- I mean, A,

9:17

you can lay out a few rules if you want. For

9:21

example, when you're doing an escape room,

9:24

a lot of times they'll tell you a few things, mostly

9:27

to help you. You know, anything

9:29

you can't reach isn't part of the puzzle. You

9:32

don't have to, you know, pull anything

9:34

with any force that would break something. You

9:36

know, they give you a few guidelines and

9:39

there are some, um, what

9:41

I would have called them, there

9:43

are somewhat structural rules. So

9:45

a well-designed escape room,

9:47

for example, you use each item once.

9:49

Meaning once I've used something to solve

9:51

a puzzle, I know I don't need

9:53

that anymore. I can put it away.

9:57

And that way when you're like one of the things about sort

9:59

of the rules, rules of a puzzle is you

10:01

just want to make it clear to the audience

10:03

as a puzzle doer what it is they're

10:05

trying to do. For example,

10:07

I'll use one of my puzzles from my

10:10

parties. So at

10:12

last year, not not.

10:15

So right now we just said we're so not two months

10:17

ago, but 14 months ago, I

10:20

did we did a how every December

10:22

we do a holiday cookie, how to

10:24

cookie party. And last year

10:27

we did a puzzle where

10:29

we showed 50 Santas.

10:32

And each Santa was from a different

10:35

TV show or movie. And

10:37

the goal of the puzzle was identify

10:39

the TV show or movie. Now,

10:42

some of it was recognition.

10:45

Oh, I see that movie. Oh, that's

10:47

Papa else from else. Some

10:49

of it was trying to

10:51

like, even if you didn't

10:54

see in a specific episode, there were a

10:56

lot of animated shows, for example, oh, in

10:58

one of the parameters that I

11:00

talked about rules, one of the parameters of the

11:02

puzzle, they went on stated it was built. So

11:04

it was a rule that we

11:06

the puzzle builders followed that you the

11:08

puzzle doer could figure out, but we

11:10

didn't inherently tell you, which was all

11:13

our Santas were canonical Santas. What that

11:15

means is none of the Santas in

11:17

our puzzle were people who in the

11:19

story are a guy dressed up as

11:21

Santa in all of them, it was

11:23

canonically Santa, it was actually Santa Claus.

11:25

So as you start solving

11:27

the puzzle, that is a rule. So

11:30

there are stated rules and puzzles, right?

11:32

Tell you something about what's going

11:34

to happen. And then there's unwritten

11:36

rules, right? The puzzles follow, follow set of

11:38

rules that you might figure out along the

11:41

way that can help you solve it. And

11:43

we'll get more as we into strategy, we'll

11:45

get a little more into that. Okay, number

11:47

next is number three is interaction. So

11:51

interaction is where we deviate a little

11:53

bit, there is interaction in a puzzle

11:55

design for more than one player. escape

11:58

rooms, perfect example. A

12:00

lot of times, for example, there are

12:02

things in escape rooms that one person

12:04

can't possibly do. A

12:07

classic example is where one person has

12:09

to solve something, but the means to

12:11

solve it is somewhere else. So

12:15

somebody, like let's say there's an answer, and

12:17

then there's the pieces that you have to

12:19

put, like you have to put pieces in

12:21

a certain order. But the order itself is

12:23

somewhere that the person looking at the pieces

12:25

can't see. So somebody else has

12:27

to be, okay, it goes red, then

12:29

green, then blue, so the person solving it

12:31

can solve it, but you need to help

12:33

another person. I've also seen puzzles where two

12:35

people have to push buttons at the

12:38

same time. Things in which a

12:40

lot of times, if you're

12:42

designing a puzzle that is meant for more

12:44

than one person, you can have interactions, and

12:46

you can do things in which, in order

12:48

to solve the puzzle, you need multiple people.

12:51

Most puzzles are solitary, meaning there's

12:53

a single user. So

12:55

in those, there's less interaction.

12:58

One of the things I do, for example, in

13:00

my paper puzzles and my games is, one

13:03

of my rules, which is just a universal rule,

13:05

I do write this on the things, which is

13:08

you're not allowed to use the internet, meaning a

13:11

lot of my things are trivia based. But

13:14

one of the rules is you're allowed to talk

13:16

to people at a party. Why do I do

13:18

that? Well, it's a party. I

13:20

want to encourage people to interact with each other,

13:22

and so the games are meant not as a

13:24

means to pull people apart, but draw people together.

13:27

So the idea is, hey, if I don't

13:29

know the answers to something, one

13:31

of my routes to solving it might

13:33

be talking to other people and getting answers

13:36

from other people. Now, there

13:38

also is a little bit of competition. There's a prize for the

13:40

puzzles at a party. So some people

13:42

want to share, some people don't want to share,

13:44

so there's a give and take there. So

13:47

there is ways to build interaction in a puzzle, but once

13:49

again, it involves being beyond a

13:51

solitary puzzle. In a solitary puzzle, there's

13:53

less ways for interaction. Okay,

13:56

number four, the catch-up feature. In

14:00

games what that means is, no matter where it

14:02

is in the game, I want to feel like

14:04

I have a chance. If

14:06

I make a game in which I feel like I'm behind and

14:08

I can never catch up, you know,

14:10

it can be kind of demoralizing. So

14:14

puzzles isn't quite the same. I

14:17

will use this thing to talk a little bit about

14:19

how you want to make sure that

14:21

you build in

14:25

clues inside your puzzle. What

14:27

I mean by that is, you

14:29

want to make sure that you

14:32

are helping the puzzle doer on multiple

14:34

levels. And there's a bunch of ways to do

14:36

that. One of the ways I just

14:38

talked about is, maybe there's some

14:41

inherent structure that as you start solving

14:43

the puzzle, you start realizing there's internal

14:45

rules that were followed, which once you

14:47

understand that, it helps you figure out

14:49

what's going on. Once you know that

14:52

all the Santas are canonical Santas, oh,

14:54

you can say, oh, this can't be

14:57

trading places because Dan Aykroyd wasn't Santa,

14:59

he was his character dressed up as

15:01

Santa. Oh, I can eliminate that as

15:04

an option. That can't be an option. Another

15:07

thing that's very common, I'll use Jeopardy

15:09

for the sample. If you've ever seen

15:11

the Jeopardy clues, the people who make

15:13

Jeopardy clues are puzzle people. Normally,

15:16

in a lot of the clues, there's

15:18

a little extra clue within the answer,

15:20

or they give

15:22

you the answer Jeopardy, you have to give the questions. The

15:25

idea is, there's little subtle

15:27

nods, there's little subtle things to help you. If

15:30

you're really careful about reading a clue, a

15:33

lot of times, they give you extra information

15:35

that might be useful. The

15:38

other thing that can help with the

15:41

catch-up feature is, sometimes

15:44

there's a structure. You

15:47

can sort of, as you solve the puzzle, that

15:50

can remove options. A

15:52

classic example of this would be a matching

15:55

puzzle. What I mean by that is, For

15:57

example, I did the Santa Claus puzzle a

16:00

year later. or two months ago, we did

16:02

a similar puzzle with Als. The. Difference

16:04

is the Santa Claus puzzles. You were

16:06

trying to say what shows that like

16:09

they're all Santa Claus The Alfonso. We

16:11

did a slightly different thing we want

16:13

do a visual puzzle percent of ago,

16:16

don't overwhelm the we sure nothing was

16:18

thirty five Elves and pop culture or

16:20

movies, Tv shows, books, com cereal boxes

16:22

armed with this is Alison popular places

16:25

and the girl was not to identify

16:27

where they came from necessarily well. The

16:29

goals is identified who they want. But.

16:32

There was more complex than Santa Santa With

16:35

Santa to leave it on. This puzzle is

16:37

we gave you the fifty or the thirty

16:39

five answers for the thirty five pictures that

16:41

was is called a match and puzzle. I'm

16:44

telling you the answers. We observe: which answer

16:46

goes with which picture. On.

16:49

And so. That as had

16:51

a nice piece of to work and that let's

16:53

say oh that's Pop L from else and I

16:55

cross that off. well nobody else and Pop L

16:58

A now limit is an option. right?

17:00

I've eliminated a choice. Be so

17:02

on. Some. Puzzles are designed to

17:04

such a way says you start solving some

17:07

of them. It helps make major part of

17:09

the puzzle easier. Across was another

17:11

great example. Let's say, I don't know

17:13

Aclu? Well, there's there's something. other clues.

17:15

It starts giving me letters and now

17:17

I have a leg up to figure

17:20

that out. So. Is important

17:22

in puzzles that you build an qualities

17:24

that help people as they start solving

17:26

the puzzle. That does that help them

17:28

with other parts of the puzzle. That

17:31

that. The puzzle is

17:33

interconnected and that. Doing part

17:36

of it helps with other pets. Are

17:38

hidden under side is inertia. So.

17:42

In Vienna in a game with that means

17:44

is you need to finish the enemy you

17:46

need a measure that the out and playing

17:48

a game. Ends the game. And

17:50

at one of the real conversation beginning

17:52

game designers is they make things that

17:54

can't be some states that. The. The

17:56

game and the percentage used to stall so the

17:59

game doesn't end. You want to make

18:01

the game end. What you need

18:03

to do to win the game makes it end. So that

18:05

there... Inertia

18:08

basically means you just want to push forward. The

18:11

steps it takes to win is making the game

18:13

end. In a puzzle, there

18:15

is inertia. So one of the things you

18:17

need to do is what is sort of

18:19

called a ramped up challenge. So

18:22

the idea is... I

18:24

will use my elf

18:27

puzzle for a second. Okay,

18:29

so what I want to do is when you first come to

18:31

the puzzle, you want to make sure... If

18:34

the puzzle is too hard, unless your

18:37

audience is like die hard puzzle people. And

18:40

that's another important thing real quickly is you

18:43

have to design your puzzle to your audience.

18:45

For example, I do a lot of puzzles

18:47

at my parties. So one

18:49

time I did a... It was

18:51

a neighborhood party. It wasn't my normal audience, which is a lot

18:53

of R&D folk. It was people from

18:55

my neighborhood. And I made a puzzle for it. But

18:58

I aimed the puzzle like I did to a normal party in

19:00

which R&D is there. And R&D in

19:02

general, they're game players, they're puzzle people. They're much

19:04

better at puzzles. And it was too hard. One

19:07

of the things you want to do in

19:09

a puzzle is you want to make sure

19:11

there's part of the puzzle that draws people

19:13

in. That you want... Right away,

19:15

you want people to see some answers. So for example,

19:17

if I'm doing a visual puzzle, take

19:19

the elves as an example, I'm going to put some elves

19:21

in that I know you know. Papa

19:23

Elf from Elf is a good example. It's Bob

19:26

Newhart. Most people have seen elves. You're probably

19:28

going to know what that is. You want

19:30

some hard ones too. There definitely

19:32

were some elves from properties that I don't think

19:34

people had seen. But, as I'll

19:37

get into in a second, there

19:40

are ways to help people figure those out as well. But

19:43

I want to make sure when you look at a puzzle that

19:45

immediately there's some things you know. And

19:48

what you want to do is you want to

19:50

make the puzzle have a ramp to it. So

19:52

there's some things you can do right away so you

19:55

don't get discouraged. But The

19:57

puzzle has a range from some easy...

20:00

The thing is a medium. Things to

20:02

do. Hard things. That was progression to

20:04

the puzzle. Arm and a lot

20:06

of the inertia means that you wanna make

20:08

sure the person is ready for the part

20:11

of puzzles a rat. And. That

20:13

the way you finish the puzzle is

20:15

by having a ramp to and people

20:17

saw what they can solving and pushes

20:19

them for. An escape from some.

20:21

some are cloudy where. There's. Usually

20:23

easier puzzles up front and then as

20:25

you do them the puzzle starting a

20:27

little bit harder than you learn things

20:29

about the room you are reasons about

20:31

the puzzles as an excuse because of

20:33

a little bit easier. Okay,

20:36

Numbers. It is surprise. So there's an

20:38

important part in making a puzzle. What

20:40

we call the ah ha moments. With

20:43

the Aha moment is is. News

20:46

when the puzzle not necessarily

20:48

not always. But. In

20:50

a good puzzle I will say ah,

20:52

there's a moment other half will realize

20:54

something. You figure something out. Now

20:56

thirty one giant ah moment to

20:59

can be some small moments. Where.

21:01

There's a moment we sit or something about

21:03

the puzzle. Know some puzzle. What a bizarre

21:05

how moment is. Usually not sure what's going

21:07

on a metres one on for I figured

21:09

it out on the scale. Brooms do a

21:12

lot of the big ah ha where I

21:14

have component pieces, but then I just figure

21:16

out what the puzzle is and the ah

21:18

ha moment to see what the puzzle is.

21:20

Now like an escape room, there's clues

21:22

so that leaves away several Do the

21:25

work is a bunch of lox. this

21:27

lot as a four digit number on

21:29

it. this lot as a half five

21:31

letter word on it. This lot of

21:33

looking for directional or down like that

21:35

and so. As. He saw the position

21:37

to figure out. Oh what kind of puzzled as

21:39

in the net puzzle? Oh I get it. this

21:42

puzzles the answer is a find that we're not

21:44

going to sounds a lot and open up there.

21:47

On. So. There

21:49

is ah ha moments like how my

21:51

using this puzzle in a larger larger

21:53

thing on him adipose or stuff or

21:55

sequential puzzle on. Another are happening

21:57

like from have let's take my arm. The.

22:00

Santa Claus puzzle. I'm okay

22:02

some of the stop all recognize

22:04

because I just oh yeah that

22:07

that is Santa Claus from. Else.

22:10

The ah that's and as nervous as his

22:12

place and of was an alpha know that

22:14

on other times it might be okay. I

22:17

don't necessarily know the episode the same appeared

22:19

but all this is an animated show an

22:21

admin shows have a very stylized then. Oh

22:24

why can tell? The. People are

22:26

yellow and have four fingers and

22:29

like oh that's the Simpsons money

22:31

I've never seen the episode where

22:33

Santa Claus on the Simpsons God.

22:36

I can recognize in the style and then

22:38

this is how mama Goth kids as extra

22:41

set of who's I can use. Aren't

22:43

so small? has more are more live.

22:46

On. That. The.

22:48

There there can be handholds and organ more

22:51

to handle them second but that we hand

22:53

holds in the puzzle meeting little things that

22:55

help you solve the puzzle that can be

22:57

built then on. A lot of the ah

22:59

ha moments are either surgery of a larger

23:01

structural the puzzle maybe figure out what you're

23:03

trying to solve. All our neighbors are not

23:05

little things that help you out how to

23:07

solve the puzzle. Which leads

23:09

us into strategy. To the handled are

23:12

driven in part of strategy. So in

23:14

a game what you want is you

23:16

want people to learn things and playing

23:18

your game such that in future games

23:20

they're better at the game because of

23:22

things. They learned the idea that. Didn't

23:25

there's. Things to learn in the

23:27

game to win the game and the more

23:29

you understand strategy the better the better you

23:32

are Affleck smelling a game. there's a really

23:34

quality the doesn't always happen in a puzzle

23:36

often puzzle you solving and you're done without

23:38

puzzle or maybe go to a similar my

23:40

eyelids. i like crosswords and so

23:43

i do crossword i saw that roster

23:45

but that i go to another hawthorne

23:47

on were games you play the same

23:49

games a little different here on what

23:51

the same sense as you want some

23:53

strategy built into your puzzle with and

23:55

means is you want your audience to

23:57

figure things out that help them with

23:59

the puzzle Those are what we

24:01

call handholds, and that's something you, the

24:03

puzzle designer, put in the puzzle. For

24:06

example, when

24:09

we picked the picture, one of the pictures

24:11

of Santa was from SpongeBob. Now,

24:13

there's a couple different pictures we could have

24:15

picked, but one of the pictures we picked

24:17

had a certain little symbol in it, and

24:19

that symbol shows up in SpongeBob SquarePants. So

24:21

that was a little clue that, like, if

24:23

you recognize this symbol, another,

24:25

for example, the handhold is, when

24:27

I made my elf puzzle, one of

24:30

the things that I did was, we

24:33

tried to pick a bunch of female elves.

24:36

I think there were nine out of the

24:38

35. So if you see a name of

24:40

an elf and it's a female name, you

24:42

go, oh, that's probably one of the female

24:44

elves, and that narrows down, you know, or

24:48

when we gave you the name of the elf,

24:50

we also gave you the name of where they come from, the

24:52

movie or TV show or something. And so, maybe

24:56

as you look at it, you're like,

24:58

oh, this seems like a comic book.

25:00

Well, I know this is a movie,

25:02

and maybe I don't even know which one's

25:04

the comic book, but at least I can

25:06

eliminate the movies. So, handholds a lot of

25:09

time are trying to divvy up how you

25:11

have answers or how you design the answers,

25:13

or, I mean, how you build

25:15

the handholds can depend a lot on

25:17

the kind of puzzle you're building. But

25:19

what you want to do is, as

25:21

you're constructing it, think about how players

25:23

can figure things out along the way,

25:26

how there's contextual information that they can

25:28

figure out. Because part of a good

25:30

puzzle is, as you

25:32

start solving it, you learn things about it,

25:34

and that helps you solve it. And that,

25:37

it's not as if, like, there are trivia

25:39

puzzles. There are a few puzzles where, like, I

25:41

know it or I don't. But even a good

25:43

trivia puzzle, right, tries to work in clues or

25:45

tries to give you a larger structure, like a

25:47

crossword puzzle, where if I don't know the answer

25:50

immediately, I get things later that give

25:52

me more information to help me solve it. Because

25:55

it's puzzles in which I know it or

25:57

I don't know it. I mean, there

25:59

are some... things, but a good trivia is

26:01

not solely like do you know it or not know

26:03

it. There's stuff built in to help you maybe solve

26:05

it. Okay,

26:08

number eight is fun.

26:11

One of

26:13

the ideas there is that the

26:16

thing that you enjoyed playing the game, the thing

26:18

that's the most fun about the game, you want

26:20

to make sure that that is the avenue to

26:22

win. That one of a

26:25

common mistake game designers can make, or

26:27

amateur game designers, is that they make

26:29

a game in which the correct way

26:31

to win is boring and

26:33

that the fun thing about the game isn't the

26:35

correct way to win. So people, because people are

26:38

want to win the game, they're not doing the

26:40

fun thing, they're doing this boring thing and

26:42

then the end of the game like that wasn't fun. So

26:44

you want to make sure your fun is there. Puzzles

26:46

is very similar and that you want

26:48

to make sure when you build your puzzle

26:50

that the activity needed to solve the puzzle

26:53

is a fun activity. For example,

26:55

I'll take my Santa puzzle. Hey, it's kind of

26:57

fun to go, where's this from? I've seen a

26:59

lot of TV shows and movies. Oh, he looks

27:01

familiar. Where's he from? And you know, you could

27:03

chat with other people and get contextual clues and

27:06

it's fun to try to figure that out because

27:08

that's a fun thing. Recalling where you saw something

27:10

or your trivia can be fun. Or

27:13

let's say you're doing a crossword puzzle. It's fun to

27:15

fill in grades and you're like, like whatever you're doing,

27:17

or like my favorite thing is called the cryptic crossword.

27:19

So for those that have never, for those that have

27:21

done traditional crosswords but never done the cryptic crossword, cryptic

27:24

crosswords, the clues themselves are like little word games

27:26

and you have to solve the word or

27:28

the little word puzzles and you have to solve

27:31

the little word puzzle to understand the clue to

27:33

know what the word is. So like each

27:35

clue is itself is a little puzzle and

27:38

there's different kinds of clues but it's really fun

27:40

and it's like a little word, like it's each

27:42

clue is itself is a little word puzzle and then you

27:44

use that to solve the bigger puzzle. So it's a lot of

27:46

fun. But you have to

27:48

do that and make sure that you weave that in. Number

27:51

nine is Slaver. So

27:54

the idea of the game is that

27:57

one of the tools to help people understand the

28:00

game is to help them

28:02

understand. You

28:05

can use flavor as a way to help

28:07

make things easier to learn. Like

28:09

when you're learning how to play magic, flying

28:12

is very intuitive because flying is

28:14

a real thing. Birds fly.

28:16

Oh, I understand why

28:18

this bear can't block the bird. Oh, the

28:20

bird could fly over it. And so that

28:23

mechanic is easier to understand because it's relatable

28:25

to something, to a flavor that you get.

28:27

And so flavor does two things.

28:29

One is it helps make the puzzle

28:33

and or game easier to understand. The

28:35

second is it makes it more fun. You know, one

28:38

of the things, for example, about escape rooms is most

28:40

escape rooms or almost all escape rooms have a flavor

28:42

to it. Oh, I'm trying to

28:45

make a jailbreak or I'm in the

28:47

saloon or there's a zombie outbreak

28:49

and I have to find a clue to stop

28:51

the zombie outbreak. Like I'm

28:53

somewhere and that the puzzles

28:56

intertwine with the theme. You

28:58

know, my family and I have done

29:00

like Alice in Wonderland theme puzzle, Scooby-Doo

29:02

theme puzzle, you know, things in which

29:04

oh, there's something going on, there's some

29:06

mystery to solve, but the flavor really

29:08

can add a lot and sometimes

29:10

the flavor itself even might have

29:13

clues in it or you can use

29:15

that as a means to build something around.

29:18

And so flavor well,

29:20

it a actually the fun, which is

29:22

important. B, it can add structural elements

29:24

either to build around or to help

29:26

people understand something that can be very

29:28

valuable. Number

29:31

10 is a hook. So

29:33

one of the things I was talking about when

29:35

you make a game is that at least in

29:37

professional game making, you then have to sell the

29:39

game. And so one of the things about it

29:41

is there's something about

29:43

it that has to make people want to buy it. What's

29:45

special about this game? Why would I want to buy this game?

29:50

So in games and

29:52

I can in puzzles. I mean,

29:55

I want people to do the puzzle. So there might be a little

29:57

hook of what why this puzzle is fun. Usually

30:00

what a hook and a puzzle is, there's some

30:02

theme to the puzzle, there's something about the puzzle

30:04

that, you know, there's some

30:07

novelty. Now there's some traditional puzzles like

30:09

a Crusher puzzle that, but

30:11

even Crusher puzzles often will have some novelty

30:13

to it. Oh, there's a theme! Some of

30:15

the words all play into some theme together

30:17

that might make it a little fun. Like,

30:19

oh, it's St. Patrick's Day, so it has,

30:21

or Valentine's Day or whatever, so it has

30:23

some theme that plays into something. And

30:27

it's a lot of fun, like for example,

30:29

I'm talking about my parties. Well, I'm having

30:31

a holiday-themed party. Well, my games are holiday-themed,

30:33

you know. It just fits the mood and

30:35

the tone. And so, a lot

30:38

of times, and another thing about a

30:40

hook for a puzzle is, you want

30:43

someone to do the puzzle. So something

30:45

about the puzzle wants to draw them

30:47

in. So for example, you know, the Sand

30:49

puzzle is the Elf puzzle, like, it's just very visual

30:51

and you go, oh, I know who that is. And

30:53

all of a sudden, hey, I solved a little piece

30:55

of the puzzle. Maybe, you know, and then it makes

30:57

me want to look and see what else I know.

30:59

And so, a hook is valuable in the sense that

31:01

it draws you in and it makes you want to

31:03

do that. Now,

31:09

one last thing to talk about is, I did

31:12

talk about Magic the Puzzling, which

31:15

is a puzzle. So Magic the Puzzling, normally

31:18

there was a singular solution in the

31:21

sense that it's something you had to do. But there's something that I

31:24

did with it that I didn't really talk

31:26

about. So I'll use my last example of

31:28

Magic the Puzzling to talk about something, which

31:30

is that one of the

31:32

funds of a puzzle is you

31:34

want the puzzle user to have to

31:36

challenge something. Some

31:39

of this could be the aha moment, but

31:41

usually a fun part of a puzzle is

31:43

that you want the player in

31:45

the act of working on the puzzle

31:48

to realize something about the puzzle along

31:50

the way. For example, the way

31:52

I used to do it in Magic the Puzzling

31:54

is I would make you use a card in

31:56

the way you usually didn't use the card. Oh,

31:59

look! a card drawing spell, but to solve

32:01

a puzzle, you're going to give your opponent

32:03

cards. Or you're just going

32:05

to do something that's a little off the beaten

32:08

path. Because one of the

32:10

fun things about a lot of puzzles is

32:12

there's this mental challenge that goes into

32:14

it to say, okay, I've got to

32:17

solve it. That you want the person,

32:19

you want to push against preconceived notions.

32:21

And a lot of puzzles like to

32:23

play around with the idea that the

32:25

player has to challenge themselves. The

32:27

puzzle doer has to challenge themselves. That solving

32:29

the puzzles is sort of not taking anything

32:32

at face value all the time. And

32:34

figuring out the handholds and figuring out... There's

32:37

a lot of crafting to solving a puzzle. And that

32:39

a puzzle isn't just like you know it or you

32:41

don't know. That's

32:43

not a great puzzle where it's like, well, do I know it or not know

32:45

it? No. Okay. There

32:49

are people that really love trivia. But mostly a

32:51

good puzzle has to do with it

32:53

is a journey that you take the puzzle goer

32:55

on and that they have fun on the journey

32:58

and they do things on the journey and they

33:00

work their brain and they solve things. A

33:02

lot of making a good puzzle is you feel

33:05

proud for solving the puzzle. That the puzzle was

33:07

solved. That you would have figured it out. And

33:09

a lot of times part of figuring it out

33:11

is adding this element that might not be obvious.

33:15

That can be your aha moment. Aha

33:17

moments can function in a couple of different ways. But

33:20

that's an important part of the puzzle

33:22

is the idea that you're making something

33:24

that it's a challenge for someone to

33:26

solve and that it's solvable. Making

33:29

a puzzle that no one can solve isn't like you want

33:32

to make things that people can solve. You

33:34

can set difficulties and once again know your audience. Anyway

33:37

guys, so that is lots

33:39

of information about how to design a puzzle. So it's

33:41

a little off the beaten path. I've done a lot

33:43

of podcasts so I like to veer off a little

33:46

bit. This tied into our Murder is

33:48

the Color of Manner puzzle theme. So I thought it

33:50

was a good time to talk about it. And there's

33:53

a lot of similarities between designing games and designing

33:55

puzzles as hopefully you learned today. So

33:57

I think if you enjoy game

33:59

design. that hopefully you enjoy an

34:01

episode on puzzle design. Anyway guys,

34:03

I'm now at work. So although that means

34:06

instead of talking magic, it means it's the end of my

34:08

drive to work, sorry, instead of talking magic it's time for

34:11

me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time.

34:13

Bye bye.