Puzzle Game General

[Solaire]

The Witness is my personal favorite. The open world is designed masterfully, you can wander in any direction and find something interesting. The environment evokes curiosity, a feeling of "ooh i wonder what's over there," which drives you to solve the puzzles. The world design complements the puzzles well- I'd often get stuck on a problem, wander off and completely forget about it, then come back and solve it on the first try. There are no instructions, with mechanic discovery driven by exploration, a treat in the era of yellow-paint mouth-breather game design. Also the game compiles faster than it takes Microsoft Word to open.

I recommend avoiding gameplay footage outside of the store page, as it may spoil some special moments




Cryptmaster is so novel that it's difficult to characterize. Ostensibly it's a typing-game dungeon crawler, where actions are performed by typing words. The pudding is in the excellent writing and sheer magnitude of unique responses to your inputs. You can type almost any word and the game will react in interesting ways. The gameplay challenges the creative writing parts of your brain, & although the design needs to be fleshed out a bit more, this game will likely spawn a whole new genre of puzzle mechanics. Wordcels are evolving




I'm currently playing Stephen's Sausage Roll, apparently Jonathan Blow praised it as "maybe the best puzzle of all time." It's a pure puzzle game, quite challenging but thoroughly enjoyable if you have the mental energy to spare.




Finally, last month Blow revealed the game he's been working on for the last decade, Order of the Sinking Star. IIRC it's meant to be the most ambitious puzzle game ever. Very excited for its release

[J1M]

A bit surprised I only found out about the trailer a couple of months after it was released. Looking forward to seeing how this game turned out. A technical feat for sure to have made such a robust programming language as part of the game's development.

[J1M]

Found this yesterday. Launches today. Demo was a pleasant experience.

[J1M]

Apparently St. Patrick's day is puzzle day. DLC for this classic dropped too. Base game is great, even the solitaire mini-game. Please share thoughts if you buy the DLC.

[asf]

puzzles are boring, spend time trying to figure the contrived way other peoples minds work

[DecadeRiptide]

Idk but I got stuck on a lot of the Skyrim dungeon puzzles ngl

[Tweed]

Puzzle games are for women.

[Stack of Turtles]

Puzzle games are for women.

Women can't do puzzles because they have no spatial reasoning skills though

[WhiteShark]

@Watser

is a big fan of the DROD series.



There's a free version here: https://caravelgames.com/distfiles/CDROD1_6_7setup.exe

I have a hard time getting into puzzle games, but I did have some fun with it. Apparently DROD is a huge treasure trove of content if you enjoy it: multiple entries and a bunch of user-made dungeons.

[Tweed]

I didn't realize we had so many women on this site.

[Tweed]

Apparently St. Patrick's day is puzzle day. DLC for this classic dropped too. Base game is great, even the solitaire mini-game. Please share thoughts if you buy the DLC.

Opus Magnum is one of the only types of these games I enjoyed, but Zachtronics isn't exactly making typical puzzlers. Anyone manage to finish TIS-100?

[methoxetamine]

I want to try Opus Magnum but I don't like being made to feel like a ******, which I am

[J1M]

I want to try Opus Magnum but I don't like being made to feel like a ******, which I am

If you turn off the community histograms that should alleviate the issue.

[J1M]

Apparently St. Patrick's day is puzzle day. DLC for this classic dropped too. Base game is great, even the solitaire mini-game. Please share thoughts if you buy the DLC.

Opus Magnum is one of the only types of these games I enjoyed, but Zachtronics isn't exactly making typical puzzlers. Anyone manage to finish TIS-100?

I remember quitting Spacechem on the last level because I didn't like the timing element.

Pretty sure I finished TIS-100. I remember it eventually drawing an alien.

[Tweed]

I want to try Opus Magnum but I don't like being made to feel like a ******, which I am

It's really a load of fun, especially when you figure it out.

If you can figure it out.

[Nico]

One big open world of floating islands. Many different types of puzzles, and it's pretty looking.
Against all reason, the devs originally wanted this to be a "multiplayer" online game. As in, you could see the ghosts of other players doing puzzles and their scores appeared on you screen. ZERO co-op.

Thankfully, they added a single player only mode.

[WhiteShark]

I played the demo of Poke ALL Toads, which is currently being memed on /v/:



It's fun. The art is cute. There are a little fewer than 30 puzzles in the demo. Most of them are dedicated to teaching mechanics and interactions, so they weren't difficult, but a couple near the end made me have to think a little. I think it has potential if the later levels get more complex; the demo said there are over 100 in the full game, which really doesn't seem like all that many compared to the demo, but I also read in one of the threads that the dev is planning on adding more in updates. Steam reviews generally seem to agree that it never gets as hard as something like Baba Is You.

The itch.io page, which seems to be out of date compared to the Steam page, has a level editor:

https://la-fafafa.itch.io/poke-all-toads

It seems the dev hasn't managed to add it to the full version yet, but plans to:



Also, the game is made in Godot. Cool.

[WhiteShark]

I've poked ALL toads.



Very charming little game. Mix of pretty easy puzzles, a fair amount of 15+-minuters, and one that I had to sleep on to figure out. I think it's the only puzzle game I've played to completion.

@J1M, are puzzles games or are they something else?

[DrSneed]

coop puzzle games where you can mess with the other person are the best

[J1M]

I've poked ALL toads.



Very charming little game. Mix of pretty easy puzzles, a fair amount of 15+-minuters, and one that I had to sleep on to figure out. I think it's the only puzzle game I've played to completion.

@J1M, are puzzles games or are they something else?

Puzzles are definitely more than the Activities masquerading as mainstream Games. They have clear win conditions and present a challenge.

Off the top of my head I would say that in the terms of a mathematical proof, puzzles may be the base case of a game, since it is a challenge with one solution. And that perhaps if you took a puzzle and added alternate solutions to it you would be left with a game.

[Gastrick]

Have been playing Baba is You for a few months now, really is a great game and jumped up to my favorite puzzle game. Filled to the brim with creative puzzles that often feel surreal once you figure out how you'd solve them. Very often hard as well, where you'd need to revisit a stage over several days until something clicks and you find out the solution. Feels cool though whenever you make any progress once it picks up past level 3. Sokoban-style and written rules helps it be less abstract/more intuitive.

[Gastrick]

A bit surprised I only found out about the trailer a couple of months after it was released. Looking forward to seeing how this game turned out. A technical feat for sure to have made such a robust programming language as part of the game's development.

Order of the Sinking Star | Official Announcement Trailer

Just saw on Twitter, demo's coming out this Monday!

[J1M]

I think large demo is a mistake. If people have their fill they will not need to buy the game. Demos are best as single-session experiences that imply what you'll get if you purchase.

[Rienen]

One big open world of floating islands. Many different types of puzzles, and it's pretty looking.
Against all reason, the devs originally wanted this to be a "multiplayer" online game. As in, you could see the ghosts of other players doing puzzles and their scores appeared on you screen. ZERO co-op.

Thankfully, they added a single player only mode.

Thank you for reminding me that this game exists. I agree that the online aspect was completely unneeded, and I'm glad to hear there is an SP mode now. It had a nice balance of just enough brain engagement while still being something you can relax through. Steam says I played for 10hrs and I genuinely enjoyed my time with it. Prob due for a reinstall.

[Gastrick]

I think large demo is a mistake. If people have their fill they will not need to buy the game. Demos are best as single-session experiences that imply what you'll get if you purchase.

I think where he's coming from is that the game is so big in terms of content, to be longer than non-MMO RPGs if you try to solve everything; that it'd be like if you only were able to play 20 hours of those, you'd want to keep going and pay. Also that there's a story with the mystery of what the world actually is, as well as character arcs, so getting only a part of that would be inadequate. With him even saying something along the lines of "for most other games, this wouldn't be a good idea" pointing to this.

Getting the length of a normal game's worth of free content also means that you can capture everyone who wants to play it, instead of a fraction of them, to build momentum for the full release; where most people will buy a game then no matter how long the demo is.

[J1M]

I think large demo is a mistake. If people have their fill they will not need to buy the game. Demos are best as single-session experiences that imply what you'll get if you purchase.

I think where he's coming from is that the game is so big in terms of content, to be longer than non-MMO RPGs if you try to solve everything; that it'd be like if you only were able to play 20 hours of those, you'd want to keep going and pay. Also that there's a story with the mystery of what the world actually is, as well as character arcs, so getting only a part of that would be inadequate. With him even saying something along the lines of "for most other games, this wouldn't be a good idea" pointing to this.

Getting the length of a normal game's worth of free content also means that you can capture everyone who wants to play it, instead of a fraction of them, to build momentum for the full release; where most people will buy a game then no matter how long the demo is.

I think that the majority of people who want to play a 50 hour puzzle game were going to buy this without a demo. A lot of people that could be converted into buyers are going to quit somewhere between 2 and 20 hours into a long demo.

[Gastrick]

I think large demo is a mistake. If people have their fill they will not need to buy the game. Demos are best as single-session experiences that imply what you'll get if you purchase.

I think where he's coming from is that the game is so big in terms of content, to be longer than non-MMO RPGs if you try to solve everything; that it'd be like if you only were able to play 20 hours of those, you'd want to keep going and pay. Also that there's a story with the mystery of what the world actually is, as well as character arcs, so getting only a part of that would be inadequate. With him even saying something along the lines of "for most other games, this wouldn't be a good idea" pointing to this.

Getting the length of a normal game's worth of free content also means that you can capture everyone who wants to play it, instead of a fraction of them, to build momentum for the full release; where most people will buy a game then no matter how long the demo is.

I think that the majority of people who want to play a 50 hour puzzle game were going to buy this without a demo. A lot of people that could be converted into buyers are going to quit somewhere between 2 and 20 hours into a long demo.

Ok, looks like the demo is actually only out for a limited time while the event lasts:

It is time, puzzle fans: Play the Order of the Sinking Star demo during Steam Next Fest: June 2026 Edition from Monday, June 15th at 10am PT (5pm UTC) until Monday, June 22nd at 10am PT (5pm UTC)!

Am glad he's not making it a permanent thing.

[J1M]

I hope Sinking Star makes back the money that went into it, but after playing the demo it isn't clear to me why block pushing was a genre worthy of having this "every permutation" design experiment applied to it.

Jon's other games were better at engaging the player in moment to moment fun. I'm assuming there is something clever going on with the different layers of the map and how they interact but I don't know how many people will stay hooked long enough to find it for themselves.

[Gastrick]

I hope Sinking Star makes back the money that went into it, but after playing the demo it isn't clear to me why block pushing was a genre worthy of having this "every permutation" design experiment applied to it.

Jon's other games were better at engaging the player in moment to moment fun. I'm assuming there is something clever going on with the different layers of the map and how they interact but I don't know how many people will stay hooked long enough to find it for themselves.

I've been pretty happy with the gameplay so far, and the unique game-feel of it. Only flaws I can think of are the early parts of the heroes route being too trivial, and that the west-side level has too many things to redo if you restart it. Even in that latter case, the most challenging parts of it wouldn't work if it weren't for the size of it. The backgrounds, music, and smooth character movement also aiding the game.

The upsides of block pushing/sokobans are both their intuitiveness, and that they give a large possibility space of moves. Intuitive in working similarly to real life on a flat surface and how everything in the game is an object. Possibility space from the combination of there being the x as well as y position for everything, as well as that the possible states exponentially increase with each movable object you add into it. The chain of possible states leading to that final state also multiplying it.

[Gastrick]

Noticed ******** and libshits saying they were going to boycott the game, them every time it's brought up:



Mad that a dev isn't a ****** communist like the rest of them.