When people think of games their first thought is often triple-A shooter games or blockbuster action titles. God Of War, Call Of Duty, Elden Ring. Smash hits that often act as the poster child for gaming. And we aren’t saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. But it does mean that a lot of other gaming genres are often overlooked.
And there is one genre in particular that is woefully underappreciated when compared to others. And that is the puzzle genre. Puzzles have been a staple of the gaming world for a large part of human history. Long before video games were even a theoretical concept. Outside of the digital world, puzzles are still extremely popular. But puzzle video games are often underrepresented and undervalued. Today we are going to look at why!
Popular Puzzle Titles
The first thing we need to do is to examine some of the most popular puzzle games out there. The great thing about video games is the freedom it offers designers in regards to gameplay. Boardgames rely heavily on the imagination of the player. Video games have no such limitation.
Portal is a prime example of this. It is one of the best puzzle games ever created. Taking a simple concept that could only ever work in video game format. Players have a portal gun that can create two connected portals. They then have to solve a series of increasingly difficult escape rooms. Pair that with a hilarious AI villain and a flawless gameplay engine and you have a masterpiece.
The Professor Layton series is another example of puzzles done right. Each title is a Poirot-esq detective adventure. But you need to solve puzzles to progress and find clues. The puzzles are a mixture of logic puzzles, riddles, and math problems. The game integrates the puzzles into the world in such an inventive way. So that your immersion is never broken.
Decreasing Quality
Sadly titles like Portal and Layton aren’t the norm. Especially in recent years they have become rarities in the genre. Many developers now approach puzzle games as a quantity over quality situation. And this has been spurred on heavily by the advent of mobile gaming.
The smartphone revolution saw the rise of thousands upon thousands of puzzle mobile games. Candy Crush is the most notable example of this. A simple puzzle idea executed extremely well. And it took the world by storm. But, with mobile games being comparatively cheap to make when compared to console games, we soon saw the market flooded with cheap knockoffs.
The same thing has happened on web browsers too. When Words with Friends became popular we started to see a huge number of low-quality knockoffs appearing. Now we aren’t saying that every puzzle game on mobile or online is following this pattern. I still regularly play word games at Puzzle Voyage that are pushing the boundaries of the puzzle gaming genre while also being challenging. But, on the whole, many puzzle game developers aren’t trying to create anything outstanding. Instead they are content with producing a cheap game that can make them money.
The Intelligence Problem
One of the biggest issues that faces every puzzle is that they are only as smart as their creator. A puzzle created by a child might easily fool another child. But, on average, an adult would easily be able to solve it. And not everyone has a mind for puzzles. Which isn’t a bad thing necessarily. Unless you’re a games developer looking to make a puzzle game.
All too often we will see companies try to release a puzzle game to rival the likes of Portal or Layton. They will include an engaging story, a beautiful world, and stunning graphics. Everything that should make for a good game. But a puzzle game is only as strong as its weakest puzzle.
The art of making a good puzzle game has been lost over the years. People have lost faith in the genre and this means that developers are less inclined to try their hand at making puzzle games. This is one of the primary reasons why the genre is so underappreciated. Because there just haven’t been any standout titles to compete with the legendary puzzle games of old!