AEHEAgame workspace
Visit Y8
puzzle-thinking.foldergame library
/categories/puzzle-thinking

Puzzle & Thinking Games · 13

Good puzzle interfaces make illegal moves obvious, because the interesting challenge should be reasoning about the rules rather than guessing what the controls permit. A related fact is worth keeping: Logic puzzles often become easier when the player marks what cannot be true, because eliminating possibilities can be more powerful than guessing what is true. Puzzles are one of the few places where staring at the same object longer can legitimately count as progress.

← All folders
3,802 indexed games
Puzzles
PAGE 13 / 77

This actually happened

Matchstick puzzles work because humans automatically accept familiar symbols and shapes. Moving one tiny stick can change a number, an equation or even the meaning of the whole picture. One more page from the weird history book: Optical illusions are useful puzzle ingredients because seeing is partly interpretation. The brain makes fast assumptions about depth, motion and shape, and puzzle designers love catching those assumptions in the act.