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Designer Diary 2 - So. Much. Drawing.

Playtesting Puzzle Games Pt. 1

Apr 15, 2019
4 min

Playtesting Puzzle Games Pt. 1

As I begin the playtesting process for the new game, I thought I might write some notes based on what I learned while playtesting The Tale of Ord. It was my first time doing playtesting a tabletop game, so if you’re new to it too, hopefully some of this will be helpful. Finding and choosing playtesters Before you begin choosing playtesters, be sure to ask yourself who the game is for. Granted, this is a question better asked way earlier in the design process, but it’s always

A Straight Path or an Open Field?

Apr 2, 2019
4 min

A Straight Path or an Open Field?

Would you rather walk down a straight path, an open field, or something in between? In retrospect, I’ve preferred non-linear gameplay since before I knew what that meant. My feeling on this dates back to playing MS-DOS games (remember those?) in the 90’s, in which I would inevitably get stuck on some level of a platformer and never be able to move forward in the game, leaving me feeling frustrated and helpless. The first time I played a game that actually allowed some level o

Dec 3, 2018
2 min

Thoughts on Ciphers

Are ciphers even puzzles? Well, not necessarily. Okay, okay, hear me out. If you get a piece of enciphered text along with a key to decipher it, is translating that text a puzzle, or just busywork? On the other hand, if you get a piece of text and need to either skillfully decrypt it or go through some other process in order to piece together the key, that’s a different story. If you’re implementing the former, ask yourself why the text needs to be encrypted in the first plac

What is a puzzle, and what makes a good one?

Oct 22, 2018
5 min

What is a puzzle, and what makes a good one?

These questions, of course, have many answers, and I am not the first one to ask them. I write this both to continue discussion of the topic, as well as get my own thoughts on order. First of all, what is a puzzle? A puzzle, in essence, is a problem designed to be solved by some measure of ingenuity, providing the solver with a degree of amusement. Solving a problem is at the very core of a puzzle, and the reason why people are drawn to them, but what distinguishes a puzzle f