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Puzzle video games make up a broad genre ofvideo games that emphasizepuzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, includinglogic,pattern recognition,sequence solving,spatial recognition, andword completion. Many puzzle games involve a real-time element and require quick thinking, such asTetris (1985) andLemmings (1991).
Puzzle video games owe their origins tobrain teasers and puzzles throughout human history. The mathematical strategy gameNim, and other traditional thinking games such asHangman andBulls and Cows (commercialized asMastermind), were popular targets for computer implementation.
InUniversal Entertainment'sSpace Panic, released in arcades in 1980, the player digs holes in platforms to trap creatures. It is a precursor topuzzle-platform games such asLode Runner (1983),Door Door (1983), andDoki Doki Penguin Land (1985).[1][2][3]
Blockbuster, by Alan Griesemer and Stephen Bradshaw (Atari 8-bit, 1981), is a computerized version of theRubik's Cube puzzle.[4]Snark Hunt (Atari 8-bit, 1982) is a single-player game of logical deduction, a clone of the 1970sBlack Box board game.[5]
Elements ofKonami's tile-slidingLoco-Motion (1982) were later seen inPipe Mania fromLucasArts (1989).
InBoulder Dash (1984), the goal is to collect diamonds while avoiding or exploiting rocks that fall after digging out the dirt beneath them.
Chain Shot! (1985) introduced removing groups of the same color tiles on a grid, causing the remaining tiles to fall into the gap.[6]Uncle Henry's Nuclear Waste Dump (1986) involves dropping colored shapes into a pit, but the goal is to keep the same color tiles from touching.[7][8]
Tetris (1985) revolutionized and popularized the puzzle game genre.[9][10] The game was created bySovietgame designerAlexey Pajitnov for theElectronika 60.[11] Pajitnov was inspired by a traditional puzzle game namedPentominos in which players arrange blocks into lines without any gaps.[9] The game was released bySpectrum Holobyte forMS-DOS in 1987,Atari Games in arcades in 1988, and sold 30 million copies forGame Boy.[12]
InLemmings (1991),[13] a series of creatures walk into deadly situations, and a player assigns jobs to specific lemmings to guide the swarm to a safe destination.[12]
The 1994 MS-DOS gameShariki, by Eugene Alemzhin, introduced the mechanic of swapping adjacent elements to tile matching games. It was little known at the time, but later had a major influence on the genre.
Interest inMahjong video games fromJapan began to grow in 1994.[14][15]
In 2000,PopCap Games releasedBejeweled, a direct clone of the 1994 tile-matching gameShariki with improved visuals. It sparked interest in the match-three mechanic which became the foundation for other popular games, includingPuzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (2007),Candy Crush Saga (2012), andPuzzle & Dragons (2012).[16]
After the release ofPortal in 2007, there has been a rise in popularity of physics-based logic puzzle games.[17]
A physics game is a type of logical puzzle video game wherein the player must use thegame's physics and environment to complete each puzzle. Physics games use consistent physics to make games more challenging.[18] The genre is popular in onlineflash games andmobile games. Educators have used these games to demonstrate principles of physics.[19]
Physics-based logic puzzle games includeThe Incredible Machine,Portal,The Talos Principle,Braid,Fez,World of Goo, andCut the Rope, as well as projectile collision games such asAngry Birds,Peggle,Monster Strike, andCrush the Castle.
Programming games require writing code, either as text or using a visual system, to solve puzzles. Examples includeRocky's Boots (1982),Robot Odyssey (1984),SpaceChem (2011), andInfinifactory (2015).
This sub-genre includes point-and-click games that often overlap with adventure games andwalking simulators. Unlike logical puzzle games, these games generally requireinductive reasoning to solve. The defining trait is that the player must experiment with mechanisms in each level before they can solve them. Exploration games includeMyst,Limbo, andThe Dig.Escape room games such asThe Room involve detailed exploration of a single location.
Sokoban games, such as its 1982 namesake title, or block-pushing games, involve pushing or pulling blocks on a grid-like space to move them into designated positions without blocking the movement of other blocks. Similar games includeBaba is You andPatrick's Parabox.
A hidden object game, sometimes called hidden picture or hidden object puzzle adventure (HOPA), is a genre of puzzle video game in which the player must find items from a list that are hidden within a scene.[20] Hidden object games are a popular trend incasual gaming.[21][22]
In tile-matching video games, the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. The genre began with 1985'sChain Shot! and has similarities to falling-block games such asTetris. This genre includes games that require pieces to be swapped such asBejeweled orCandy Crush Saga, games that adapt the classictile-based gameMahjong such asMahjong Trails, and games in which pieces are shot on the board such asZuma. Puzzle games based onTetris include tile-matching games where the matching criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other. That number is often three, and the corresponding subset of tile-matching games is referred to as match-three games.
Hidden object games ... For example, you're a detective looking for clues in a picture ... they might be in monochrome on the wallpaper or peeping out from behind something.
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