Is puzzle a game?

                                                Jess Schell  ‘The art of Game Design

The main Question Schell is trying to answer in his book is, ‘Are puzzles a game, or just a “fun problem”’

He starts off saying that all puzzles have a ‘dominant strategy’ meaning that a single strategy with defeat a game every time. When I used to play noughts and crosses, over the years i realised that there was a startatey that always made me win. At first I thought I was unbeatable, untouchable and more importantly, there was no other strategy that could beat mine, however when playing with other people (family) they themselves had their over strategies that countered mine. The horrible feeling you get when you thought that you were a champion at noughts and crosses, only to have It crash and burn down on.  I think noughts and crosses are a bad example to use when asking the question of whether a puzzle is a game or not, since it has so many dominant strategies.

A theory of Schell is that puzzles are dying out because popular game consoles focus mainly on the players hand- eye coordination’s.  A puzzle is anything that makes you think says Schell, so at first sight it may not be noticeable, but a lot of modern games integrate puzzles into the gameplay. Games like the final fantasy series have the player’s think of where to go next, what combinations of equipment will make them stronger, though this is not a typical puzzle; it still makes the player stop and think. In other games like Zelda, it is more noticeable. In almost all dungeons, you will have to move something or do something a certain way to complete the stage.  Schell tells us about the ‘Puzzle principle’ a 7 step of what a puzzle should have or contain

1.       Make the goal easily understood (unless part of the puzzle is to find out how to play it. Be cautious though, players will rage quit if they don’t understand).

2.    

1.        Make it easy to start off with. ( from personal experience when I first play a puzzle they make the starting stages too easy, so easy that I sometime think will the puzzle actually be good)

3.   

          Give the sense of progess. ( this goes hand in hand with 2. When you complete each easy level, it give hope to the player that they have nearly completed that puzzle)

4.    

          Give a sense of solvability. (if the player has no sense of solvability then they give up)

5.       Increase difficulty. (makes sense really)

6. 

            Hints (I thank the gaming gods for hints, when playing games like Professor Layton the hints is what get me thought the game)

7.

           Finally, give the answer.

The puzzle principle is what you can say most puzzles have, but it differs with digital games than non digital. In digital they rarely give hints that will give you major progress in the puzzle, and almost always, you can’t move forward unless you use cheats.

The question of whether puzzle is a game or not is still questionable for me, but what Schell has told us is that if you don’t consider puzzles as a game, then puzzles is almost a necessity for games to succeed.