Exploration Into Core Puzzle Games

Introduction

There was recently a deal on Steam for a bundle of three puzzle games that are well-known for their success and their expert puzzle design. They are all top down, grid-based puzzles, similar to the game Sokoba. The games are:

• Stephen's Sausage Roll
• Baba is You
• A Monster's Expedition

As my current work is based on puzzles, I thought it would be a good idea to buy and play these games to see exactly what they do well and what makes them so successful and popular. 

Stephen's Sausage Roll

I came across this game when researching puzzles and procedural generation for my first essay. The creator, Stephen Lavelle, created a language, PuzzleScript, that streamlines the development of 2D grid-based puzzles by simplifying the process to a set of objects and rules for those objects. The language was made to create games based Sokoban, a 1982 game in which the player must push boxes onto buttons to complete each level. 

Lavelle's interest in this type of game is evident from just the structure of Stephen's Sausage Roll. The player controls a character holding a fork, who must push and roll sausages onto grills to cook them on both sides. This game is known for its difficulty and I could see why as soon as I started playing. Many puzzle games begin with some simple puzzles to teach the player the mechanics, but the mechanics in this game are so simple that the player doesn't need to spend time on a tutorial, they are instead presented with many levels they may attempt. Although unusual, I liked this approach to the start of a puzzle game. A risk with starting the game without any simple puzzle is that the player may lose interest as the game is too hard. However, giving the player a few different levels to try from the start, they can keep attempting different ones until something clicks. When it does, they will be able to attempt a different one of the starter puzzle with more knowledge or a more informed perspective.

The game's difficulty does not relent as the player progresses. Just as I thought I was getting the hang of the basic mechanics, I was presented with the fact that I could now skewer sausages with the fork, as well as push and roll them. There were also now levels with sausages stacked on one another, which added another level of complication trying to move them around the level. The player has to complete every level in a section to progress, and I managed to complete this section, only to be confronted by puzzles that were even more complicated. After solving a couple, and spending a while trying to figure out why the levels behaved in the way they did, I gave up. 

The main problem I had with the game was that it involved far too much trial and error for my liking. The first few levels of course relied on trial and error so the player could learn the mechanics, but I found myself having to try to brute force a solution and repeatedly reaching solutions without really understanding why.

Baba is You

Before playing this game, I had come across it and saw it has one of the most innovating and intriguing puzzle mechanics. The goal is to move the player from the start to a flag by moving and pushing objects around the level. The uniqueness of this is in the fact that many of the objects the player can push are words, which define the rules of the level. The words "flag", "is" and "win" next to each other mean the player can touch the flag to complete the level. However, they can push these words around to instead create the sequence "box is win", allowing the player to touch a box to complete the level instead. This mechanic is explored in depth, allowing the player to use the rules to turn into different objects, make objects disappear and make objects move on their own. 

The level design in this game is very well done as it is always clear to the player which words they should be pushing around and which ones are involved in the solution. I enjoyed the mechanics of the game and liked exploring the many ways in which they could be used. However, I think too many different words were added to the game, overcomplicating things. I feel that the game could have done so much more with the basic mechanics introduced at the start and doing more with the "is" word. Things gradually became needlessly complicated as other keywords were introduced, letting objects hold other objects and allowing the player to move all the empty space in the world. 

This game had an excellent concept and good delivery at first, but could have done with some more exploration into the basic concept to increase difficulty rather than adding new things. 

A Monster's Expedition

This is the only of the three titles I had not previously heard of, but instantly found myself enjoying the gameplay and even found it similar to a game idea I had been prototyping a while ago. The player controls a monster that can push down trees, creating logs that they can push and roll into water to create passages between islands. One thing this game does excellently is the way it stretches its main mechanic across many levels without introducing anything new. The player only has the ability to push logs around an island, but there are so many unique levels created from just this one gameplay mechanic. This does not remove any depth from the game either, as the player is guided into discovering new ways to interact with the logs through clever level design. 

Another enjoyable aspect that I had not previously considered in puzzle games is the way the game uses the puzzle mechanics to bridge the gap between puzzles. Many core puzzle games have the player complete a level, then the next level loads and they attempt that one. A Monster's Expedition does not have levels but small islands that the puzzles take place on. However, not every island is a puzzle in the sense that it aims to test the player or teach them something new. Many islands are simply a case of pushing a log directly into water to create a path to the next island, rather than a puzzle that takes some solving. It would be unusual if a level that appears late on in a game such as Portal was simply a case of portaling straight to the exit. However, A Monster's Expedition gives players the sense of progress as they cross an island without forcing them to spend a long time solving a puzzle, while the long and complex puzzles still have the sense of accomplishment they deserve. The traversal in the game feels like a puzzle that is being solved, yet still isn't too intensive for the player.

Combining the excellent gameplay with pleasant graphics and witty notes spread throughout the world, A Monster's Expedition is a highly challenging and very enjoyable game.