Puzzle Design
Using pen and paper as a medium for quick practice of game design principles
I believe a big part of getting better as a game designer is practice. I wanted a way to hone and sharpen my design skills in an accessible format that could be shown to others.
From this I started to create puzzles in a variety of different formats. I used a blog format to reflect on each puzzle made. Each foray into a new format whether it’s labyrinth puzzles, kakuros or sudokus starts small with every new puzzle made in that format attempting something new and expanding my understanding of what can be done.
Something that’s just as important as the practice itself is reflecting on that practice and creating analytical toolsets to understand how you can improve.
Though I typically design on pen and paper, a large part of my practice is taking the puzzle I’m working on and creating different layers to understand it in photoshop.
Highlighting certain parts or isolating a specific part of a grid allows me to see the puzzle I’ve created in different ways and iterate further to improve it.