The real puzzle

August 11, 2006 on 12:55 pm | In Game Development |

Every now and again, someone comes up with a new puzzle format — or an excellent new version of an existing puzzle format — and in an instant, they capture the imagination of half the world.

The Rubik’s Cube did that in the early 80s. Everyone got into it. More than 100 million were sold in just two years.

Tetris had a similar impact when Nintendo included it with the Gameboy. Suddenly, it seemed like everyone was rotating and nudging falling blocks.

In their time, Bejeweled and Text Twist were big land-grabbers in the online casual game space. But Text twist wasn’t a new puzzle format — for years, newspapers have been publishing strings of letters and asking their readers to find a word.

In recent years, Zuma has come the closest to generating a similar level of interest to the previous greats. As far as I’m aware, Zuma’s format had never been used before.

Although it’s a three-or-more-in-a-row game, which is not new, the idea of shooting the balls while they’re rolling around a track had never been done before. This fresh approach, backed by sensational artwork and production, created a truly addictive game — a unique combination of strategy and playing against the clock.

Today, it seems the market is saturated with decent, playable games. Sometimes it feels like all the good ideas have already been taken. Sure, Suduko created hype — but it had the backing of major newspapers. However, it’s time to remind ourselves: the real problem is not market saturation, it’s that as an industry we have resigned ourselves to this saturation by producing more of the same. I want something new: an entirely new puzzle format.

Great ideas for entirely new formats can come from anywhere. Sometimes it’s late nights, sometimes it’s coffee and sometimes they materialise over a beer. I don’t doubt that Rubik’s Cube, Bejeweled, Text Twist and Zuma are history-making puzzles, but I think they’ve monopolised their space for a little too long. The race is on for the next big thing.
The Little Gamer