What is a puzzle game?

We call YesPuzzles a home for free puzzle games that you can play right in your browser. But what is a puzzle game? What makes a game a puzzle game? Is there a definition for it?

Looks like there is no single definition that everyone uses. Usually, a puzzle game gives the player a problem, some rules and a goal that the player needs to achieve. And then it’s up to the player to find the right way to reach it. It can be logic, words, patterns, matching, planning or even physics.

Also, it is worth mentioning that a non-puzzle game can have puzzle elements in it without being a puzzle game. But when solving problems is the main thing that you do, calling it a puzzle game makes sense.

So I decided to look at all six games that we have at the moment on YesPuzzles and ask: how much of a puzzle is each one? These percentages are not objective in any way, it’s just my own perception.

Smartle: 100% puzzle

Smartle is probably the easiest example. The player is given a 5x5 board full of letters and needs to rearrange them to make five valid horizontal 5-letter words.

You are given a problem and you solve it. Smartle is a classic puzzle game. What is special to it is that it usually has much more than one correct solution to it.

Hex Sense: 95% puzzle

Hex Sense is also clearly a puzzle. It is inspired by Minesweeper on a hexagonal grid. The player reads number hints, figures out where hidden hazards can be and finds a safe path for Mochi - the game’s main character - across several game chapters.

The adventure part, the character and different worlds make it feel a little bit like an adventure game rather than pure Minesweeper. But the main activity that the player does is still deduction, so to me Hex Sense is a puzzle game with adventure elements.

Hex Minesweeper: 100% puzzle

Hex Minesweeper is as easy to categorize as Smartle. It’s a very classic puzzle game. There is a hexagonal board, hidden hazards and number hints. You open safe tiles, mark dangerous ones and clear the field. There is nothing extra. Every puzzle is made to be solved with logic, without guessing.

Clean!: 100% puzzle

Clean! starts simple. The player taps a tile, colors change, matching three or more tiles disappear and the end goal is to clear the board. A good move can clear up to 10 tiles. A bad move can lose the level.

Catch’n’Merge: 55% puzzle

This one was quite difficult to classify. Catch’n’Merge has a big arcade part. The player needs to catch falling creatures while avoiding the rocks. This requires quick movement and reaction. Then comes the merge phase. The player decides where to drop creatures, how to use the limited space and when to shake the flask.

So I would call Catch’n’Merge an arcade puzzle. The puzzle is there, but action, physics and arcade elements are also there.

Vagabond: 80% puzzle

Vagabond is a two-player game where a player moves four checkers on a 6x6 board and tries to get them all into a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of 4.

That sounds very much like a puzzle game. But because you play against another person or a bot, the problem changes after every move. I see Vagabond as a mix of puzzle and strategy game.

My conclusion

After looking at our games, I think the answer is quite simple. A puzzle game does not need to look like Sudoku, a crossword or classic Minesweeper. It needs to give the player an interesting problem and give all necessary tools to solve this problem.

Some games are classic puzzles - like Smartle, Hex Minesweeper and Clean! Hex Sense adds more mechanics, but puzzle solving is still the main activity.

Then there are games like Catch’n’Merge and Vagabond. They mix puzzle thinking with other things: arcade action, physics, competition and strategy.

So overall, I think every game on YesPuzzles is a puzzle game. There is no single shape a puzzle has to have. Sometimes it is a word. Sometimes it is a number. Sometimes it is a board. And sometimes it is a flask full of creatures trying to merge without overflowing.