Ján Tóth

SAT 8:00 – 19:30

Thinky games is a term coined by the people around Alan Hazelden, a game designer popular for games such as Sokobond, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, or A Monster’s Expedition through Puzzling Exhibitions. Also sometimes called Honest Puzzle Games, these games contain puzzles for the player to work through, not to increase playtime, nor to hide a deficiency in the game’s mechanics or themes, but rather to communicate interesting ideas.

In this talk, we’ll look at what it means to design an honest puzzle mechanic, and how to mine it for puzzles. In the followup workshop, we’ll test our newfound theory by designing puzzles on paper, or with computers.

Instructions: There’s no necessary preparation for the workshop, but if you feel extra enthusiastic, play your favorite puzzle games beforehand and think about what you like about their puzzle mechanics and design. Also, while I’ll be teaching you basics of puzzlescript.net at the workshop, feel free to use a level editor from a puzzle game you like instead, e.g. “Baba is You” has a really good editor. If you do choose something that’s not puzzlescript, please install it beforehand.

(Teaser Image from the game Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes)