How to Design a Puzzle Game In 5 Steps

Designing puzzles for video games can be quite a challenge when you don't know how to best go about it. In this quick crash course you'll learn a reliable 5 step process for coming up with absolutely outstanding logic puzzles in no time at all. Hope you find it useful. :)
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Thanks for watching. :)

[@meta_name]

1. Just random rules 2. Experiment with objectives 3. Learn with the player 4. Expand the rules 5. Reorder and polish

[@LixianTV]

Great video Jonas!! Tons of great tips. I'll definitely be watching this video multiple times!

[@sh0unakgg274]

Bruh

[@unitysparticlesystem]

Oh hi Lixian I wish luck for your new bunny game :)

[@scortcher]

@LixianTV Hi Lixian :3 And You're right ... Hope to see more of your great games ;3

[@BigVirusBoi]

sup lixian

[@AkiSolis]

Cool hi

[@colinhamilton7365]

Some fun additions to this game would be teleportors and conversion spaces that change the colors of the tiles that pass over them. Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@GunnarClovis]

Absolutely fantastic, Jonas! These game design videos of yours are always wonderfully done. You're definitely my favorite gamedev KZbinr by now. Keep it up!

[@KilgoreTroutAsf]

I have been watching videos about puzzle design lately and this is hands down the most synthetic and practical video I have seen so far. Everything else is either going in depth into rules and game theory without caring for what actually makes a puzzle fun, or high concept pseudophilosophy without actually getting into the design process itself.

[@mashafalkov]

This was awesome! A real hands on lesson like this is so rare, especially such a useful one. Thank you so much Jonas.

[@CoreyHardt]

This is a really well-explained and useful video. Exactly what I was looking for, I love watching you go from the random prototyping to actually mocking up a quick game and seeing how quickly something can start resembling a finished product. Thanks for this!

[@JonasTyroller]

You're welcome. Happy to hear you found it useful. :)

[@creationallabs]

You managed to find a good balance between complexity and simplicity in the way you explain. Videos like yours have infinitely greater value than someone just analyzing ready-made puzzles as Mark does. The video really shows you know what you're talking about. Thanks for sharing your game design ideas, your videos are amazing.

[@7hestraywolf505]

Something that I really like about this game is how I can immediately understand what everything does and you don't need a tutorial. As soon as I saw the green outlines I thought: "Oh either type of block can move onto those". Even though I didn't realize they were one use as soon as you start using them you can understand that. Very good job!

[@ruhanbello3983]

Awesome, Jonas! Finding relevant info about Puzzles game design is sometimes challenging. Thanks a lot for providing a step-by-step of how it works for you. This type of content really helps us stopping being shy about trying and putting things to practice. 👏

[@LostRelicGames]

Great and informative video dude. Love the physical references, a powerful teaching tool.

[@CoreyDWillis]

I've been looking for a practical video like this to help me get starting with the brainstorming! Great work!

[@Aeroxima]

That "cheating" method of creating stages, the first thought I had was "you could automate that", and make randomly generated puzzles.

[@NerdyTalking]

Great video as usual! We actually use some of those techniques at work when we try to come up with new features

[@LastGamerName]

Fantastic video! I really liked the game you made for it. I found myself wanting to play it while watching. You should flesh out into a full game when you get time. Thanks for the content Jonas!

[@Notester82]

Great video! I like the encouragement for physical prototyping with various pieces, odds and ends, etc. That and it looked mesmerizing (in a good way!) to see all the stuff you had to work with. ;u;

[@JeanOfmArc]

Excellent video!!! It’s a bit fast paced so I had to pause a lot to take it all in. The tips are very helpful to get started!!

[@MoRo-92]

DESIGN PUZZLES BACKWARDS - damn, that is so simple tip, yet so unobviously helpful! Great stuff over here, thanks!

[@zig8925]

Dude your first unity tutorial has really helped me. Ive gotten quite far with my version of the game. I have gotten the camera to orbit around the player, and just need to make the move directions to match. I also made a boost ramp

[@StuffByBez]

Great video! I loved watching the process and also enjoyed pausing at a few points to try and work out how to solve the puzzles. 🙂

[@nikzprojects9981]

Great video! I went into a game jam wanting to do a puzzle platformer since I knew how to do platformers I thought "Oh that won't be that bad". Then hit a MAJOR roadblock when it came to designing the levels. So really to do a puzzle platformer I should have tried making BOTH puzzle games and platformer games. It turned out alright in the end, but I only ended up with 3 levels, and the first was a tutorial. I still want to add to it, so I'm going to try your tip of using physical objects. Beyond the simple levels It got hard to keep track of everything so I think that will help a lot. Thank you for all of your game design videos, I think its really helped me learn things much faster than it would have been on my own.

[@PurpleFreezerPage]

Dude.. GREAT video. My dnd players will thank you!

[@timbelion3765]

20k subscribers, congrats!

[@mrdoomsday3300]

Wow another amazing video! I am making my own game and this will be very useful.

[@ghassanabdallah1989]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@parijatbezbaruah4380]

Thank you for such awesome content! 🙏🏼

[@theBenStrothmann]

Great video, thanks for the information!

[@rchat42]

thank you so much for this video! it really helped me create puzzle games, and it even let me create a chess puzzle game called "chezzler"! even tough it's not finished yet, i'm thinking of making this a full paid game for just 1 or 2 dollars. anyhow, i'm glad you made this awesome video!

[@pravatpandey1937]

I feel like I'm the only that loves his accent

[@zorochii]

Well you are wrong. :)

[@CreativeSteve69]

I love his accent too.

[@mashafalkov]

I do! I'm originally from Russia, European accents make me feel at home!

[@ridlr9299]

Right? Wrong!

[@ziggyzoggin]

i like it too

[@mikaxms]

But Jonas, where can we play this game?

[@solidboots]

fact

[@astni]

@@solidboots what?

[@elizabethserna8953]

@@astni it's a fact

[@goblinoide]

@@solidboots It’s a question... facts are statements, not questions. You kids these days are so unintelligent.

[@Exiled_Q]

This video is amazing! Thank you very much, Teacher

[@gorniproductions2315]

Thanks! That's awesome Jonas!

[@mentalstress2129]

Omg i love you so much, you literally saved my life

[@CyberChroma]

You made that game in only a few hours? That's amazing!

[@BdR76]

Excellent video. Quick tip for this game; maybe put symbols on the tiles, like X and O, so that it's also accessible for people who are color blind.

[@anbiyapopal1458]

That would give it a really cool tic-tac-toe look! Please do this one!

[@mashafalkov]

You don't need to put symbols to help colorblind people though, you can change the value and intensity of the color like was done with Splatoon.

[@voltcorp]

@@mashafalkov changing silhouettes would increase readability across the board for all types of players

[@Vagabond_Nation]

The most valuable advice you could give @ 3:40 🙌

[@stacypetties3870]

Great and informative video dude. Love the physical references, a powerful teaching tool. But Jonas, where can we play this game?

[@nkusters]

I liked it a lot. Halfway through, I thought that there would be no way to make a challenging game out of the basic premise, but it worked out quite nicely :) What are the plans for the prototype you made?

[@JonasTyroller]

Thank you. No plans for this prototype. The idea is up for grabs if you want. :D

[@nkusters]

Jonas Tyroller haha, thanks :) you might want to turn it into a community challenge if you want some more content out of it. Upload to github, give people two weeks to coke up with the best Levels/tweaks to the game and review it in 3-4 weeks. :)

[@JonasTyroller]

@@nkusters Hmm. Interesting idea. If I ever do that I'll make sure to include some Unity source code as well, though. :)

[@nkusters]

Jonas Tyroller hahaha, is that a Dani ref? :)

[@elizabethserna8953]

@@JonasTyroller Where can I get this game

[@Michael-The-Composer]

Can you make a video on the grid based movement shown in this video and just grid based movement in general? Thanks!

[@igz]

Walking the talk, great stuff!

[@greyrifterrellik5837]

I feel like I should note that "exhaust the current rules before expanding them" is VERY dependent on what kind of puzzle game you're working with; for some, you can't isolate the new rules so easily, and their mere addition opens several new ways to twist the *previous* rules, that you couldn't have possibly explored until the new ones were introduced.

[@BdR76]

Where did you get that wooden board with hexagons? And for that matter, all those many other board game pieces, dice, beads etc.?

[@echodolphonian5729]

That would be great for a game jam

[@MashUpGames]

I always wondered how people actually go about designing puzzle games. I wonder if anyone uses any other processes than the one you've talked about...

[@LG-Moonlight]

Jonas, I think for this type of puzzle game it might be possible to procedurally generate the puzzles. This creates the possibility for an "infinite" mode allowing you to keep puzzling even after completing the entire stash of hand crafted puzzles.

[@captainkawaii666]

Damn this video actually gave me a great idea for a game involving eating anything and everything

[@Croquis_Fusain]

You save my internship, thank you !

[@Red_Eagle]

JONAS I WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME NOW!!

[@majesticpanda445]

I think the ultimate puzzle is how you got so swole! looking BUFF DUDE

[@dr.c2195]

I have designed a platform fighter first person shooter puzzle where you move in 5D non-euclidean space and you can reverse time and skip time and you need to turn off all target by shooting them but each target then warps the space around it creating new non-euclidean topology and you also need to reach the goal and beat all the puzzle enemies but the puzzle enemies are linked to all target that they respectively are next to and they can create extra dimensions to create a pocket of more than 5dimensional space so that they gain extra power and they power need to grow as described by a curve who's derivative is equal or larger than 2x.

[@jaewanlee3398]

legendary

[@nkusters]

2:44 I expected it to read 'Keep it Zimple!"

[@nkusters]

@Violet twd Hehe, Jonas is getting a lot better at English now, but one of the things that he struggled with the most, is using the 'S' character, he used to (still does now, but just a lot less) say all the words that start with an 'S' like they would start with a 'Z'.

[@nkusters]

@Violet twd It's all in good fun :) I like it when he does it, I'm actually a bit sad that it doesn't happen as much anymore, because it's a strong association that I have with his content :)

[@fragarena9910]

@Violet twd you mean "kizez ur zweet lipz"

[@Artindi]

It seems that by following these steps a puzzle game could be made, but only with a first level layer of novelty, every level will basically just be the exact same rules with the steps needed to win depending on the layout of the board. This would exclude opportunity to expand the players knowledge with deeper novelty by presenting problems which can only be solved by using the mechanics in novel ways. In other words: This video will show you how to make a "kill time while at the bus stop phone puzzle game" rather then a Portal, Braid, The Witness, or Baba is You, type puzzle game.

[@1stepofe-noise311]

"Controller : [Logic]"...any number of players take turns with the same basic rule set of shapes pieces to mix...then...the entire set the players create is shifted by 1 person over to challenge them with the other person's arrangement...its timed...whoever's in the top 50% gets a slightly tougher starting basis...the grind continues by 50% of cutting the players...until...1...remains...

[@cal9539]

Hey Jonas, can I use this game idea for my new game ?

[@laurenzreinthaler2301]

I just came very angry from the BTP Vid and this made things better. Thanks for doing good quality Content!

[@NinjarioPicmin]

what happened?

[@laurenzreinthaler2301]

@@NinjarioPicmin Just watch the latest Blackthornprod video

[@NinjarioPicmin]

@@laurenzreinthaler2301 well can't you just give me an tldr of it?

[@laurenzreinthaler2301]

@@NinjarioPicmin BTP made a Clickbait Video where he is complaining about Social Media, said that's an accurate reason for making a clickbait vid. Put in an sponsor ad and Boom more dislikes thank likes and I am pretty sure he's losing much subs

[@NinjarioPicmin]

@@laurenzreinthaler2301 ok thank you

[@DeadDamsel]

I think the best way to start making a puzzle game should actually start with a single, simple mechanic, but one with a lot of room for expansion.

[@jaredbowen827]

You do realize that ,with just what you showed, there are 152,587,890,625 different combinations or 5^16. This is another reason why testing and debugging are so very important. 😁🤔

[@ShignBright]

I see this is a good system for 2d, boardgame-type puzzle games. What about 3d, first person puzzles, like Portal?

[@benjamincurran5799]

Some kinds of puzzles work best digitally, instead of practically.

[@kales901]

what game engine is this made in?

[@animebird3919]

7:23 cant you just eat up the yellow on the right bottom corner and then eat up everything like a line with the remaining yellow?

[@punkseth1]

how do you just come up with random rules tho?????? it's crazy you just come up with stuff super quick. it's hard for me to come up wtih rules and not just be thinking about objectives how can i break out of this and how can i come up with a lot of random rules

[@onlycheeseextracheese8718]

What program is he using to make the app at 4:26 ?

[@JonasTyroller]

Game Maker Studio 2. :)

[@cprn.]

Would buy on Steam... Wouldn't expect to pay more than a dollar, thought, so probably it wouldn't pay off.

[@tuncalansu9423]

I am working on a big project now (I am developing games for 6 months).And my project is getting harder and harder to develop ı dont know what to do please help.Sorry for my bad english

[@younlok1081]

for me its hard to start a project

[@diegocaballero59]

MF KZbin is reading my mind. Is like the 10th time it happens to me.

[@user-dr5nt2is7f]

Is the game available to play?

[@oliversallay8899]

Hey, just wanted to say hi.

[@gamerdweebentertainment1616]

Random rules... Me having 0 imagination... so that's why it's difficult to make one... welp got to start somehow... Discovered liked puzzle games after all thinking of making one, maybe can get interest back in game deving...

[@wojteksrodka2031]

How did you do the tilesnapping kind of spritemovement? I need it in one of my games and i cant find a tutorial for it, pls help

[@JonasTyroller]

In this case I used a bit of a hacky solution to save some time. When a block collides with another block it can use the position of the other block to figure out where it has to stop. The perfect way to do it would be to store the entire game in a two dimensional array, but sometimes the faster hacky solutions work just fine as well. :)

[@wojteksrodka2031]

@@JonasTyroller I need to częste a player that moves with W, A, S, D, and snaps to every tile of a 5x5 field. Could you maybe do a tutorial on this, i would appreciate it so much. I just started unity and programming in general.

[@MrSpiky]

yaya

[@eschernadeau9287]

Can you give us that game

[@JosephDalrymple]

No captions? Not even auto-generated? :(

[@BdR76]

Btw another tip for puzzle games, don't give the player too many levels. I've seen indie puzzle games similar to the one in this video but with like 800 levels :\ that's too much

[@NinjarioPicmin]

hmm interesting, why do you feel that way? i mean sure if it is 800 levels of exactly the same thing just a little harder each time i get you, but if you like jonas described here explore every ruleset fully and then introduce something new i don't think it is a bad thing to have many levels, it's quite a good thing in my opinion anyways

[@BdR76]

@@NinjarioPicmin What I mean to say was you have to curate your levels. I was thinking of some pentomino type web game, I forgot which one, which didn't introduce any new mechanics for like the first 25 levels and it had like 400 levels or something.

[@NinjarioPicmin]

@@BdR76 ​ BdR76 yeah i can see when you have the same game mechanic pushed into xyz levels without anything different about it being damn boring, but in the case of the method jonas described i don't think there is anything negative about it

[@BillyMan]

First