puzzle video game for the video game named puzzle see puzzle american video entertainment for other uses see puzzle disambiguation part of a series onpuzzles types guessing riddle situation logic dissection induction logic grid selfreference mechanical combination construction disentanglement lock go problems folding stick tiling tour sliding chess mazelogic maze word and number crossword sudoku puzzle video games mazes metapuzzles topics brain teaser dilemma optical illusion packing problems paradox problem solving puzzlehunt syllogism thinking outside the box lists impossible puzzles maze video games nikoli puzzle types puzzle video games puzzle topics vte puzzle video games make up a unique genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving the types of puzzles can test many problemsolving skills including logic pattern recognition sequence solving and word completion the player may have unlimited time or infinite attempts to solve a puzzle or there may be a time limit or simpler puzzles may be made difficult by having to complete them in real time as in tetris the genre is very broad but it generally involves some level of abstraction and may make use of colors shapes numbers physics or complex rules unlike many video games puzzle video games often do make use of lives that challenge a player by limiting the number of tries in puzzle video games players often try for a high score or to progress to the next level by getting to a certain place or achieving some criteria definition and gameplay puzzle games focus on logical and conceptual challenges although often the games add timepressure or other actionelements although many action games and adventure games involve puzzles such as obtaining inaccessible objects a true puzzle game focuses on puzzle solving as the primary gameplay activity rather than presenting a random collection of puzzles to solve puzzle games typically offer a series of related puzzles that are a variation on a single theme this theme could involve pattern recognition logic or understanding a process these games usually have a simple set of rules where players manipulate game pieces on a grid network or other interaction space players must unravel clues in order to achieve some victory condition which will then allow them to advance to the next level completing each puzzle will usually lead to a more difficult challenge although some games avoid exhausting the player by offering easier levels between more difficult ones in adventure games some stages require solving puzzles as a way to advance the story types of puzzle games minesweeper a popular computer puzzle game found on many machines there is a large variety of puzzle game types some feed to the player a random assortment of blocks or pieces that they must organize in the correct manner such as tetris klax and lumines others present a preset game board or pieces and challenge the player to solve the puzzle by achieving a goal bomberman the incredible machine puzzle games are often easy to develop and adapt being implemented on dedicated arcade units home video game consoles personal digital assistants and mobile phones action puzzle an action puzzle or arcade puzzle requires that the player manipulates game pieces in a realtime environment often on a single screen and with a time limit to solve the puzzle or clear the level and the talos principle other notable action puzzle games include team icos ico a linear story driven game with puzzles based around traversing puzzle environments while protecting a helpless companion also made by team ico is shadow of the colossus a game in which the player solves puzzles that involve finding and exploiting the weaknesses of giant beasts in combat nintendos the legend of zelda breath of the wild is another example of an action puzzle game the primary objective being to seek out and solve physicsbased puzzles which offer helpful upgrades for defeating the final boss hidden object game a hidden object game sometimes called hidden picture is a genre of puzzle video game in which the player must find items from a list that are hidden within a picture timelimited trial versions of these games are usually available for download an early hidden object game was alice an interactive museum computer gaming world reported in 1993 that one disadvantage of searching through screen after screen for switches is that after a while one develops a case of clickitus of the fingers as one repeatedly punches that mouse button like a chicken pecking at a farmyard other early incarnations are the video game adaptations of the i spy books published by scholastic corporation since 1997 publishers of hidden object games include sandlot games big fish games awem studio spintop games and codeminion reveal the picture game a reveal the picture game is a type of puzzle game that features piecebypiece revealing of a photo or picture a free online example is pictapr which divides an image into 16 square pieces physics game the splatters a physics based xbox live arcade game a physics game is a type of puzzle video game wherein the player must use the games physics to complete each puzzle physics games use realistic physics to make games more challenging popular physics games include the incredible machine world of goo crayon physics deluxe angry birds cut the rope peggle portal portal 2 monster strike and the talos principle tilematching tilematching video game in tilematching video games the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion the genre began with 1985s chain shot it includes games of the falling block variety such as tetris games that require pieces to be swapped such as bejeweled or candy crush saga games that adapt the classic tilebased game mahjong such as mahjong trails and games in which are pieces are shot on the board such as zuma in many recent tilematching games the matching criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other that number is often three and the corresponding subset of tilematching games is referred to as matchthree games traditional puzzle there have also been many digital adaptations of traditional puzzle games including solitaire and mahjong solitaire even familiar word puzzles number puzzles and association puzzles have been adapted as games such as dr kawashimas brain training history origins and popularity puzzle video games owe their origins to brain teasers and puzzles throughout human history the mathematical strategy game nim and other traditional thinking games such as hangman and bulls and cows commercialized as mastermind were popular targets for computer implementation the university of tokyos 1979 heiankyo alien for the pc8001 and arcades was an early trap em up puzzle action game it was a precursor to later puzzle action games such as lode runner another early action game with puzzle elements was konamis locomotion 1982 elements of which are seen in pipe mania from lucasarts 1989 blockbuster by alan griesemer and stephen bradshaw atari 8bit 1981 is a computerized version of the rubiks cube puzzle a clone of the 1970s black box board game sokobans cratepushing puzzles from 1982 have been widely cloned and its core mechanic incorporated into other games other early puzzle games include puzzleplatformers such as door door 1983 1984s puzzle panic for the atari 8bit computers specifically uses the word puzzle in the games title 1984 also saw the release of the actionpuzzle game boulder dash where the goal is to collect diamonds while avoiding or exploiting rocks that fall when the dirt beneath them is removed it led to a number of clones categorized as rocks and diamonds games in 1985 chain shot introduced removing groups of the same color tiles on a grid then the remaining tiles falling into the created gap tetris is credited for revolutionizing and popularizing the puzzle genre the game was created by soviet game designer alexey pajitnov in 1984 who was inspired by a traditional puzzle game named pentomino in which players arrange falling blocks into lines without any gaps the game was a moderate success when released by spectrum holobyte for msdos in 1987 and atari games in arcades in 1988 but it sold 30 million copies on the game boy alone refinement this section needs expansion you can help by adding to it june 2010 1991 saw the release of lemmings 1994 was marked by a surge in interest in mahjong video games from japan when minesweeper was released with windows 95 mainstream audiences embraced using a mouse to play puzzle games in a 1996 interview claude comair recommended that budding video game developers start learning with a puzzle game he elaborated that the genre provides a good beginning test of programming skill and creativity since it does not allow the developer to substitute audiovisual impact for genuine imagination in 2001 popcap games released a graphicallyenhanced clone of an obscure 1994 msdos game shariki where the player must touch groups of three or more jewels on a grid causing them to disappear and new stones to fall into place a decade later the match three mechanic was the foundation for popular games including candy crush saga and puzzle dragons both from 2012 by 2014 puzzle games had become the largest genre in the ios app store list of puzzle video games vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 