Fundamentals

of Puzzle and Casual

Game Design

Ernest Adams
Founder of the IGDA
 About the Author
Ernest Adams is a game design consultant and part-time
professor at the University of Uppsala Campus Gotland in
Sweden. He lives in England and holds a Ph.D. in computer
science from Teesside University for his contributions to
the field of interactive storytelling. Dr. Adams has worked
in the interactive entertainment industry since 1989, and he
founded the International Game Developers’ Association in
1994. He was most recently employed as a lead designer at
Bullfrog Productions, and for several years before that he
was the audio/video producer on the Madden NFL line of
football games at Electronic Arts. His professional website is
at www.designersnotebook.com.

Ernest Adams
table of contents

Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual

Game Design
What Are Puzzle and Casual
Games?

Puzzle Games
Classes of Puzzle Games...........................................................8

Scott Kim’s Eight Steps ........................................................... 11

What Computers Bring to Puzzles..................................... 16

Checking the Victory Condition ......................................... 20

Casual Games
Qualities of Casual Games..................................................... 22

Mid-Core Games....................................................................... 25

Summary
Design Practice Case Study.................................................. 30

About the Fundamentals of Game Design E-books .... 31

Copyright ..................................................................................... 33
Summary
Puzzle games provide the player with moments or hours of
strategy and problem solving. You’ll need to provide a game
that combines high-quality presentation with well-thought-
out game mechanics and interaction. Players can be very
opinionated about puzzle games, but the individuals who
enjoy puzzle games are often also very loyal.
Casual games are not a genre but a kind of game that is
designed to appeal to a particular market: the casual player.
These players want an experience they can get into and out
of quickly, that is easy to learn and easy to control, and that
doesn’t require a large commitment of either time or money.
These games are usually found on mobile devices and don’t
have to cost a lot to develop.
 30 | Summary

Design Practice Case Study

Choose a puzzle game that you believe, from your own quickly enough? How does the game adapt to the player’s
experience of playing it, is an excellent example of the ability?
genre (or use one your instructor assigns). It should be
• Address the combination of puzzles: Is there more than
a solitaire (single-player) game where puzzle solving is
one type of puzzle in the game? Is the mechanism that is
the primary activity. Write a report documenting this
used to combine the puzzles into a single game clear to the
simulation. Be sure to cover at least the following areas:
player and does it make sense?
• Describe the gameplay and game mechanics. Describe
• Discuss whether the victory condition for any level or
the presentation of the game and interaction of the player.
the overall game is clear to the player. How is progression
How long is a gameplay session?
indicated?
• Which of the kinds of puzzle games described in this
In your report, use screen shots to illustrate your points.
e-book is it (such as tile matching or navigation), or does it
End the case study with suggestions for improvement or,
belong to another category entirely? Is it real-time or turn-
if you feel the game cannot be improved, suggestions for
based, with randomized or premade levels?
additional features that might be fun to have in the game.
• If the game has a physical representation in the real
Alternatively, choose a puzzle game that you believe is
world (solitaire card games, for example), what does the
particularly bad. Do the same case study, explaining what is
computer bring to the video game version? What rules or
wrong and how it could be improved.
designs were changed for the new medium?
A case study is neither a review nor a design document; it is
• Does the game have levels or increased difficulty? Is it
an analysis. You are not attempting to reverse-engineer the
clear to the player how the game progression works? In
entire game but simply to explain how it works in a general
your opinion, does the game ramp up too quickly or not
way. Your instructor will tell you the desired scope of the
assignment; I recommend from five to twenty pages.
 31 | Summary

About the Fundamentals of Game Design

E-books
much detail as there is room for. It also looks at the most
popular hybrid genre, the action-adventure.
You understand the basic concepts of game design: Fundamentals of Strategy Game Design discusses another
gameplay, user interfaces, core mechanics, character genre that has been part of gaming since the beginning:
design, and storytelling. Now you want to know how to strategy games, both real-time and turn-based.
apply them to individual game genres. These focused
Fundamentals of Role-Playing Game Design is about role-
guides give you exactly what you need. They walk you
playing games, a natural outgrowth of pencil and paper
through the process of designing for game genres and
games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
show you how to use the right techniques to create fun and
challenging experiences for your players. Fundamentals of Sports Game Design looks at sports games,
which have a number of peculiar design challenges. The
All of these e-books are available from the Peachpit website
actual contest itself is designed by others; the trick is to map
at www.peachpit.com/ernestadams.
human athletic activities onto a screen and control devices.
Fundamentals of Shooter Game Design discusses designing
Fundamentals of Vehicle Simulation Design addresses
for this huge and specialized market. It examines both the
vehicle simulations: cars, planes, boats, and other, more
frenetic deathmatch style of play and the stealthier, more
exotic modes of transportation such as tanks.
tactical approach.
Fundamentals of Construction and Simulation Game Design
Fundamentals of Action and Arcade Game Design is about
is about construction and management simulations in
the earliest, and still most popular, genre of interactive
which the player tries to build and maintain something—a
entertainment: action games. This genre may be divided
city, a theme park, a planet—within the limitations of an
into numerous subgenres such as fighting games,
economic system.
platformers, and others, which the chapter addresses in as
 32 | Summary

Fundamentals of Adventure Game Design explores adventure games, an old and unique
genre of gaming that continues to earn a great deal of critical attention by its strong
storytelling and its visual aesthetics.

Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design examines puzzle games and casual games
in general.
Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design
Ernest Adams

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ISBN-13: 978-0-133-81194-0
ISBN-10: 0-133-81194-8
987654321

Printed and bound in the United States of America