#puzzlecraft

[mjandersen]

Starting in 2004, puzzle designers Mike Selinker and Thomas Snyder wrote a column on puzzle design for Games Magazine called "Puzzlecraft". In 2013, the pair condensed a decade of commentary and learnings from the column into a book, the ambitiously titled Puzzlecraft: The Ultimate Guide on How to Construct Every Kind of Puzzle. The book was [...]

Puzzlecraft is an exceptionally good book that I could never recommend because the used book market was charging textbook-level prices for it.

The book is part of a game design Humble Bundle for as little as $8 and will be available as either PDF or book for considerably more reasonable rates after that, so I can recommend it again! Yay books!

[icanapptothat]

Puzzlecraft (Android, iOS)

In a sea of city building games, Puzzlecraft didn't stand out even a little bit. But upon playing it, it ended up being a nice surprise. It has in-app purchases, but can be played without having to resort to those. Advancing through the game is paced at a reasonable speed and it will take a week or two of casual playing to actually finish the game.

The premise of the game is simple - you farm and mine resources, use the resources to advance your city and craft more tools, and then use those advancements to mine resources even more efficiently. Farming and mining is very similar to those "connect the colors" games where you have to use your finger to trace as many adjacent resources of the same type. 

If you need a casual time waster, Puzzlecraft is for you.