📖 Phases of Solving Puzzles

The general timeline to solving a puzzle

Solving puzzles involves several steps, though many puzzles emphasize some steps, and potentially eliminate some steps. The genre of a game is often defined by the overall puzzle timeline structure, rather than the mechanics of the puzzle itself.

In a rather rough order, the player must perform these steps:

• Search and Identify: The pieces of the puzzle must be found and identified as puzzle pieces.
• Associate: Group pieces that belong to the same puzzle.
• Rules Deduction: The player must deduce the rules of the game.
• Work: Applying the rules to work out the solution.
• Verify: Confirming that the solution is correct and receiving the reward.