Designing puzzles is tough. Designing good puzzles is even harder. Here’s my two cents worth.
First off, is your intended audience a single solver, or a community of solvers? It makes a big different. Sure, a single solver puzzle might still, and should, be attempted by a community of solvers, but you need to forget about that when creating it. For a good example, look at the difference between Season 1 and 2 Perplex City puzzle cards – they got easier for a reason folks. Here’s how to go about creating a good (single-solver) puzzle:
1. You want people to solve it.
2. You WANT people to solve it.
If you don’t, you’re an arrogant git who’s just trying to show off how much smarter you are than other people, and have no place designing puzzles.
3. It should be interesting. Either the puzzle should be framed in an interesting way, or be about something interesting, or have an interesting way to solve it, or the final solution should, in some way, be interesting. Ideally you want all 4.
4. Think of the puzzle as a story, with a beginning, middle and end: the puzzle should flow naturally. The beginning is what draws the solver into the puzzle, and tells them how to start. The middle is the meat of the puzzle, where the solver has to figure out how to solve it. This can often involve an intuitive leap on behalf of the solver, but should NEVER involve total guesswork. Sometimes the middle might be made up of a series of steps. You should think of each one as a mini-story with its own beginning, middle and end. Finally we come to the end, where the solver applies the method and obtains the solution. Wherever possible, the solution should link/refer back to the beginning in some way.
5. Try and do something different. This is often the really hard part, as there are so many great puzzles out there already. You could always apply a method from one puzzle to a different situation, or combine elements of multiple puzzles to create something new. Coming up with something truly original is rare, and should be cherished.
6. Think about what the solver will need to get to the solution. Just their head? Pen and paper? Access to the internet? To visit a specific location? Where a person is when trying to solve a puzzle can make a big difference. Personally, I prefer puzzles you can work out sat in a coffee shop with only your brain, a pen and a napkin, but this can be limiting, particularly in making the puzzle interesting.
7. How will the solver know they’ve got the right answer? With a good puzzle this should be intuitive without the solver having to look it up to check. This is where linking the end back to the beginning helps.
8. Different people like different things. You’re not going to please everybody, so don’t try. Make something you enjoy. But remember, a puzzle is for sharing, so at least one other person needs to enjoy it too.
9. Make it look nice: either in the way it’s written, or by adding a visual element such as a background image. No one wants to solve 12 paragraphs of gibberish. (Okay, some people do, but that’s not the point)
10. How will your solver check their answer? How can you make this as easy as possible for them? No one likes to get the right answer only to start doubting themselves when the way they enter it in doesn’t match the only accepted phraseology. If the solutions are being entered online, think about adding labels to multiple choice options, give drop down boxes, and ask people to give short (1 or 2 word) answers instead of writing out a paragraph of text.
