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Questions tagged [puzzle-creation]

A question about the creation and development of puzzles. Not to be used for requesting the creation of a puzzle.

Puzzle creation questions are about the creation and development of puzzles.

This can cover all aspects of puzzle creation, from scrambling a to phrasing questions to calculating all possible times a rope puzzle can produce.

Please do not use this tag to request the community to make a puzzle for you - the post will likely be closed as too broad.

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How can I procedurally generate Sokoban puzzles?

How can Sokoban puzzles be procedurally generated with a computer program, guaranteeing at least one solution? A simple algorithm might be: {n} times place a "target" square and a box on the square end until {puzzle is done (?)} move a…
Doorknob
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What are the features of a well-written puzzle?

When making a new puzzle, the average person is usually faced with a hard problem of guaranteeing quality. I want to know some key points and ideas, for beginners and experts alike, to keep in mind when creating their puzzle, because a good puzzle…
warspyking
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What's a good way to introduce someone to puzzle-making?

First off THIS ISN'T A PUZZLE. It's a question about puzzle making, as the title suggests, though I thought I would make it clear, as I can see someone out there making a puzzle with such a title. The title is slightly misleading, I want this for my…
ObviouslyJake
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Is this a good question for an IQ test?

Once, in a college class of mine, my teacher defied each of us to elaborate a good question for an IQ test. I proposed the following one. Is the option C a correct answer for this question? Please select one of the following options. A - YES B -…
Pspl
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Ideas on puzzles for a scientific event

I hope this kind of question is welcome here. A festival of science will take place in a few months in my university, and I would like to set up a simple but exciting escape room for people to discover scientific notions in a fun way. Ideas on…
fffred
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Generating ice-sliding puzzles which spell out words

Let's say I have a puzzle like this: The idea is that since you're on ice, once you start moving you can't stop until you hit a rock. If you treat the red/blue patches as paint that leaves trails when you move, then trying to collect all the coins…
Sp3000
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How to confirm the reader has the right answer without showing the answer?

I'm writing a puzzle book for young readers where there are a lot of simple riddles and puzzles. For instance: "It belongs to you, but your friends use it more. What is it?", and the answer is of course: Your name But as soon as you open the…
Chaotic
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Interaction of the three kinds

There're three kinds of it. Any two of the same kind will give you that same kind. Any two of the different kinds will give you the remaining kind. What is it? I don't know the answer. I'm trying to find a real-world embodiment for this…
Glinka
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What drives the brain when creating puzzles?

From as far back as psychologists Robert Sternberg, and Janet Davidson argued that solving puzzles entails the ability to compare hidden information in a puzzle with information already in memory, and, more importantly, the ability to combine the…
Krazer
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Burning ropes as timers - How many time intervals can be measured?

Note: This is a follow-up question to Burning ropes as timers. The following question and its answers may contain spoilers. To sum up the puzzle, these are the rules (slightly modified): You have some number N of ropes, each with the following…
Kendall Frey
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How can I create Fillomino puzzles?

I've enjoyed Fillomino for a couple years now. It's a region filling puzzle situated on a grid. The number in each box represents the size of the polyomino it belongs to, and polyominos of the same size cannot touch (except diagonally). Sample…
Set Big O
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What's the best way to rate how difficult a maze is?

There's actually 2 parts to question; How to determine how hard your own maze is (knowing the solution) How to determine how hard another's maze is (without knowing the solution) What are some general rules and guidelines you can use to figure out…
warspyking
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Help me improve the jumping robot problem

I recently posed a puzzle about Robot High and Robot Long That puzzle was inspired by a comic I saw in Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by Philippe Coudray. The particular comic is shown below: As you can see in the edit history of the linked…
Engineer Toast
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Does this puzzle really not exist already?

I have invented a puzzle about the start of the year that I believe is new. But is it really? I call it Begriddled. It uses a grid of characters that you join according to a sequence (either given or to be partially or fully deduced by the solver)…
Nick Rice
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Puzzles with multiple, user-specific, solutions

I have been tasked with coming up with a puzzle given the following constraints: Users (possibly 200 in all) will arrive at a fixed location and see a portion of the puzzle, which will be common to all users. There will be nobody present at this…
Grundulum
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