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Heff Munson's avatar

There are a couple of slight resonances with two other types of puzzles/games. First, a really well-designed crossword puzzle can toss you only a few easy answers, then lead you along with some "hints" in the form of partial letter-intersections and number-of-spaces guides. In the best cases, you will end up coming up with answers you never even knew. Second, the New York Times Spelling Bee has some puzzles that I have to step away from from time to time. Sometimes I even wake up with a couple of fresh solutions, and sometimes I wake up having misremembered an available letter. I think that the partial availability of solutions, coupled with the longer-term uncertainty, is the key to developing obsession (a less scary word for addiction these days) in the player.

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Joseph Price's avatar

Thanks for write-up. Game resonates for me with Outer Wilds where each run I would crack a little bit of the wider puzzle and better understand the world. Similarly feeling of the leads getting thin at the end as I accumulate knowledge but it seems the major delta is the lack of randomness lets you drive to a thrilling conclusion with certainty in case of OW.

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