Puzzle

A main part of most Adventure Games are puzzles. Generally a puzzle is "a question or problem that requires thought, skill, or cleverness to be answered or solved." In Adventure Games puzzles are "problems designed to test the player’s problem solving skills and thereby to entertain."

Types of puzzles
Stuart Young lists a number of puzzle types in his article :


 * 1) Dialogue Puzzles
 * 2) Original Puzzles
 * 3) Inventory Puzzles
 * 4) Exploration Puzzles
 * 5) Environment Puzzles
 * 6) Tinkerware
 * 7) Multiple Solutions / Branking Plotlines / Multiple Endings
 * 8) Timing Puzzles / Death

In his article, Blake Spears goes into more Detail, identifying the following types of puzzles:
 * 1) Action Sequences
 * 2) Angle Adjustment
 * 3) Arrange Objects
 * 4) Big Quest
 * 5) Bypass
 * 6) Children's / board / gambling Games
 * 7) Colour
 * 8) Commanding
 * 9) Conversation Maze
 * 10) Distraction / Stall
 * 11) Double-barreled Puzzles
 * 12) External Combo
 * 13) Feel or Scent
 * 14) Find the Exit
 * 15) Fix a Machine
 * 16) Get Equipped
 * 17) Help a Character
 * 18) Helpers
 * 19) Inventory Combo
 * 20) Killing and Destroying
 * 21) Kinetic Puzzles
 * 22) Learning or Practicing a Skill
 * 23) Learning a Piece of Information
 * 24) Light and Sound Games
 * 25) Luck
 * 26) Math Skills
 * 27) Maze
 * 28) Memory Puzzles
 * 29) Misdirection Clues
 * 30) Mix Ingredients
 * 31) Monkey See, Monkey (Island) Do
 * 32) Multiple Solutions
 * 33) Multiple Units
 * 34) Pattern Recognition
 * 35) People Patterns
 * 36) Pixel Hunt
 * Pun
 * 1) Red Herring
 * 2) Repeated Click
 * 3) Repeated Process
 * 4) Reused Items
 * 5) Riddles
 * 6) Seldom Used Commands
 * 7) Separation of Cause and Effect
 * 8) Sequence Puzzles
 * 9) Sidekick Saves the Day
 * 10) Sneak Past the Guard
 * 11) Sound
 * 12) Switches and Combo Switches
 * 13) Time Limit
 * 14) Timing
 * 15) Traps / Left Behinds
 * 16) Trial and Error
 * 17) Trivia
 * 18) Unlock Door
 * 19) Walking Dead's
 * 20) Weight and Measures
 * 21) Waiting

Many of these puzzles are very similar, which is why Collinson grouped and generalized the above puzzle types, resulting in the following groups:

 Object interaction puzzles consisting of:  Repeated Click External Combo Fix a Machine Light and Sound Pattern Recognition Arrange Objects Switches and Combo Switches</li> Angle Adjustment</li> Kinetic</li></ul></li> Non native puzzles consisting of: <ul> Children's / board / gambling games</li> Action Sequences</li></ul></li> Physically or environmentally influenced puzzles consisting of: <ul> Timing</li> Luck</li> Timing Limit</li> Quick Snag</li> Waiting</li> Sensors (specific to mobile devices)</li> Multitouch (specific to mobile devices)</li></ul></li> Exploration and environment puzzles consisting of: <ul> Learning a Piece of Information</li> Learning or Practicing a Skill</li> <li>Monkey see, Monkey (Island) do</li> <li>Maze</li> <li>Colour</li> <li>Find the exit</li> <li>Pixel Hunt</li> <li>Feel or Scent</li></ul></li> <li>Character interaction puzzles consisting of: <ul> <li>People Patterns</li> <li>Conversation Maze</li> <li>Distraction / Stall</li> <li>Riddles</li> <li>Commanding</li> <li>Helpers</li> <li>Killing and Destroying</li> <li>Sidekick Saves the Day</li> <li>Help a Character</li></ul></li> <li>Inventory puzzles consisting of: <ul> <li>Inventory Combo</li> <li>Mix Ingredients</li> <li>Traps / Left Behinds</li> <li>Get equipped</li></ul></li> </ol>

These do not include puzzles that can be built by combining other puzzle types (e.g. Big Quest) or that have no specific technological requirements (e.g. Memory Puzzle).