The Art of Puzzle Design

My friend Scott Kim calls himself a "Puzzle Master." Try to solve one of his exemplary puzzles, like his Double Maze, and the legitimacy of his claim becomes self-evident.

Scott has put together a collection of articles on The Art of Puzzle Design. These articles are, for the most part, exceptionally clear, insightful and intelligent. For example, in the first article,What is a Puzzle, Scott presents a simple puzzle, and then describes what makes the puzzle fun. His concise analysis goes beyond puzzles, to almost anything we find fascinating enough to explore:

Novel. Puzzles are a form of play. And play starts by suspending the rules of everyday life, giving us permission to do things that are not practical. Folded letters certainly don’t have any practical value. They take something familiar and give it a novel twist – a good way of inviting you to be playful.

Not too easy, not too hard. Puzzles that are too easy are disappointing; puzzles that are too hard are discouraging. You know there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, so it seems that this puzzle can’t be too difficult. In fact this puzzle is hard enough that many people never get the answer. Nonetheless, the perceived lack of difficulty helps keeps you interested.

Tricky. To solve this puzzle you must change how you interpret the picture. Personally, I enjoy puzzles that involve such perceptual shifts.