As I’ve recently been struggling a bit with some puzzle design issues (basically my mind is coming up empty on ideas lately), I thought I’d put together some resources that I’ve found that I’ve read (or queued up to read).  I’m sure I’ll add to this over time and I invite you all to offer up suggestions in the comments.

Note this list is more for me to have handy when I need inspiration.

Designing the Puzzle – older article, but the information seems to be very relevant.

Emily Short Puzzles – Emily puts together a nice list of types of puzzles with gaming examples.

Making of Counterfeit Monkey – Emily discusses the making of her game and contains a lot of puzzle design comments.

Coding puzzles – Another article by Emily detailing some concepts of puzzle coding in Inform 7.

Emergent puzzle solutions – OK…one more by Emily sharing some thoughts on a simulationist puzzle design.

Making Better Puzzles – Stephen Granade gives us a simple article on designing better puzzles.

Designing the puzzles of escapade – Great article on how Juhana designed the puzzles in this game.  Great usage of mind-maps.

Puzzles, what are they good for?

This is a nice start to a list.  Please add comments to what you may think is useful.