How can puzzles and games be classified?

references/puzzle.classification New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

How can puzzles and games be classified?  Are there theoretical
treatments of puzzle games in general?

Can anybody point me to some references for theoretical treatments of
puzzle games in general?  I am particularly interested in ways of
classifying puzzles.  Tic-tac-toe and Connect Four, for example, have
some obvious similarities which could be used to categorize them
separately from, say, Tetris, Minesweeper or Rubik's cube.  A
mathematical discussion of the underpinnings of such games is also of
great interest, the more general the better.  Any leads are welcome!

-- Chris Campbell <cdc@uvic.ca>  (November 1998)

[ Editor: the first two sentences are the editor's summary. ]

Show solution

I've never seen a published analysis.  My own categorization of games
and puzzles look something like:

1. Puzzles
  [One-player form of entertainment]
  1.1. Sokoban et al
    [Objects move on a large grid.  Generally turn-based.]
  1.2. Mechanical Puzzles
    1.2.1. Topological
      [Generally made with wires, ropes, and wood]
    1.2.2. Locks and Bottles
      [Also includes dovetail puzzles]
    1.2.3. Permutational
      [Rubik's Cube]
    1.2.4. Assembly
      [Burrs]
  1.3. Geometric Piece Puzzles
    1.3.1. Jigsaw
    1.3.2. Polyominoes et al
    1.3.3. Tangram et al
  1.4. Logic
    1.4.1. Grid Logic
      [Minesweeper]
    1.4.2. Deductive/Elimination
    1.4.3. Numeric
  1.5. Ochimono
    [Japanese for "dropping pieces" -- e.g., Tetris]
  1.6. Paper and Pencil puzzles
    1.6.1. Wordplay
    1.6.2. Words on a Grid
    1.6.3. Math/Logic
2. Home Games
  2.1. Word
  2.2. Board
  2.3. Dice
  2.4. Card/Tile
  2.5. FRP (aka RPG)

This is adapted from my WWW bookmark file.  It has a slight bias towards
stuff you can find on the web, of course, and I don't guarantee that
it's comprehensive.  But most stuff that's "puzzle"-like should probably
be able to find a home somewhere in here.

-- Wei-Hwa Huang <whuang@ugcs.caltech.edu>