Nepedia
Back to Discover
Fluent Reader
🎨

Puzzle video game

arts Maturity 5-7 Next article →

Puzzle video games are a huge group of games. They focus on solving different kinds of problems. These games test how your brain works in many ways. You might use logic to find a path. You might look for patterns or solve a sequence. Some games even test how you see shapes in space. Many games happen in real-time. This means you must think very fast to win.

Samegame-macos9
Samegame-macos9

Games like Tetris or Lemmings require quick thinking.

There are many different ways to play these games. In tile-matching games, you move pieces to make them disappear. Some games use a match-three rule. This means you must find three items that are the same. In physics games, you use the rules of the world. You might use gravity or how objects hit each other. Some games are about exploration. In those, you experiment with things to see how they work. Other games are hidden object games. You must find a list of items hidden in a scene.

The Splatters 03
The Splatters 03

These games have a very long history. They started from old brain teasers and thinking games. Humans have played games like Nim for a long time. Early computer games often copied board games. For example, Blockbuster was a digital Rubik's Cube. Snark Hunt was a game of logical deduction. In 1980, a game called Space Panic let players dig holes. This helped lead to new kinds of platform games. Even older games like Boulder Dash used falling rocks as a challenge.

One of the most famous games is Tetris. Alexey Pajitnov created it in 1985. He worked on a computer called the Electronika 60. He was inspired by a game called Pentominos. In that game, you arrange blocks without any gaps. Tetris became very popular all over the world. It sold 30 million copies on the Game Boy alone. Later, a game called Shariki changed how tiles work. It let players swap pieces next to each other. This idea helped create many modern games.

Today, we see many new ways to play. In 2000, PopCap Games released Bejeweled. It used the swapping idea from Shariki. This helped start the match-three craze. Games like Candy Crush Saga and Puzzle & Dragons use this style. Some games even use physics to create puzzles. The game Portal, released in 2007, made these games very popular. Now, even computers can help solve puzzles using AI. The world of puzzle games is always changing and growing.

410 words

Where will your curiosity go next?

Keep exploring at your chosen reading level.

🖼️ Images & Media (2)
File:Samegame-macos9.png
Samegame-macos9.png
File:The Splatters 03.jpg
The Splatters 03.jpg
More to explore

🔬 Go deeper

More advanced topics to explore

🪜 Step back

Simpler topics to build understanding

What is Nepedia?

A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.