the.com/puzzle games
the genre that turns thinking into the whole point of playing.
means games built around solving structured problems rather than reflexes or combat, where the obstacle is your own brain.
from traces back to mechanical puzzles and pencil logic games, but exploded digitally after tetris in 1984 proved a falling block could hold a nation hostage.
tetris originbuilt by a soviet programmer on a spare computer, 1984
portal twistreinvented puzzles as physics, not just logic
sudoku math6.6 sextillion possible completed grids exist
for instance
tetris — 1984, alexey pajitnov, still the genre's north star
portal — 2007 valve game that made a gun the puzzle tool
the witness — 2016, jonathan blow, 500+ line-drawing puzzles on one island
baba is you — 2019, lets players rewrite the rules mid-puzzle