Puzzle Games

I was looking at puzzle games as inspiration for interface interaction.

sometimes using a synth is like playing a puzzle. How do I get it to sound the way I want? turn a few dials and see what works.

but this doesn’t really work with the whole aimless exploration of (I think).

you do get exploration puzzle games, like Myst and The Witness. But the puzzles act as checkpoints, like padlocks on a door that reward you with unlocking the exploration aspects, instead of generating the challenge element of the game.

I came across a game called Alchemia (made by developer Matthew Brown)

“Alchemia is a cryptic puzzle game which is solved through research outside of the game.
This mysterious 17th century book on alchemy claimed to reveal the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone to those who could solve the riddles and ciphers contained within.”

This kind of matches the esoteric theme I was looking into, combined with Borges (https://curioesoterica.com)

Here the book is the interface.

The same developer also made a game called Cypher that I played many years ago. Much like Alchemia it’s unusual in that most of the gameplay experience actually happens outside of the computer. Cypher is a minimalist puzzle game ‘spacialised’ in a digital gallery, presenting cryptographic puzzles on walls.