EARLY ACCESS How To Design An Unsolvable Problem
🕑 Added 2022-06-25 03:59:41 +0000 UTCCheck out SokPop! https://sokpop.co/
Sim City is one of the most important videogames ever made, but Will Wright's magnum opus isn't revolutionary because it made architecture fun, but in how it created an entirely new kind of videogame: the problem solver. Problem Solving videogames are a unique collection of titles that rely not on the developer to author specific obstacles, but on the player to interact with a set of meticulously-balanced variables and rules and in the process create a series of challenges that are totally unique.
The Architect has been trying their hand at alchemy, logistics, speed running and even... whatever that word is for planning out what buildings look like in an effort to figure out the root of this particular problem - and they've come to a startling conclusion. Some of the best problems in videogaming are, in fact, designed to be unsolvable.
You Saw:
Streets of Rage - 1991
Super Mario Bros - 1985
Surviving Mars - 2018
Game Dev Tycoon - 2015
Sim City - 1989
Civilization 6 - 2016
Starcraft 2 - 2010
Sim City 3000 - 1999
Sim City (2013) - :/
Sim City 2000 - 1993
Utopia - 1982
Sim City 4 - 2003
Anno 1800 - 2019
They Are Billions - 2017
Teardown - 2022
Hardspace Shipbreaker - 2022
Factorio - 2020
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe - 2022
Super Mario Odyssey - 2017
World of Goo - 2008
Rimworld - 2018
Evil Genius 2 - 2021
Satisfacotry - Early Access
Neon White - 2022
Dorfromantik - 2021
Spacechem - 2011
Infinifactory - 2015
Exapunks - 2018
Opus Magnum - 2017
Human Resouce Machine - 2015
Cities Skylines - 2015
Two Point Hospital - 2018
Frostpunk - 2018
Northgard - 2017
Mini Motorways - 2019
Death Stranding - 2019
Wilmott's Warehouse - 2019
Tetris 99 - 2019
Fallout New Vegas - 2010
Super Mario 64 - 1996
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - 2011
Quake - 1996
Elden Ring - 2022
Divinity Original Sin 2 - 2017
Terra Nil - Early Access
Baba is You - 2019
The Greatest Movie Of All Time (2007)
Fall Guys - 2020
Comments
Adrian Slider
A really insightful reading of a type of game that's dear to me. I would also suggest that a lot of them include an element of aesthetics--when I'm building cities in any version of SimCity, or building something in Minecraft, or developing my farm in Stardew Valley, I'm engaging with the mechanics in the way you describe, and also looking for the satisfaction of completing a design that I'm going for, dusting off my hands, and going yeah, look at that!
DasKänguru
This video scratched an itch, i didn't know i had :D I've played lots of problem solving games lately, apparently without even realizing they're all this "genre"
