Puzzles and Games

PM: Tell us about the creative process. You have the idea for a new type of puzzle or maze; how does that develop into the finished product?

AG: It usually starts with a few random jottings on paper. If a new concept is going to yield a good puzzle, then even a random layout should exhibit a few tantalising pathways and inter-connections. Then I start experimenting with boundaries and properties... What shape/size grid? Constraints on behaviour? What's the start state? What/where's the objective? Interactions? Restrictions? As I filter through the alternatives I'm looking for a combination that is simple to convey and understand, but also yields greatest complexity. Many ideas fizzle out at this stage because I can't get the balance right.

Once the optimum boundaries and behaviour have been decided however, I tend to use the same old basic techniques I developed as a child to create new mazes. The process is a simple iterative process of creating a few alternative paths (or state interconnections), closing off (via loops or dead-ends) all bar one, and then repeating the cycle. Mentally I have to adapt this process to fit in with the behavioural constraints. Often it is impossible to neatly close off alternative paths, so they stay open until the end of the process, and then need revisiting to assess what impact they have on overall topology.

To test a maze (that is, to verify the intended solution and check for shortcuts) I now resort more and more often to software. Software is the perfect tool for this sort of problem.

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