PuzzleScript

PuzzleScript collection

This page is an introduction to the wonderful world of puzzlescript (PS). An impressive open-source toolkit for rapid-prototyping of simple HTML5 puzzle-apps. Since its inception in 2013 PS has been embraced by dozens of indie and hobby-level developers resulting in a mind-boggling, ever-expanding collection of puzzles, allowing anyone armed with a browser and a keyboard (recommended) to explore the amazing creations of some of the world's newest and most innovative puzzle-game designers.

Most puzzles here are unashamedly biased towards the clickmazes style (2D, minimalist, compact, route-finding, multi-state). Beware however of one major distinction... a general lack of instruction. Where are the rules and what is the goal? Bluntly put, it's down to you to work that out (and the first-rule of rule-discovery is that the first-rule probably isn't the last-rule). The world of the PS-app is a delightful loop of exploration and discovery which I guarantee you will learn to love, just as much as I do.

Taster-menu No.1 (January 2021)

This first taster-menu is restricted to puzzles I have fully solved myself, end to end (which seems only fair on my visitors). The magnifying-glass next to each link provides a short overview of the puzzle, including why I chose to include it.

Find your feet

Perfect for puzzlescript newbies. These puzzles are all based on familiar mechanics, with only the faintest hint of deliberate rule obfuscation. The understated yet effective graphics will help quell the panic attacks.

Expand your horizons

Good puzzles to extend your journey. Be prepared to think outside-the-box while simultaneously admiring the innovative way a single brightly-coloured pixel cleverly conveys a vital aspect of the puzzling experience... if only you could work out exactly what.

Take a leap of faith

Be prepared to throw away the rule book from here on. Thinking outside-the-box will only help if you are mentally prepared to discover a recursive copy of the inner-box. As an aside, if your brain is not yet interpreting two adjacent, tonally-similar pixels as a 3D cube then you aren't yet ready...

Links and related pages

For more puzzles visit the Puzzlescript Gallery
Or explore Pedro PSI's curated list of Selected PS games
Or filter at itch.io for made-with-puzzlescript
Clickmazes pages updated with PS related links: punt mazes, XL-up, no-left-turn and wriggle

Footnotes

The puzzles I highlight above were discovered by a process of random-walk through the spreadsheets, galleries and personal recommendations that welcomed me when I joined the thinky-puzzle-games discord server.

My apologies to the PS community for omitting the many worthy entries that could be included here. There is a long list I explored and thoroughly enjoyed, but never quite finished. There are also some I simply forgot to bookmark and so many more yet to be discovered. This page is dedicated to the thinky-puzzle-games community and to the wonderful multiverse of new puzzles I discovered in 2020.