6 min readDesign / Relaxing games
What Actually Makes a Puzzle Game Relaxing
Calm art and slow music do not make a relaxing puzzle game. Four structural decisions do — and most 'zen' mobile games get at least two of them wrong.
Blog
Writing about puzzles and ponds
Design notes, player guides and development writing from the team behind Kinetic Lotus. New posts are announced on the news page and in the RSS feed.
- 7 min readDesign / Devlog
Designing a Puzzle Game Without Timers
Remove the countdown from a puzzle game and the difficulty curve collapses. Here is where we put the challenge instead, and what it cost.
- 6 min readGuide / Mechanics
Chain Reactions, Explained Tile by Tile
The golden lotus detonation is the most important mechanic in Kinetic Lotus. Exactly how it propagates, and how to chain it across a board.
- 5 min readDesign / Features
Why Offline Puzzle Games Still Matter
Most puzzle games described as offline are not. What full offline play actually requires, and how to check before you install one.
- 6 min readDesign / Genre
Physics Puzzles Are Just Logic Puzzles
The split between physics-based and logic-based puzzle games is really about determinism — and determinism is a design choice, not a category.
- 5 min readFeatures / Devlog
How the Daily Puzzle Works
The Kinetic Lotus daily puzzle is identical for every player and needs no connection. Here is how a board can be derived from a date, and why that matters.