This week, the wonderful tabletop game design podcast Ludology interviewed Mike Selinker on the relationship between puzzles and games.
If that name seems familiar, it’s because Selinker is a prolific game and puzzle designer. He is also the author of Puzzlecraft, which is a puzzle design bible… that is finally going into a third printing next month.
Over the course of the episode, the hosts discussed a ton of interesting things with Selinker… with a substantive conversation on escape rooms thrown in. In addition to being a talented board game designer, co-host Gil Hova is a former gamemaster at one of the escape rooms that we frequent. He knows the business.
In this episode:
- Our friend and Room Escape Diva Errol got a lovely shoutout (and they humorously amended his definition of the job of puzzle designer).
- We got a shoutout for our philosophy on hints in escape rooms.
- Selinker made it clear that he has no intention of making a run at the Escape Room Guinness World Record.
Flattery aside, this episode was incredibly interesting. (The podcast as a whole is very well-done.)
Give it a listen: Ludology Episode 189 – Missing Selinker
This episode has also inspired a research project that I am now undertaking. I’m not sure how long it will take to complete. I’ll post the results.
