Comment by somat

13 days ago

There is a theory that for a puzzle game to interesting it has to be NP-hard. Something about how otherwise your brain is too good a latching onto the "trick" and the game is boring.

the rubiks cube is in P space, but has a large state space

towers of hanoi is also in P-space, has a trick to latch onto, and is still popular - though maybe this strays from being interesting and is popular for different reasons

  • > towers of hanoi is also in P-space, has a trick to latch onto, and is still popular

    Is it? It's popular to introduce people to, and it's fun to play with for a bit, but once you understand how to solve it, there's basically no value in replaying it.

    • I see short form content vids occasionally of people doing large ones. i wouldnt say no value to replaying it. the value is more of a catharsis akin to power washing or cleaning things up i think than it is out of puzzle-like interest. so not a great example but i was looking for the simplest feasible example