For my critical play, I played Factory Balls, a Barte Bonte puzzle game that can be played online. The target audience is very broad, perhaps 10 years old and up — there is no prerequisite knowledge and the game is easy to learn. In each level of the game, you are given a ball, some paints and some constraints. Your task is to match the ball to the image on the box:
As the levels progress, the tasks become progressively harder with more color combinations and constraints:
At first this game appeared really simple. The first few levels were easy and even when it got a little harder, I thought I had it under control. Around the 10th level, the balls became extremely hard to reproduce.
For example in the level above, even though I only had three paints and two “tools,” it proved to be significantly difficult. Interestingly, in a subtle way, this level provided a hint through the trash can — meaning there was a way to mess up this level and need to restart compared to the other ones. As the game progressed, it became clear it was a game of challenge. The fun comes from figuring out the combination of colors and objects and having that “aha” moment and satisfaction.
The mechanics of the puzzle are extremely straightforward — there are no rules and a constrained set of actions. Yet, these simple mechanics lend itself to increasing difficulty while not overly complicating the game. The puzzles can become increasingly complex while not requiring the user to learn more tasks or skills. Because of this, the game has a continuous feel — there is no need for tutorials or explaining new types of objects that limit the colors of the balls. Instead players are used to testing it out to figure out how it might manipulate the ball.
One downside of how this game presented puzzles was how easy it was to get stuck and discouraged. In some of the later levels, it felt like I tried everything and still couldn’t get the correct ball type. I even resorted to randomly trying different combinations and items. The lack of hints or ways to progress through the levels without any aid interfered with the fun of the game.
