Every year the Puzzle People Facebook group coordinates a Secret Santa, where people design a take home puzzle game for someone and get one in return! Designers of all experience levels are encouraged. Some games are designers first ever puzzle game, some are extremely elaborate, some even go on to get a Kickstarter campaign and be sold commercially.

I’ve done enough narrative design now but still have yet to design an entire game on my own, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to try my hand at a puzzle game! And because I’m weird, I am chronicling my process!

Not being a puzzle designer in the slightest, my main goal is to make something that basically works. Things working against me: