Puzzle games should always let you skip levels that are too hard

The satisfaction of solving a puzzle is inherent. You learn the rules of the game, then you’re presented with a challenge that tests your knowledge of those rules. The predictability is calming, and hearing the game’s click or bell or ring when you’ve solved each puzzle is a serotonin bump I’ve grown a bit reliant upon. But sometimes I can’t figure out a puzzle, and in those situations, I’m grateful for games that let me move on.

In a lot of puzzle games, the levels get harder and more complicated as you move along, often using earlier puzzles to teach tactics you’ll use in later challenges. There are also puzzle games — often newer releases — that don’t concern themselves with whether you can figure out each and every level. A Little to the Left is an excellent example: The game is all about relaxing (though it’s also gained a bit of a reputation for driving players batty), and it’d be antithetical to hold the player hostage on a hard level. More importantly, what is “hard” in a puzzle game like A Little to the Left is much more subjective, so the developers decided to let players skip whichever levels they aren’t enjoying.

This level in A Little to the Left has five possible solutions. Image: Max Inferno/Secret Mode

It’s a Rorschach test of a game, particularly in the case of the Seeing Stars DLC that was released in June; these new puzzles have multiple potential solves, sometimes five or more for one puzzle. It’s made for skipping, which for me isn’t just about moving on. I also reject the idea that games are only satisfying if you complete every last bit, and by yourself, at that. Cheating — or collaborating, as we like to call it here at Polygon — is an indelible part of modern single-player games, so much so that Animal Well has an entire puzzle that’s unsolvable without the help of other players.

Another reason level skips are a necessary and appreciated feature for players like me is the sheer volume of games I want to play right now. There are hundreds of puzzle games to dive into, and if I get so deeply stuck on one puzzle that I can’t continue the game, I’ll probably move onto another game in my backlog.

It’s really none of my business whether other players are skipping levels, but I think gamers tend to be pretty inherently motivated. After all, the entire reason we’re sitting down to play is because we want the experience of the game. So for completionists and purists, offering the option to skip levels doesn’t take anything away. These types of players will still likely end up sweating over a tough puzzle because they simply want to finish it before moving on, not because the game is forcing them to.

Navigating the five logs in this level of Arranger was a fun and quick win for me, while other moments offered quite a challenge. Image: Furniture & Mattress LLC

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Game, which will be released on Thursday, lets players skip levels, but it doesn’t make it easy. To skip a level, you have to navigate to the gate at the end of the level (which occasionally takes a lot of maneuvering in itself) in order to activate the “skip level” pop-up. I’ve only done it once in this game so far, and I found myself as relieved to skip the level I’d failed to solve over four sessions in a row as I was when I solved the next puzzle in just a few minutes.

It seems like level skipping is becoming a more common feature in puzzle games, and I find it a welcome acknowledgement that we all have really diverse brains that like and excel at different things.