According to some folks, a puzzle is a game with only one solution. Fortunately for those of us who don’t take such an essentialist approach, dwelling in a deterministic universe means that everything has only one solution. Hence, every game is a puzzle!

Okay, maybe not. Today we’re applying a broader touch. These are my favorite games of 2023 that are all about combinations and solutions; games that feel like puzzles even if they don’t meet certain thresholds. These are the best puzzles and puzzle-alikes of the year.

#6. Fliptown

Designed by Steven Aramini. Published by Write Stuff Games.

Three cards become endless possibilities. All right, maybe not endless, but a mathematically high number of possibilities. That’s the idea behind Fliptown, Steven Aramini’s take on the flip-and-write genre. The Wild West becomes a sandbox full of stagecoaches to rob, gold nuggets to excavate, and graves to rob. But it all returns to those three cards and the poker hands they produce over the course of multiple turns. It’s fast, clever, and no small measure of silly.

Review: Flippin’ Heck

#5. Abdec

Designed by Blaž Gracar. Published by Letibus Games.

After Lok, it was apparent that Blaž Gracar has a head for crafting mind-busting puzzles. Abdec cements his reputation not only as a craftsman, but also as a sadist. The key to Abdec is that you have no idea where the key is hidden, or what it looks like, or indeed if it’s a key at all. In simpler terms, you don’t know the rules. Figuring out how to play is as much a part of the process as the actual playing, resulting in a puzzle book that demands careful attention, backtracking, and maybe even emailing Gracar to demand answers. And maybe a duel, too.

Review: Now I Know My ABDECs.

#4. Chroma Mix

Designed by Jorge Zhang. Published by JayZee Games.

Having children of my own has made me realize that I never mastered the color wheel. Which two pigments combine to make orange? Hell if I know. Fortunately, Chroma Mix puts its color combinations right on the cards. What it doesn’t put on the cards, however, is the surest route through its clutter of special effects, unexpected combos, and disparate victory conditions. This is a beautiful and deliberate mess, a competition that sees you stepping backward as often as forward, like a sack race combined with the Lindy Hop.

Review: Shiny and Chroma

#3. Dawn of Ulos

Designed by Jason Lentz. Published by Thunderworks Games.

All right, I’m straining the definition of “puzzle” here, even if we’re calling every game a puzzle. But Dawn of Ulos is something special, a blend of tile-placement, hand management, and stock valuation, none of which present any obvious approaches. Sure, the social element might be as important as the stuff happening on the table, but this remains one of the finest and most polished experiences of the year. Dawn of Ulos is the game I want to introduce to my sister and her husband, as it turns the wild world of stock games into something ordinary folk can appreciate.

Review: Ulos & Euphrates

#2. Paperback Adventures

Designed by Skye Larsen and Tim Fowers. Published by Fowers Games.

There were a few games this year that celebrated the oddness and beauty of language: Five-Letter Words and Fiction both spring to mind. But neither were as celebratory or as inventive as Paperback Adventures. Larsen and Fowers propose that the sequencing of letters into meaning is a kind of magic. Indeed, this middle ground between word game and roguelike is truly magical, an unexpected but addictive, not to mention brutally difficult, take on two intersecting genres. This also happens to be one of the coolest magic systems ever put to cardboard, evoking a fluidity and expression that’s usually relegated to simple card triggers and matching icons. What a delight.

Review: If Books Could Kill

#1. Pilgrim

Designed by Nick Case. Published by Spielworxx.

I have a soft spot for mancala, a mechanism that has yet to receive its renaissance and subsequent oversaturation. Pilgrim is a case study — heh, a Case study — for why mancala deserves a closer look. As the abbot of a struggling monastery in medieval England, you’re angling for a promotion. Cue some timely improvement to the abbey, new pilgrim trails, one or two donations to the poor, and a whole lot of pestering the locals about tithes. These elements fit together like clockwork imported from the Black Forest, all of them connected to an ongoing pilgrimage of your own around a mancala rondel. Satirical and exacting, Pilgrim is one of the year’s finest examples of what a board game can accomplish when it throws caution to the wind.

Review: 13xx

What were your favorite puzzly games of the year?

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