While many great puzzle games have a fixed number of levels, I’d like to find more with procedurally-generated levels to maximize replay value. Aside from Minesweeper games, so far I’ve found the following ones:
This one is a bit out there, but I feel like Backpack Battles is a series of self-generated puzzles.
It’s an autobattler where you shop between each round to buy items and bags, and items affect other items in specific positions around them. So, you’re constantly trying to react to what the shop is offering you to build a combo (and get balanced defenses), then rearrange your bag to try to maximize your item synergies.
It’s completely free to play in early access until its full release in April. And the global leaderboards are very active. Good luck getting to Master Rank, let alone Grandmaster! (I’ve plateaued in Diamond… I need to work on my early game.)
While Minesweeper’s a great example, since random levels are a feature of nearly every Minesweeper iteration in existence, I mentioned in my post that I was excluding such games from the list. For those looking for such a game though, Globesweeper and Tilesweeper are great options.
Oh crap, egg on my face. Too eager to make the joke I just skimmed the list you posted and went tee hee. Shoulda coulda read the rest of the post too, sorry.
Shadows of Doubt, maybe? It’s a first person immersive sim mystery game with procedurally generated worlds and mysteries. There are crimes you must solve and the victims, perpetrators, suspects, and evidence are all randomized. Would you count that as a puzzle game, though?
It’s called the challenge. I won’t spoil how you find it, but it’s extremely well hidden and even just getting there can be a pain without looking up a guide. Once you get there you have something like 3 minutes to finish a variety of puzzles, each of which is randomly generated (one of which is randomly generated based on your solution to a previous randomly generated puzzle). They aren’t insanely difficult per se, but you definitely need pretty good mastery of all the mechanics to get them done.
Unfortunately, and sorry for the spoiler, but the reward is disappointing. Mostly worth it for the steam achievement. If you like philosophy videos then it unlocks one of those. If you don’t know about the philosophy videos then there’s a lot about the game you haven’t found yet.
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