"Puzzles? How complicated can it be?"

When Rebecca Carden joined Buffalo Games in 2020, she had a confession. "I thought, gosh, puzzles. That seems sort of one-note," she says. "I have since learned the error of my ways."

Today she's our Sr. Director, Puzzles & Graphic Design. And she'll tell you: a puzzle is way more than a pretty picture.

You're designing an experience

"It's not just a piece of puzzle art," Rebecca says. "You're responsible for an experience that an individual is going to have."

With a big puzzle, that experience might last for days. So for every image she picks, Rebecca asks: Who's going to put this together? How will it feel? How will it look when they're done?

She's one of us

Here's Rebecca's secret weapon: she's a puzzler herself. "If you're going to pick art for puzzles, you should know what it feels like to have to put together each of those piece counts," she says. That knowledge shapes every choice, from image to piece count to finish.

The pat-on-the-back moment

Every puzzler has their own style. Some want a brain-buster. Others, like Rebecca, want a satisfying win.

"I love a 300-piece. I want to get it done in an hour and a half and pat myself on the back," she says. "I am not looking for an SAT-level puzzle."

And the puzzlers who race without the box? "I'll cheer them on!" That's exactly why she thinks about who'll be at the table before she picks any image. There's a puzzle for every kind of puzzler, and each one should feel like a win.

Getting the colors right

There's a second responsibility, too: honoring the artist. "You're also responsible to honor that artist who is trusting you with their work," Rebecca says.

That means colors that match the original. Our team pores over print proofs, prints pieces in-house, and matches against color proofs artists send in. From design to manufacturing, everyone pitches in to get it right.

Made for the moment you finish

So when you click that final piece into place, know that someone was thinking about that exact moment long before your box was ever printed.