Pretty isn't enough

Of the 100+ art submissions Buffalo Games' Director, Puzzles & Graphic Design, Rebecca Carden gets each week, only about 25% make the cut. Not because the art isn't beautiful. Because it isn't puzzle-ready.

So what's the difference? Rebecca puts it simply: "I believe that puzzles should be challenging, but they shouldn't be frustrating."

Think about the dump-and-sort

Picture the first five minutes of a new puzzle. You dump out the pieces. You find the edges. Then you start sorting: by color, by pattern, or by that picnic basket texture you spotted on the box.

That sorting step is where a puzzle succeeds or fails. If every piece looks the same, there's nothing to sort, and the fun stops fast.

The 10-to-15 piece rule

When Rebecca's on the fence about a piece of art, she lays the die line (the cutting pattern) right over the image. Then she checks one thing.

"I don't want to have more than 10 to 15 pieces when that puzzle is broken apart that look the same," she says. "There's got to be a good range of color, texture, or objects that will give people clues."

Those clues create what the team calls incremental victories: the little wins that keep you going. Finding the red barn. Finishing the sky. Snapping in that last piece of a charming cat.

"The worst thing that can happen is somebody starts sorting and gets so frustrated that they don't even put the puzzle together."

The beautiful desert problem

Rebecca's favorite example: a stunning desert landscape. Rolling dunes, a glowing dusk sky.

"Well, that's gorgeous. I would hang it on my wall," she says, "but am I going to put together a thousand-piece puzzle with that? No, definitely not."

All that sand is the same tone, so there's nothing to grab onto. That's also why highly detailed art, packed with objects and color, shines at bigger piece counts.

But some puzzlers want it hard

We see you, challenge seekers. Some puzzlers dump the pieces without ever looking at the box. Speed puzzlers often race without a reference picture, too.

Rebecca? She'll cheer you on, then finish a 300-piece in an hour and a half and call it a day. Both are great ways to puzzle.