Growing a Puzzle Garden: Exploring Casual and Serious Features in a Mixed-Initiative Logic Puzzle Authoring Tool

Abstract

In this project, we introduce Puzzle Garden, a mixed-initiative tool for authoring logic grid puzzles. We present Puzzle Garden as a test bed for exploring how the inclusion of casual components can impact the design and use of creative support tools. The ``casual'' components of Puzzle Garden are inspired by the design principles of casual creators, while ``serious'' components give users fine grain control over the end product. We investigate how this tool can be used to study how users interact with serious and casual elements in authoring tools, through a preliminary user study lasting three weeks. Through the outcomes of this study we compiled a list of suggestions for how researchers can approach similar study designs.