Modeling what makes paper-folding puzzles hard

a day ago

The author built a daily paper-folding puzzle game called Daily Unfold, which generates puzzles deterministically from the date.
Difficulty in paper-folding puzzles was initially thought to scale with grid size and fold count, but playtesting revealed other factors are more significant.
The game uses a forward simulation engine to trace cell positions through folds and determine hole placements.
A cognitive scoring function was developed to model puzzle difficulty, weighting factors like off-center folds, hole spread, mixed axes, punch count, fold count, and grid size.
Off-center folds and scattered holes disrupt mental shortcuts and are weighted more heavily in the difficulty score.
The game ensures puzzles meet difficulty criteria by regenerating them with offset seeds if necessary, all client-side without server interaction.
The model has limitations, such as not accounting for player experience or template-matching strategies, and relies on hand-tuned weights.
The system is fully deterministic, using a seeded PRNG to ensure the same puzzles are generated for everyone on the same date.
The paper-folding test is a recognized measure of spatial visualization ability, as seen in psychometric testing.

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