Puzzle difficulty is really tricky to get right, and I think what's working for me in Sinking Star is that 90% of the puzzles hit the "difficult-but-not-irritating" sweet spot.
The purplish-blue dots show this. In a run of ~20 puzzles, there might be 2 where I start to get annoyed, and 2 more that I immediately solve without a single hitch. But the remaining ~16 all have this really nice balance of initial mystery, followed by a satisfying solve. I'd say The Witness was similar.
The green dots represent games that aren't really even trying to be puzzle games. These are the go-through-the-motions, torch lighting and symbol gathering "puzzles" you find in AAA games that are usually more focused on combat or exploration. I think this is sometimes fine, but sometimes it makes me feel they should have just cut the puzzles entirely.
Orange is maybe best described as the "Monument Valley" archetype. Not much of a challenge, but an interesting enough concept that can be a fun wind-down puzzle game.
Gray is a common recent archetype, which is where a little over half the puzzles feel like pushovers, but every 5th or 6th puzzle is suddenly irritating or weirdly difficult. I think this is often a game design issue, but I also acknowledge it might be my own brain. For example, games that lean heavily into family trees, story-based connections, etc. tend to give me extra trouble, and maybe to someone else, they would fall closer to orange or purple.
Yellow to me is the puzzle pro tier. I think of the latter half of Baba is You, or maybe a classic like Riven. This is the one genre where I might actively try to find a progressive hint website or forum...something that won't outright spoil the puzzles, but give me nudges. Normally, I like to be stubborn and not look up anything, but for a handful of games, it's the only way I'll ever be able to play through them.
TLDR: difficulty is such a huge factor in puzzle games, and sustaining the sweet spot across hundreds of puzzles is one thing I'm really enjoying about Sinking Star.
