Transport puzzle

Transport puzzles are logistical puzzles, which often represent real-life transport problems.

Description

In transport puzzles you move persons and/or objects through a given landscape. As in rearrangement puzzles, no piece is ever lost or added to the board. In contrast to rearrangement puzzles, however, transport puzzles have all persons and objects follow certain routes given on the board; they cannot be lifted off the board and placed on faraway positions that have no visible connection to the from-position. Hence transport puzzles often mean that the player has to move (physical) objects in a very restricted space. The player may or may not be part of the game (either directly, or as a player character on the board).

Types of transport puzzles

• Tour puzzles are first-person transport puzzles: the player does the tour him/herself or is represented by a player character on the board.
  • labyrinths: player runs one convoluted path way, no dead ends.
  • mazes: player runs fixed set of pathways, many dead ends.
  • Sokoban-type puzzles: player pushes objects into place.
  • other first-person transport puzzles. Some of them are elimination puzzles: these are similar to Sokoban-type puzzles, but you have to eliminate pieces on the way rather than pushing them around.
• Other transport games: The player is not represented in the game.
  • cube puzzles: move little cubes around the board.
  • sliding puzzles: slide pieces (on a board) into place.
    • The fifteen puzzle is the best known example of these.
  • train shunting puzzles: move trains and carriages along tracks.
  • river crossing puzzles: move a set of pieces across a river using a bridge or boat. Certain conditions apply.

Literature

The famous British puzzler Henry Dudeney added several puzzles to this category.