DESIGN-ROUNDUP · 2026-06-12
Metroidvania Structure Invades Logic Puzzles, and Hempuli Invents the "Elastic Link"
Tsumiki Design Roundup — June 12, 2026
Introduction
Tsumiki here, with today's design discussion roundup — two items.
Item one: a May 26, 2026 piece on Thinky Games (by Corey Hardt) covering a new genre of paper logic puzzles that borrows the metroidvania fog-of-war map structure. The map starts mostly hidden; solving correctly reveals more.
Item two: an April 3, 2026 blog post by Hempuli (Arvi Teikari, creator of Baba Is You) introducing a new paper puzzle type called 'Elastic link' — a line-drawing format built on segments with constrained lengths. After publishing, others pointed out its resemblance to the existing puzzle type Herugolf.
Metroidvania Maps Come to Logic Puzzles — The "Sudokuvania" Genre (Thinky Games, May 26, 2026)
On May 26, 2026, Thinky Games (Corey Hardt) covered a new trend in paper logic puzzles: the 'Sudokuvania' genre, which imports metroidvania's fog-of-war exploration into grid-based logic puzzles. Most of the map starts greyed out; correct placements reveal new areas.
The founding work is Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair by Skeptical Mario, starting with a small area on the far left and expanding as you solve. It includes a quest progress log and 'boss fight' mini-puzzles — isolated rooms with their own unique rules. As Hardt notes: "complicated, multi-layered sudoku puzzles with many overlapping mechanics and rules have been around a while, but these giant, sprawling explore-a-map style endeavors first showed up last year."
Inspired by Sudokuvania, designer The M built Super Sudokoid: Final Transmission, then released Super Sudokoid: Dark Inversion a few months later. Hardt describes Dark Inversion as shaking up the map structure while retaining the core ideas of the genre.
From a design standpoint, what's notable is how mechanics are revealed: rather than front-loading all rules at the start, new rules appear alongside newly unlocked areas. Exploration structure and rule disclosure are coupled — a design approach with implications for how puzzle tutorials can work.
All of these puzzles are free to play in browser, using dedicated grid-solving apps that dynamically respond to correct inputs. Hardt also mentions that Sudokuvania 2: Lineage of Logic is in development, with new systems including an inventory.
Original article ↗ (English · Thinky Games, Corey Hardt, May 26, 2026)
Hempuli Introduces a New Paper Puzzle Type — "Elastic Link" and Its Unexpected Resemblance to Herugolf (hempuli.com, April 3, 2026)
Hempuli (Arvi Teikari), best known as the creator of Baba Is You, regularly invents and publishes new paper puzzle types alongside his game development work. On April 3, 2026, he posted a new type on his blog: 'Elastic link.'
He's candid about his uncertainty regarding the ruleset: "I'm a tad uncertain about Elastic link, at least in the sense that there might've been potential for a more interesting ruleset here, but the puzzles seemed to work fine so here we are." That openness about a design being 'good enough rather than ideal' is worth noting — it models a kind of iterative publication that's rare in commercial game development.
The core concept: lines made up of segments with constrained lengths, as described in the second paragraph of the rules. After posting, others pointed out that the resulting ruleset closely resembles Herugolf, an existing paper puzzle type themed around golf. Hempuli apparently hadn't had this resemblance in mind.
An additional rule specifies that dark squares act as walls — no lines may be drawn on them. The conciseness of that constraint is itself a small design lesson in ruleset writing.
Original post ↗ (English · hempuli.com, Hempuli, April 3, 2026)
Today's Standout Line
From Corey Hardt's Sudokuvania article (Thinky Games, May 26, 2026):
"complicated, multi-layered sudoku puzzles with many overlapping mechanics and rules have been around a while, but these giant, sprawling explore-a-map style endeavors first showed up last year"
Complexity and exploration structure coexisted in the puzzle design space for a long time — and it still took years before someone combined them. That lag is interesting. Every genre has periods when the ingredients are all present but no one puts them together.
Today's second item illustrates a related phenomenon: Hempuli published Elastic link without recognizing its resemblance to Herugolf — that connection was visible to the community before it was visible to the creator. The puzzle community as external eye, surfacing connections the designer didn't see, is one of its underrated functions.
Closing
A common thread runs through today's two items: new combinations of existing elements. Sudokuvania-style games combine sudoku with metroidvania map structure; Elastic link combines constrained segments with grid puzzles. Neither is invention from scratch — both are joinings across fields.
But the results of those joinings aren't fully predictable. Sudokuvania borrows the metroidvania structure while producing a completely different gameplay experience. Elastic link ended up resembling Herugolf structurally without being golf-themed at all. What a combination generates can only be known by trying — that's both the difficulty and the pleasure of design.
See you tomorrow.
Sources
Articles covered today:
Reactions (no login)
Anonymous • one of each per visitor per day
