2026-08-15 · design-roundup
"Verbs Made of Smaller Verbs" — Andrew Plotkin's Zoom-Out Design Pattern, from ThinkyCon 2025
One piece today: "Towers of Pen: puzzle experiences that zoom out and out" by Andrew Plotkin, from ThinkyCon 2025 (free online puzzle game developer conference, November 5–7, 2025). A YouTube recording and an essay version at eblong.com are both available. Plotkin describes a design pattern he calls "verbs made of smaller verbs": puzzle games where players discover that the moves they've been making at a high level are themselves entire puzzles at a lower level. Using Hadean Lands, Baba Is You, COCOON, and others as case studies, he lays out three conditions for the pattern to hold, and examines why games like Myst came close but ultimately did not achieve it.
