Stephen's Sausage Roll is my favorite puzzle game. But more interestingly -- it's a near-universal opinion within puzzle communities that SSR is one of the all-time best. I've never heard of such a strong consensus in other subgenres of game.

Unlike other consensus "bests", it's relatively unknown to the public (which is understandable for many reasons). It's very likely that if you're a puzzle game devotee, you will fall in love with SSR; but at the same time, if you don't have experience with puzzle games, you'll very likely hate it.

As a result, I've always thought it's an interesting window into how we value "taste" and "mastery", how too much mastery can actually distance us from one another, and what meaning there is in designing games for an ideal world shaped around ourselves, versus the world we actually live in.

It's well-known that puzzle games sell badly on Steam, and I think part of that is that difficulty and struggle is an acquired taste. Most try to paper over that gap with nice soundtracks and graphics, "hooky" mechanics, and narrative. SSR is so interesting because it contrasts so violently: it's ascetic, has no obvious hook, and offers nothing but difficulty and struggle, and the best feeling in the world if you decide to push through it anyway.

All of the critically acclaimed puzzle games seem to be sokobans. I have no idea why sokoban is so popular; I find it very tedious to move blocks around manually, especially if I already know the solution and I'm just making it happen. For me games like Artisan of Glimmith, LOK Digital, Tiling Town and Lingo are the most fun, followed by deductive games like The Roottrees Are Dead and The Case of the Golden Idol.

Not surprised, he’s a friend whom I watched build the game over a few years in the 2010s. He was EXTREMELY thorough in the playtesting, it set such an unrealistic expectations for me with games I play now

As a British person, this is confusing since the game doesn't involve a sausage roll!

My list of must play puzzle games is far too short: Portal, Portal 2, Demon’s Souls, and Baba is You. It’s amazing to me that I’ve never heard of a game this lauded.

I wish that Opera Omnia, also by Stephen Lavelle, got more attention. It is mind-blowing exploration of the idea of propaganda and revisionist history, which somehow also manages to be engaging and fun, with an incredibly unique core mechanic.

No shade thrown, but I always preferred my game with some amount of story or artistic ambition beyond mere puzzling.

I'd take Void Stranger or probably even Deadly Rooms of Death: The Second Sky over Stephen's Sausage Roll any day, I imagine.

If anyone enjoys snarky long videos critiquing games, they might enjoy Joseph Anderson's review of this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dsQtBHk0eE

FYI it's on sale on Steam today: $5.99

I recently watched "A Course on Puzzle Game Design" by Matthew VanDevander and he mentioned Stephen's Sausage Roll a few times.

https://youtu.be/85mAmP4k1Co?si=yuxpJ2xhkH7r_eo3

The video has lots of helpful information for puzzle game design. I have started to incorporate some of that knowledge into my own puzzle game https://qcgeneral29.itch.io/lets-learn

I completely understand how this game is brilliant and a perfect puzzle game. But it was so hard and frustrating I could not play it.

> most influential puzzle games ever

Never heard of it.

Good sokoban, but maybe my fastest rage/impatience quit on a puzzle game at 10-ish hours. I find it too difficult.

Kula world was and always will be my favourite of these sort of games. Simple yet really challenging.

It's a perfect game.

Is this what Jonathan Blow is trying to copy with Sinking Star?

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