Games and Puzzles as Storytelling Tools, a guest post by Deva Fagan and Jenn Reese

Deva Fagan: I’ve been a gamer for much of my life, starting on long summer road trips when I drew maps of imaginary worlds and then forced various car-bound family members to explore them at their peril. These days I mostly play videogames and help run Live Action Role Playing (LARP) games. But in today’s world, games are everywhere. Everything from Minecraft to gamified fitness apps to traditional sports. We live in a world of gaming, which is part of what inspired me to write my latest MG novel, A Game of Noctis, set in a fantasy world where society revolves around gaming and you need to win to survive. Games and puzzles are incredibly fun and compelling in real life, but how do you capture that in a book? And how can we use them to explore deeper issues that will resonate with kid readers? 

To help answer that question, I asked author Jenn Reese to join me here. Jenn’s latest MG novel, Puzzleheart, is infused with puzzles and games, but also uses them to explore deeper issues. Jenn, have you always been a gamer and puzzler yourself?

Jenn Reese: Yes, indeed! I grew up playing board games, card games, and video games. I discovered Dungeons & Dragons when I was twelve, which turned into a lifelong role-playing game obsession. (I am still proud of being president of my gaming club in college.) 

Around the same time, I read Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which remains one of my favorite novels of all time. It has been a dream of mine to write a story that could be spoken of in the same sentence as that brilliant puzzle-packed book. Enter Puzzleheart, the story of a nonbinary kid facing off against their persnickety grandmother and a sentient puzzle house, in an effort to “solve” their father’s growing sadness. Mysteries abound, in the form of both escape room-like challenges and deeper questions about grief and happiness and family. I’m hoping readers who enjoyed The Westing Game will find something in Puzzleheart as well.

Now, let’s talk writing strategy! 

Games and puzzles are great fun, but if you only wanted puzzles you could buy a book of crosswords. Novels have the unique opportunity to make puzzles mean more, both to the characters and to the readers. How did you approach the games in your book?

DF: I wrote A Game of Noctis not only to have fun coming up with cool and spooky magical games, but also to dig deeper into the concept of “winning” and to interrogate the notion that if you just follow the rules and try hard, you’ll succeed. I’ve been a rules-follower all my life, struggling in situations where the rules weren’t clear, or whenever some wise and generous person helped me see that I was playing at a lower difficulty setting than some other folks. So I definitely drew on those struggles when writing about my exceedingly lawful protagonist, Pia, as she has to similarly face the truths about her world.

JR: Ah, I love that! It’s never too early to start questioning capitalism and the myth of the meritocracy, right? 

In Puzzleheart, Perigee is a clever kid who loves solving puzzles. When their dad’s sadness starts impacting their ability to pay rent, Perigee comes up with a plan to “solve” Dad’s sadness, too. Perigee is convinced that if they can heal the rift between their dad and grandmother, Dad will get better — as if their grandmother is the missing piece to the puzzle of Dad’s happiness. 

When we’re young, it seems like every problem has a solution, every question an easy answer. Reality seldom plays by those rules. Puzzleheart draws a stark comparison between the simplicity of games and the complexity of being human. 

DF: Which brings up another question: How can writing about games and puzzles go wrong? 

It’s so tempting in a book that features games to end the story with the heroes winning it all. But in the real world, that sort of uncomplicated victory is rare. More often than not, real change takes time and effort. So while Pia and her friends may ultimately win their personal victories, and make a start on correcting the greater injustices of their society, it doesn’t mean things change overnight. There’s always another bonus round or boss fight ahead.

JR: The end of the book should never be the end of the story. Games are finite. Puzzles are finished once they are solved. But life is an ongoing state of ever-changing challenges and rewards. We do a disservice to readers (and to ourselves) by implying that life is ever something you can “win.”

Games can often feel like a metaphor for life–and it’s so tempting to use that shorthand when writing–but as writers we have to understand the limitations of these metaphors so we don’t inadvertently contribute to harmful ideologies. 

DF: Exactly! Games and puzzles provide fantastic structure for storytelling, but ultimately it’s why we play, not what we play, that matters. Thank you so much for joining me for this chat, Jenn!

Jenn Reese (they/she) writes speculative fiction for readers of all ages. Jenn is the award-winning author of the middle grade novels Puzzleheart, Every Bird a Prince, A Game of Fox & Squirrels, and the Above World trilogy. They also write short stories and essays. Jenn lives in Portland, Oregon where they make art, play video games, and talk to the birds. http://jennreese.com

Deva Fagan (she/her) is the author of A Game of Noctis, Nightingale, The Mirrorwood and other books for young readers. She lives in Maine with her husband and her dog. When she’s not writing she spends her time reading, playing video games, doing geometry, and drinking copious amounts of tea. https://devafagan.com/newsletter/

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