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Ask HN: Which games do you recommend to improve thinking and reasoning?

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Re: Ask HN: Which games do you recommend to improve thinking and reasoning?

#31

Post by jjcm »

Depends on what type of thinking and reasoning you're after. Different games will train different aspects.

Engineering and systems thinking games - Factorio, Dyson Sphere Project

Multitasking and heuristic decision making games - Starcraft, Dota

Physics and mathematics games - Kerbal Space Program

Out of all of these, my favorites to play are probably Dyson Sphere Project and Dota, but for pure mental training I always felt Starcraft was the hardest. Quick decision making and adaptation to the environment always made it feel like it kept me on the edge of my seat mentally. Dota has a team aspect, which can go a long way to helping (or harming) your ability to work as a team.

Re: Ask HN: Which games do you recommend to improve thinking and reasoning?

#33

Post by kej »

I really like the HexCells series and the similar (and slightly better) Tametsi, both available on Steam. They both play like classic Minesweeper, except the puzzles are designed so that you never have to guess--every move can be logically deduced from the available information.

Re: Ask HN: Which games do you recommend to improve thinking and reasoning?

#34

Post by gordaco »

I don't know if this is the kind of answer you want, but to this day I swear that playing Kula World (also known as Roll Away in the US, I think) made me smarter. It requires spatial reasoning, which maybe isn't what you're looking for. The game starts being ridiculously simple, but the difficulty ramps up fast, and it forces you to think carefully about your movements. And since the scenarios are de facto discrete, you don't need to be mindful about precision, just focus on the logic of the puzzles themselves.

Re: Ask HN: Which games do you recommend to improve thinking and reasoning?

#35

Post by gordaco »

kej wrote: post #33

I really like the HexCells series and the similar (and slightly better) Tametsi, both available on Steam. They both play like classic Minesweeper, except the puzzles are designed so that you never have to guess--every move can be logically deduced from the available information.

I like HexCells Infinite for the huge amount of content from procedurally generated puzzles, but I love Tametsi for the incredible difficulty.

Re: Ask HN: Which games do you recommend to improve thinking and reasoning?

#39

Post by ArtWomb »

anduru_h wrote: post #3

This might be a captain obvious-type answer...but have you thought about Chess?

lichess.org is the site the ancient game of chess deserves

i use the short puzzles to both focus my concentration, as well as gauge my cognitive depletion levels

good list, looking forward to more interesting responses ;)

simple geometric games work well too. the purity of ms-dos era xonix is profound

https://js-dos.com/games/

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