Transport puzzles are logistical puzzle

Puzzle

A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...

s, which often represent real-life transport

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

 problems.

Description

In transport puzzles you move persons and/or objects through a given landscape. As in rearrangement puzzles, no piece is ever lost or added to the board. In contrast to rearrangement puzzles, however, transport puzzles have all persons and objects follow certain routes given on the board; they cannot be lifted off the board and placed on faraway positions that have no visible connection to the from-position. Hence transport puzzles often mean that the player has to move (physical) objects in a very restricted space. The player may or may not be part of the game (either directly, or as a player character

Player character

A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...

 on the board).

Types of transport puzzles

• Tour puzzle
  Tour puzzle
  In tour puzzles the player of the puzzle makes a trip around a board using a token which represents a traveller....
  
  s are first-person transport puzzles: the player does the tour him/herself or is represented by a player character on the board.
  • labyrinth
    Labyrinth
    In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
    
    s: player runs one convoluted path way, no dead ends.
  • maze
    Maze
    A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
    
    s: player runs fixed set of pathways, many dead ends.
  • Sokoban
    Sokoban
    is a type of transport puzzle, in which the player pushes boxes or crates around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The puzzle is usually implemented as a video game....
    
    -type puzzles: player pushes objects into place.
  • other first-person transport puzzles. Some of them are elimination puzzles: these are similar to Sokoban-type puzzles, but you have to eliminate pieces on the way rather than pushing them around.
• Other transport games: The player is not represented in the game.
  • cube puzzles: move little cubes around the board.
  • sliding puzzle
    Sliding puzzle
    A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a puzzle that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes to establish a certain end-configuration....
    
    s: slide pieces (on a board) into place.
    • The fifteen puzzle is the best known example of these.
  • train shunting puzzle
    Train shunting puzzle
    Train shunting puzzles, also often called railway shunting puzzles or railroad switching puzzles, are a type of transport puzzle.Shunting puzzles usually consist of a specific track layout, a set of initial conditions , a defined goal , and rules which must be obeyed...
    
    s: move trains and carriages along tracks.
  • river crossing puzzle
    River crossing puzzle
    A river crossing puzzle is a type of transport puzzle in which the object is to carry items from one river bank to another. The difficulty of the puzzle may arise from restrictions on which or how many items can be transported at the same time, or from which or how many items may be safely left...
    
    s: move a set of pieces across a river using a bridge or boat. Certain conditions apply.