» What’s a fun puzzle game to do with food?

What’s a fun puzzle game to do with food?

by Spikey

posted on June 30, 2011 in Foodoku, Puzzle Games

How about "Foodoku"? (!)

Have you ever heard of the Japanese puzzle game Sudoku? It looks like a math game, right? But it's not really about numbers at all -- no adding, subtracting, multiplication or division. What it's really about is patterns and logic. So, yeah, that's kind of math -- but it's not arithmetic. So there's really no need to have numbers in the puzzle. You can just as easily have shapes, or colours, or letters, or pictures.

So that got us to thinking, "Hey! Why not make a Sudoku game with pictures of food?" Marian wanted to make one that helps you remember what kinds of foods make a healthy, balanced meal. She started with 6 pictures, one for each of the 6 Vegan Food Groups. (That's why there's seaweed in the first set of pictures -- one of the vegan food groups is for trace minerals and vitamin B12. The other groups are fruit, yellow and green vegetables, whole grains and potatoes, nuts and seeds, and legumes like peas and beans.) For the other 3 pictures, she just used another fruit, another grain, and another vegetable.

Anyway, I said, "Hey! What about dessert??" So I got her to make a whole other set of pictures, this time all sweet treats! Obviously, you wouldn't eat all of these together, the way you would with the healthy foods from the other set. You'd just have one at a time for a dessert or a special snack or something. But isn't it fun to see them all together there and make-believe you're in Candyland or something? Tee hee hee!

Marian's probably going to make some more picture sets later on, and also some more puzzle boards to use them with. Meanwhile, you can start with the first puzzle in either the "healthy foods" version or the "sweet treats" version. These are pdf files that you can print and cut out so they're like a board game.

I think I'll start a Foodoku Caboodle, too, for kids who want to get tips on how to solve the Foodoku puzzles, or talk about the foods. See you there?

Your friend,
Spikey