The recent reports that the BBC is preparing a daily puzzles and casual games push - streaks, leaderboards, a dedicated slot across app and web - have triggered a familiar industry reflex: “They’ll copy indies, they won’t be original, and smaller creators will get crushed.”
I get why that anxiety shows up. Reach matters. Budgets matter. When a giant enters your patch, you worry about getting flattened.
But zoom out, and that framing has two shaky assumptions baked in: that “originality” in puzzles means “never seen before,” and that copying is the primary threat to creators. Neither is quite right. And if we keep arguing from those assumptions, we’ll miss what’s actually happening: a rapid expansion of audience, distribution, and daily habit. That’s not bad news. That’s oxygen.
The uncomfortable truth about IP
Let’s address the painful bit directly. In puzzles, you can protect your brand, your name, your artwork, your specific code, and your presentation. But the core mechanic? Much harder.
In UK terms, copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. You can’t own “the concept of grouping words into sets” or “guessing in six tries” as a pure mechanic. Practical IP guides aimed at game creators make this consistently clear.
So yes, copying happens. Constantly. Not because everyone’s unethical, but because this category grows by iteration. A good idea gets tried, improved, simplified, made accessible, and eventually mainstreamed. Less visible ideas get noticed, are adapted and then amplified That’s the ecosystem.
The “big wave” effect that nobody talks about enough
Here’s the part the “keep the BBC out” crowd misses: when a Tier-1 publisher breaks a format to the mass market, the whole category grows.
A new BBC puzzles hub doesn’t just compete with indies. It also normalises daily puzzles for people who’ve never touched them. It teaches new players the habit - which is the hardest bit. It increases the total addressable audience. And it makes puzzles culturally louder, which helps discovery everywhere.
The New York Times is the proof. Their 11.1 billion plays in 2024 didn’t shrink the indie puzzle scene - they expanded the category. More people doing daily puzzles means more people who eventually try niche formats, deeper variations, and specialist creators.
That “big wave” effect creates space for variants, premium editions, and new creators riding the broader category awareness. It’s exactly what happened after Candy Crush Saga: one breakout made the template mainstream, then the whole category exploded into variations for years.
What I’d love to see from the BBC
If the BBC, or any big player is serious about puzzles, here’s how they enter responsibly and win - in a way that strengthens the ecosystem instead of flattening it.
Commission creators. Don’t just build internally. Make it a real pipeline, not a one-off PR stunt. Let unknown creators submit prototypes and get a route in that isn’t “know someone.”
Be transparent about lineage. Puzzles have family trees. Credit is free, and it buys a remarkable amount of goodwill. Acknowledge where a format sits in the broader tradition, especially in the current climate of AI, Social ‘noise’ and fake news.
Invest in execution, not novelty theatre. Onboarding, pacing, fairness, accessibility, satisfaction - that’s where a public-service brand can genuinely raise the bar for the whole industry.
Use distribution to grow the ecosystem. Spotlight guest creators. Run seasonal showcases. Link out to “more puzzles like this.” Share “try this next” recommendations that point beyond the BBC’s own products.
Do that, and the BBC doesn’t flatten the space. It becomes the front door that helps the whole category grow.
The practical playbook for indie creators
If you're a small studio or flying solo, here's the practical reality: your advantage usually isn't the mechanic itself. It's the overall feel — your brand, the polish, how thoughtfully the constraints are designed, a smooth onboarding, that all-important "first win", and the community and tone you build around it.
Build something that feels unmistakably like you - in its naming, art, voice, and solving personality. Make it easy to explain in a single sentence but emotionally rewarding to play. Document your creation trail, because it helps if you ever need to prove authorship of specific assets and code.
And if a bigger platform adopts the shape of your idea and makes it huge? It’s annoying (genuinely) but it’s also validation. Use that moment as leverage for your next three ideas. Attention on one concept can open doors you didn’t know existed.
A note from our side of the industry
Speaking from the Sticky Puzzles angle: we’ve been building puzzle products since 2012 – including co-developing ideas with these Tier 1 publishers. We know first-hand that a new format doesn’t succeed just because it’s clever. It succeeds because it’s easy to explain, emotionally satisfying in play, and finds distribution that can turn it into a daily habit.
So rather than obsessing over whether the BBC is “original enough,” the healthier industry mindset is this: more big players means more daily puzzlers, and more daily puzzlers means a bigger market for everyone.
Copying is annoying. But growth is the prize.
If giants want in, it’s because puzzles are working. And if puzzles are working, creators have more opportunity - not less.