MindTrap is a series of lateral thinking puzzle games played by two individuals or teams. Invented in Canada, it is the main product of MindTrap Games, Inc., who license the game for manufacture by various companies including Outset Media, Blue Opal, the Great American Puzzle Factory, Pressman Toy Corporation, Spears Games and Winning Moves.
Players are given a puzzle from a card and a limited amount of time to solve it. Each correct answer advances the player or team along a track printed on the scorecard; they win by being the first to reach the end.
The original game contained only logic and lateral thinking puzzles, while later editions added other types of brain teasers including tangrams and stick puzzles. Lateral thinking problems are identified by a diamond on the question side of the card, indicating that answering team are allowed to ask "yes/no" questions about the puzzle scenario. These puzzles often give unnecessary information in order to distract the answerer from a simple, common sense solution, and play on common assumptions. Some questions play on words or pictures and some on everyday trivia.
Outset Media, a Canadian based manufacturer and distributor of games and puzzles, licensed Mind Trap and in 2007 created a travel pack of games called Geometrical Riddles. The game includes three levels of difficulty: Novice, Master, and Genius. Each assortment contains 54 cards with recognition problems, geometrical and mathematical puzzles. A new edition of MindTrap games are set to release in 2011 called Left Brain Right Brain, Brain Cramp, and Shadow Mysteries. The Shadow Mysteries series will include detective scenarios from MindTrap's infamous characters "Detective Shadow", "Sid Shady" and "Sam Sham".
Many scenarios and characters reoccur throughout the puzzles, including murders and other crimes investigated by "Detective Shadow" (and perpetrated by villains including "Sid Shady" and "Sam Sham"), and tricks performed by magician "Dee Sceptor".
The questions are worded in Canadian-English, with Canadian terminology and spelling, and are not localised for the American, UK or Australian markets.
Five MindTrap games have been published as of 2009: