Puzzle Design

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Puzzle Design
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Puzzle Design

• After a hero is created and given a goal, you
  will not have a game until obstacles are put in
  the way.
• Good puzzles contribute to plot, character, and
  story development.
• Bad puzzles, on the other hand, are intrusive and
  obstructionist in nature.
• Good puzzles can help establish immersion. Bad
  puzzles can throw you out of immersion just as
  quickly.

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Types of Puzzles

• The art of puzzle design lies in the ability to
  create an original set of problems and solutions
  appropriate to the game world.
• Despite similarities, there are several different
  classifications of puzzles.
• The best games will use a variety of different
  kinds of puzzles to engage the player.

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Types of Puzzles

• Ordinary use of an object.
• One of the simplest puzzles of all.
• The player simply uses an object in the way it
  would ordinarily be used.
• The challenge in these puzzles usually comes from
  finding the object, rather than figuring out what
  is needed.
• To make things interesting, sometimes these
  objects are protected by another puzzle, or an
  enemy that must be defeated first.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Doom. Collecting the keys was
critical to unlocking doorsto continue in the
game, but wasnt a very difficult problem to
figure out. Actually getting the keys could be
a bit of a trick though!
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Types of Puzzles

• Unusual use of an object.
• Unusual use takes advantage of objects secondary
  characteristics.
• It requires players to recognize that things can
  be used in ways other than their creator had
  intended.
• In this case, the trick is not so much in
  acquiring the objects to use, but in figuring out
  how to make appropriate use of them.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Splinter Cell. Sticky cams were
not only good for surveillance. A well aimed shot
to the head would knock a guard out, and the
cameracould be reused again and again! Bonus!
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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Psi-Ops The Mindgate
Conspiracy. In this game, guards can also be
used as handy dandy glass breakers. Sweet!
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Types of Puzzles

• Building puzzles.
• In this case, the player is required to create a
  new object out of raw materials that are
  available in the game.
• This can involve converting one object into
  another, or by combining two or more objects
  together to make something new.
• Be careful not to assume the player will know
  what to build and how to build it. Some guidance
  might be necessary here.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Maniac Mansion. One puzzle in
this game had you build a ladder by feeding a
man eating plant Pepsi. This caused the plantto
hiccup and extend itself up to the floor above.
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Types of Puzzles

• Information puzzles.
• In these puzzles, the player must supply a
  missing piece of information.
• It could be as simple as providing a password, or
  as complex as deducing the sequence of numbers to
  deactivate a bomb.
• Finding the information might require talking to
  other characters, searching through documents, or
  deducing the information based on who or what is
  requiring it.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Zork. Later in the game, you
encounter a Cyclops.Entering the name Odysseus
or Ulysses will cause the otherwise
unfriendlyCyclops to run away. You could figure
out this bit of information if youread the
prayer book, or if you recall Greek mythology
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Types of Puzzles

• Excluded middle puzzles.
• This puzzle involves creating a reliable cause
  and effect relationship.
• It requires the player to recognize an action
  will kick off a chain of events that leads to the
  desired results.
• In terms of logic, you have a causes b and c
  causes d. When the player is in a situation that
  requires d, hopefully the player will realize b
  and c are linked, and perform a.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Maniac Mansion. The chandelier
contains a key you need laterin the game. It is
made of glass and appears fragile. Elsewhere,
you discovera record with glass shattering
properties. By recording the sound to a
blanktape, and playing the tape here, you can
shatter the chandelier and get it to fall to
give you the key! A tricky excluded middle
puzzle.
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Types of Puzzles

• People puzzles.
• Involve dealing with game characters to remove
  the obstacles they present.
• Typically work by giving the character something
  they want, talking to them, or some other
  interaction.
• Timing puzzles.
• Require the player to take an action without an
  immediate desired effect, but causes something to
  happen at a particular point in the future.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Stolen. Among Anyas gadgets is
the sonic emitter. When deployed, it can later
be activated to distract guards. If timed
properly, this can lure them away from their
posts, allowing her to sneak by undetected.
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Types of Puzzles

• Sequence puzzles.
• Rely on the player performing a series of actions
  in just the right order.
• Usually starts with the player trying a simple
  action to solve a puzzle, and something pops up
  to prevent that solution from working.
• The situation then resets.
• The player must then try again, putting something
  in place to deal with the new problem before
  restarting the sequence.
• This can become quite elaborate!

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from the Hitchhikers Guide to the
Galaxy 20th Anniversary Edition. Depicted here
is the result of solving the babel fish puzzle
a classic example of a sequencing puzzle.
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Types of Puzzles

• Logic or deduction puzzles.
• The player must formulate a deduction by
  examining information and ferreting out a hidden
  implication.
• Classic gaming puzzles.
• Things like the magic square, tile sliding, peg
  jumping, matchstick moving, and so on.
• These are not true action or adventure game
  puzzles, but they often find their way into these
  games in various forms.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Death Gate. In this adventure
game, you had tomanipulate a device, crafted by
Dwarves, into a certain configurationbefore you
could gain entrance to a cave. Much like a
classic puzzle game.
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Types of Puzzles

• Riddles.
• Riddles require plenty of clues and hints.
• If the player cannot get the riddle, they can get
  stuck feeling stupid, which is a bad thing.
• Dialogue puzzles.
• Dialogue puzzles require the player to follow a
  conversation down the correct path of a dialogue
  tree until the player says or does the right
  thing to remove the obstacle.

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shots from Law of the West. This game
consisted of traversingthrough a series of
dialogue trees and gunfights, if necessary,
depending onthe conversation. Or, if youre
like me, even when they werentso necessary
after all!
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Types of Puzzles

• Machinery puzzles.
• The player must figure out how to correctly
  operate machinery for some purpose.
• Sometimes it involves minor trial and error,
  along with a dose of logic and deduction.
• Mazes.
• Mazes used to be a staple of adventure games,
  requiring people to map them with pencil and
  paper.
• Over time, they have become a cliché, and so you
  should only create one if you have developed an
  interesting and unique twist to the idea (for
  example in mapping, navigating, and so on).

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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
for the Intellivision. This classic game
consisted of navigating multiple dungeon mazes,
fightingmonsters, and looking for treasure and
items. Very good foreshadowingand hints to
enemies too in its randomized level design!
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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from ADD Treasures of Tarmin for
the Intellivision. Another game with lots of
randomly generate mazes to navigate through,this
time from a first person perspective.
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Types of Puzzles
Screen shot from Legacy of the Ancients. Another
adventure gameheavily consisting of maze
navigation. Still a pretty fun game though!
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What Makes a Bad Puzzle?

• Good puzzle design involves looking into the
  world created and using obstacles, objects, and
  characters that would naturally occur in that
  environment.
• Puzzles that do not do this do not fit well into
  the game and break immersion.
• A puzzle requiring the player to fail first in
  order to succeed later is a bad one.
• The player should be given all the tools needed
  to solve a puzzle in advance.

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What Makes a Bad Puzzle?

• Effects should be linked to causes. If you can
  remove an obstacle and not know why, that is
  indicative of a bad puzzle.
• Puzzles that make sense only to the designer must
  be avoided.
• Good play testing should uncover these.
• Avoid binary puzzles that yield only instant
  success or failure.
• Give the player lots of choices and let them
  explore.
• Avoid hunt the pixel problems. If something is
  important, make it reasonably hard to miss.

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What Makes a Good Puzzle?

• Fairness.
• The answer to every puzzle should be contained
  within the game.
• A player should be able to theoretically solve a
  puzzle on its first encounter if enough thought
  is put into it.
• Appropriateness.
• A good puzzle fits the setting and advances the
  story upon completion.
• Amplifying the theme.
• A good puzzle should work with the theme of the
  story, not against it.

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Levels of Difficulty

• There are several ways to tune the difficulty of
  a puzzle.
• Change the amount of information provided to the
  player, or how it is presented.
• Change the distance between the solution to the
  puzzle and the puzzle itself.
• Allow for alternate solutions to a puzzle to make
  it easier.
• Include red herrings to increase difficulty.
• Change how much the player is steered towards the
  puzzles solution.

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How to Design a Puzzle

• A game is broken down into levels, each with its
  own goal. By completing all goals, the game
  itself is completed.
• Each goal must have an obstacle preventing the
  player from easily reaching it.
• These obstacles can be the puzzles thatwould
  occur in the game.
• They should fit into the story and in the
  setting, and the player should have reasonable
  ways of solving them.

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How to Design a Puzzle

• The easiest way to develop puzzles in a game is
  to think about the villain.
• The villain is actively opposed to the player
  succeeding, and will be the one using obstacles
  to try to stop them.
• Think of how the villain would actually try to
  stop the player.
• Keep in mind what raw materials the villain would
  have in creating the obstacle.
• Keep in mind what the villain knows as well.

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How to Design a Puzzle
Screen shot from Rune. This is a puzzle to cross
the lava pit, something Hel might just make you
do.
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How to Design a Puzzle

• Player empathy is a key factor in puzzle design.
• You must be able to see things from the players
  point of view to determine what is reasonable and
  what is not.
• This will also let you see how the player would
  attempt to solve a puzzle, so the game can react
  appropriately.
• The game should be set up so that it is clear
  when the player is facing a puzzle, and when the
  player is just going in the wrong direction.
• With empathy, you can provide appropriate clues
  and steering to help the player out.