Interactive #1

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Puzzle Design Thoughts

I've been very interested in designing more interesting, satisfying puzzles lately, in the hope of turning my projects from 'interactive stories' into actual games. You know, ones that make you think and stuff, instead of just passing a few minutes.

However, my method of designing a puzzle is generally primitive at best. Usually I just look at the story, find where the character needs to be next and throw an obstacle in their path. In order to create the obstacle, I usually create an environment or character, and then think to myself how I can use this environment or character to create gameplay. Sometimes I actually think of the puzzle first and design the gameplay around it, but this is rare. Mostly it is me drawing scribbles in a battered notebook trying to figure out how to keep you guys busy for a while.

So, I thought it might be helpful to define the stages of solving a puzzle, because if I can keep in mind the stages one goes through to solve a puzzle, surely I can apply this to designing each puzzle, and therefore end up with more enjoyable gameplay. To do this, I turned to scribbling in a battered notebook, naturally, and ended up with the following steps:

Introduction: This is when the player initially realizes that a puzzle exists - for example, coming across a locked door. This is the most simple stage of puzzle completion; realizing that you are going to have to do something in order to progress further.

Observation: The next step is looking around the environment and taking note of everything contained within it, in order to find something that might help us bypass the obstacle. For our example, we could have a man standing guard nearby, who pauses to stare at something every 30 seconds.

Correlation: I like to think of this as the 'eureka' moment - that is, when the player realizes how the elements can be combined in order to bypass the obstacle. In our case, it could be when the player sees the keys on the guard's belt and realizes that if they grab them when the guard looks away, they can use them to unlock the door.

Implementation: Often the least tricky part of solving adventure game puzzles, but not always. This is the actual process of combining the observed elements - in our example, waiting for the guard to look away, taking the keys, taking the keys to the door and using the keys to unlock the door. This concludes the puzzle and the player is free to move forward.

With these four points, we can look at the various ways in which puzzles can be improved and what problems the player may encounter forcing them to be stuck on a puzzle (and how we can try and avoid this).

If a puzzle is not clearly introduced, the player is left directionless and has nothing to tie their obervation stage to. If you don't tell the player that a door is locked, they're not going to care about unlocking it, or be unsure as to why it is even there (is it just decoration?). However, if you can somehow make it require some extra investigation to indicate that a door is locked, you can extend the puzzle. Perhaps the door is a secret door, which requires certain glasses to see or some such further complication.

The observation stage is sometimes a frustrating weak point in puzzles - giving rise to the term 'pixel hunt'. If an exit is not clearly shown or an item too small to be reasonably noticed, it is going to be more frustrating than enjoyable to solve the puzzle. However, this is not the only way one can extend this stage - perhaps you have to overhear a conversation in order to understand the true purpose of something or find that a certain brick has something hidden behind it.

Correlation is my favourite part of puzzles. When you succesful interpret the clues given to you and see how they apply to the situation you're in, there's a real feeling of 'cleverness'. However, if the solution relates to obscure knowledge or is not fully logical (You all know the monkey wrench puzzle, I am sure) then the correlation is much less likely to happen. This is another common frustration - and when the solution is finally obtained, the player feels more irritated than clever. However if you can leave clues subtle yet clear enough, the player is bound to find great pleasure in putting all the elements together. Perhaps they managed to understand how the picture in the painting relates to their environment all of a sudden (Hallway of Adventures, great puzzle!). The joy of this moment of realization is a key element in encouraging your audience to follow your story.

Implementation is rarely a stumbling block in puzzle solving, but when it is, the frustration is further increased by the fact that the player knows exactly what they have to do, they just cannot do it. Perhaps you've been a bit enthusiastic with timed limits, and the player just can't walk that distance in such a short time, or your interface makes something more fiddly than it should be (think of Vince XII's comment on Flux World with the mirror inventory item). However, if you make a puzzle with a timer that does take a couple of goes to get, it will still be fun for the player to solve. Possibly even more fun...

Well, this is how far I've gotten with my ideas so far. I'm interested to hear any thoughts you might have to add to these, and hope to expand on these. Hopefully by focusing on each of these stages when designing a puzzle,puzzles can be made more interesting to solve.