PUZZLE RESEARCH

DEVELOPMENT - identifying the main gameplay

My team and I have a refined project scope and clear intentions for a vertical slice. It's important for the player to experience intricate puzzle interactions as they traverse their environment.

In order to come up with this puzzle idea, each member of the team (including myself) are to research into existing puzzle games, brainstorm puzzle ideas and eventually form a series of puzzle interactions to be prototyped and integrated into our vertical slice.

WHATS NEXT?

I have begun by looking into existing puzzle solving games, gathering research and inspiration which will help my ideation.

GAMES TO LOOK INTO:

Monument Valley

Prune

Part time UFO

RealMyst

Braid

Fireboy and Watergirl

Littlebigplanet

Monument Valley

• Indie puzzle game

• Player leads princess through mazes of optical illusions while manipulating the world around her to progress.

• Players guide the character (princess) through a series of 'monuments' to discover hidden paths and unfold optical illusions by manipulating the architecture around them.

• Architecture appears differently once manipulated/from a different perspective.

Prune

• Game about the environment

• Use your finger to help grow your tree into the direction of the sunlight.

• Also protect it from the dangers of the world.

• Keep the tree alive in a dying world.

• Mechanics - Swipe up to grow, cut off dead branches in order to avoid contact with surrounding obstacles and wait for blossoms to grow.

Part time UFO

• Players take control of a UFO who performs labour tasks

• Use characters claw crane to complete jobs such as picking up a crate of oranges and placing them into the delivery man's truck or constructing a broken museum artifact

• Ability to upgrade new outfits, improving the way you play. (Being able to pick up heavier objects or move smoother with a helmet)

• Mechanics - player movement through 2D environment, pick up objects and place

RealMyst

• Adventure puzzle game

• Explore the wonders of 'Myst Island' and solve all the secrets that lie within!

• Example puzzles - find combinations, type in combinations/codes and collect reward. Gather more information and progress.

• Levers around environment. (Lever behind paintings and open doors etc)

• Gather stories around the environment that help progress with the narrative. (Find information in books in bookshelf, look for patterns, sequences, dates and combinations)

Braid

• Manipulate the flow of time

• Solve puzzles to rescue an abducted princess

• Uses a single mechanic

• Arrow keys to move

• Explore the environment, jump, walk and climb to find puzzle pieces around the 2D world

• Jump to destroy enemies (similar to Super Mario)

• Avoid fire and sharp objects (obstacles)

Fireboy and Watergirl

• Two player coordination game

• Discover a solution to find their way out the temple

• Keep players out of lakes, guide them through the maze and collect diamonds along the way

• Examples of puzzles: Jump between platforms, avoid lava/water/green

• Drag objects, weigh down lever system to create pathway for both players

• Air/steam from ground to push players upwards

• Players are timed, diamonds as reward, levels progress

Littlebigplanet

• Puzzle platform video game series

• In-game creation tools, share creations and discover online player creations

• Jumping and avoiding obstacles

• Collectibles to be used during levels e.g. stickers to complete puzzles

• Numerous mini games

• Non-gaming creations

• Play solo or cooperatively with friends to navigate through levels

• Puzzle rooms, complete series of puzzles to progress

MOVIE INSPIRATION

Looking into movie scenes as inspiration:

ESCAPE ROOM (2019) - The oven room scene

A group of people find themselves trapped inside an intense 'Escape Room' where they have to complete a series of puzzles in order to escape.

They later discover each room is a trap that's part of a game of life or death.

During this scene, the temperature of the room increases and the only way to sustain the temperature is to apply weight to a series of pressure plates. The way in which they overcome this is by balancing several cups of water on each one. Each cup had to be filled to a specific amount. This is an example of overcoming an obstacle/scenario. The way in which I could use this in my ideation is having players revisit areas of the environment in order to keep something balanced or moving.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) - The Boulder Chase

An American Action Adventure film. In this specific scene 'The Boulder Chase' Indiana Jones takes the relic and replaces it with a weighted bag, however this causes the environment to fall apart and he must escape.

This involves being chased by boulders, jumping between cliffs and pulling branches. Inspiration I have taken from this could be that players have to do something within a specific time-frame, this applies pressure to the player and also warns them that they have to complete a task before time runs out. Players could also be chased by something or use their environment to progress. (Jump between islands, use abilities to traverse through environment)

WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE (2009) - Levitation Scene

Wizards of waverly place was one of my favourite movies from my childhood! It's based on 3 young wizards who explore an islands in order to restore back their lost powers. They are given a map and must overcome a series of obstacles along the way. This scene especially stood out to me, as main character 'Alex' uses what's left of her powers to levitate between two cliffs. Her brother firstly creates a pathway out of stones, which once tested, then falls apart. They have to find another way to traverse between these two cliffs. This gave me the idea of using player abilities to get from A-B, potentially having to trial and error while doing so. E.g. use boulder ability to fill a gap of a broken bridge, enabling them to walk across it.

EVALUATION OF PUZZLE RESEARCH:

Briefly brainstorming puzzle ideas -

Players to move things away to avoid contact with obstacles similar to the game Prune.

Use abilities to jump between islands or build a bridge to connect two islands and successfully walk across.

Constant obstacles which have to be dodged e.g. flying spirits/guardians of spirit world. Avoid contact.

Lever systems, weigh things down. Take object from one part of the environment to another, drag and place to keep button activated, keep lever pushed etc.

Fill a deadly gap/hole.

Keep pressure plates weighted down in order to progress.

Create pathway.

Test creations before use, if player was to build a bridge, test first to see if it works, inspired by movie scene above, maybe use different ability to assist this? Introduces death mechanic, means player would have to revisit and spend more time at one obstacle rather than moving on straight away. Might be unfeasible and too complex for the sake of the vertical slice.

PLAYER ABILITIES - How the player would use their abilities to interact with these puzzles:

For the purpose of the vertical slice, the player will have two main abilities (Boulder and Gust) which they can use to traverse their environment and overcome obstacles.

I have mind-mapped ways in which the player could use these two abilities:

TEAM NOTES:

We scheduled a meeting to discuss the interaction with obstacles around the environment and potential puzzle ideas:

MY SUGGESTIONS:

Lanterns to turn on once puzzles are completed, light up the environment. Uncover the beauty of the environment, give players the purpose of clearing the skies, growing trees to restore beautiful environment.

Based on Daniella's idea - Rotate and move bamboo systems to encourage water flow, transfer water across environment.

TEAM SUGGESTIONS:

Bamboo water systems - Have to use bamboo water systems to transfer water from one place to another.

Drip irrigation systems - set up system to encourage water flow, grow plants around environment. Could potentially use this idea but using air as players will be in the Air Region.

Use of panpipes/windchimes to achieve a specific sound, possibly create a small tune and have to use Gust ability to blow wind in order to do so.

During Week 4 we will be discussing final puzzle ideas and prototyping them. This can be found here: Games Development > Week 4