Adventure Forums - View Single Post - Game-design: Define the actual PUZZLE vs. only defining the objective?

Mad Manny · 10-27-2011, 09:30 PM

In one of Dave Gilbert's youtube-vids he briefly mentioned something interesting about designing puzzles that I would really like to have an in-depth discussion about,

To paraphrase quite heavily he said there's 2 ways to make a puzzle:
a) Specifically define the PUZZLE and let the player figure out the solution to this puzzle.
b) Only define a general OBJECTIVE but let the player figure out both what the puzzle is and ofc the solution to that puzzle.

He didn't talk much about it, other than say that the "casual audience" that he surveyed hated option-b, so for them it was very important to always have a clearly defined puzzle to put your mind into.

So to try to put these into fictional examples:
a) You must escape a locked-room, the game/hero specifically tells you that you must pull on books in the book-case for a secret door to open, but that the puzzle is to figure out which books to pull and in which order.
Edit: As Tim pointed out, this doesn't necessarily have to be a big pop-up that tells you to do this, could be a for example a character on your walkie-talkie tells you from the blueprints that there is a secret exit there, but that you have to figure out yourself which order to pull the books to activate it.
Edit #2: Also keep in mind this doesn't necessarily mean it's a linear game, for example there could be 3 simultaneous trials, but just that those actual puzzles are predefined for the player.

b) You must escape a locked-room, but the game doesn't tell you anything about HOW to do so, the player might first try a couple of obvious things he can think of (try the window, try to force open the door, look for a key) and at some point he'll probably figure out that bookcase seems to be hollow so that perhaps if you figure out a way to pull the books in correct order perhaps then a secret door will open.

Edit #34634: Obviously in both cases there would be a proper way of knowing how to solve the puzzle (not just randomly pulling books).

What's your view; which one do you prefer?
Do you have any good real-game examples of these differences?

10-27-2011, 09:30 PM	#1
Mad Manny Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 30	Game-design: Define the actual PUZZLE vs. only defining the objective? In one of Dave Gilbert's youtube-vids he briefly mentioned something interesting about designing puzzles that I would really like to have an in-depth discussion about, To paraphrase quite heavily he said there's 2 ways to make a puzzle: a) Specifically define the PUZZLE and let the player figure out the solution to this puzzle. b) Only define a general OBJECTIVE but let the player figure out both what the puzzle is and ofc the solution to that puzzle. He didn't talk much about it, other than say that the "casual audience" that he surveyed hated option-b, so for them it was very important to always have a clearly defined puzzle to put your mind into. So to try to put these into fictional examples: a) You must escape a locked-room, the game/hero specifically tells you that you must pull on books in the book-case for a secret door to open, but that the puzzle is to figure out which books to pull and in which order. Edit: As Tim pointed out, this doesn't necessarily have to be a big pop-up that tells you to do this, could be a for example a character on your walkie-talkie tells you from the blueprints that there is a secret exit there, but that you have to figure out yourself which order to pull the books to activate it. Edit #2: Also keep in mind this doesn't necessarily mean it's a linear game, for example there could be 3 simultaneous trials, but just that those actual puzzles are predefined for the player. b) You must escape a locked-room, but the game doesn't tell you anything about HOW to do so, the player might first try a couple of obvious things he can think of (try the window, try to force open the door, look for a key) and at some point he'll probably figure out that bookcase seems to be hollow so that perhaps if you figure out a way to pull the books in correct order perhaps then a secret door will open. Edit #34634: Obviously in both cases there would be a proper way of knowing how to solve the puzzle (not just randomly pulling books). What's your view; which one do you prefer? Do you have any good real-game examples of these differences? Last edited by Mad Manny; 10-28-2011 at 07:32 AM.