Adventure Gamers - Forums

Usually these kinda of puzzles at adventure games come with protagonist outside looking inside, but today this is not what is taking my attention, its the other way around; inside, looking outside.

for me its always been one of the most cheerful moments at any adventure as i know instantly that all what is needed to solve this puzzle is at this small area i am locked in/at, no scavenging around, or back tracking or anything that could ruin your immersion and hardly will i ever give in to the idea of consulting walkthrough.

I tried to collect the situations that come with this kinda incident, and i ve been able to remember three of them.

1. At the Very Beginning - upon start:
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout, The Book of Unwritten Tales2, Dead Synchronicity and many others.

Mostly games like these that start with locked rooms are somehow an in game tutorial, to get you used to the game mechanism without needing to start up a game by breaking the fourth wall .

2. At the Middle of the Game - being trapped or locked out:
Black MirrorII, SQIV, Ceville, TMoS.

and this mostly comes into the narrative either by being brought into it (Jail or barn..), or entering a place and suddenly you find out you cant leave, whether someone locked you in, or the way has been just blocked up by some rubble or stones.

Mostly these situation are much difficult and challenging than the previous one, sometimes one room can hold lots of secrets and could take more take more than an hour to escape it.

3. The Designer’s Blockage :
Secert Files3, Broken Sword5, Nibiru, Art of Murder3.

here, you cant leave the current area until you have found or done something thats needed to be done, or the game will tell something like “i cant leave now” and usually its a simple thing to do, but the design cant/wont-let you go further upon this point without letting you (player) do what is needed to be done.

this (BS5) at start but gives the idea, couldnot get my hand on the other examples imgs.

edited BS5 img with NiBiRu’s

At the Very Beginning - an oldie but goldie, Countdown:

also, Flight of the Amazon Queen had a great start:

There’s nothing wrong with this approach. Back in the days, you didn’t need hand-holding and “tutorials” as such, all what was needed is a small starting room, and few simple puzzles (though, it’s not always easy as it seems - I spent dozens of minutes in Edna&Harvey; cell) to get the things going. Monkey Island 2 beginning can be considered as a one “giant” prison cell - and an example of a great design: it teases you with the “outer world” and other islands, potential voyage, gold… that only motivates you to get unstuck from the island.

When you get trapped in the middle of the game (The Whispered World, the Asgil’s village prison, for example) and like Advie said, the puzzle needs to be more challenging and imaginative (since you’re suddenly dealing with a less options), and it’s also a nice change of pace. Even though I “hated” GK2 dressing room the first time, it’s a nice example of a clever “locked room” near the ending, and even the dying and timing event helps bring the tension.

“The designer’s blockage” can be seen on two levels the way I see it: first, you can have a large-scale gameworld, and only at one part of the scenario, you’re trapped and can’t leave a relatively small area until you solve its puzzles:

I don’t know how to picture this, but imagine a gameworld built of circle of “blue” locations that are available to you as a player, and only at one point in the game, you’re forced to solve the “purple” location until you’re back to the open world. The game can have a series of these circles with the occasional designer’s blockage inside it. The Monkey Island series is a nice example, with plenty of locations/islands available to you at a time, and only at one point you’re forced to solve at a certain island/area.

The other approach is a “linear approach”:

basically, the game is built upon series of “purple” designer’s blockage - you’re trapped in a small area, and then once you solve its puzzles, you move to a next similarly small area and so on. Tales of Monkey Island is more close to this approach.

Cool theme Advie!

I’ve always enjoyed the At The Beginning type escape puzzles. You get a good feel for how the game will be played and it is in a sense a tutorial without “actually being one” and ruining the immersion. Since it’s usually a small area it’s not too difficult to figure out the first puzzle/escape so the reward is quick and then the true adventure begins!

In Starship Titanic, there are two locked room situations at the beginning.  At first, you’re in your lovely living room, which you can explore, but the game doesn’t move forward until you put the Titanic disk into the computer on your desk.  After you board the ship, you can’t leave the embarkation lounge until you find the button on the plinth.  After that, the intro rolls and the lights come up, allowing you to begin exploring the ship.

diego - 22 August 2017 04:29 PM

At the Very Beginning - an oldie but goldie, Countdown:

uhh, this room (game) always gives me the creeps, the gameplaying style, the sound of the protagonist footsteps, the emptiness or absences or any background music or ambient, getting outta of this room was enough for me, i stopped playing standing on the window’s ledge… damn