Designing the Puzzle
From Game Design by Bob Bates
Chapter 6
A Good Puzzle
A good puzzle fits into its setting and
presents an obstacle that makes sense.
When the player solves it he knows why
what he did worked.
Types of Puzzles
Ordinary Use of an Object – A door with a
golden lock. The player has a golden key.
Unusual use of an object – A candle can
light up a dark room, but its wax can also
be collected to make an impression of a
key, it can light a fire that sets off a smoke
alarm, or heat from its flame can expose
writing on a piece of paper.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
“Building” Puzzles
– “Time Traxx” is
based on building
computers, robots
and programming
them.
In “Eric the Unready”there’s a key on a chain which is too
Short to reach the lock. But, there is also a wax seal that
can be used to create an impression of the key.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Information Puzzles - These puzzles
could be as simple as supplying a
password, or as complex as deducing
the correct sequence of numbers to
defuse a bomb.
Codes, cryptograms and other word
puzzles – A mad scientist has
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Excluded Middle Puzzles – This involves
creating a reliable cause-and-effect
relationship and then requiring the player
to recognize that a particular action will
kick off a chain of events that will
culminate in the desired action.
Example: Rubbing a lamp, summons a
large bull, the bull sees something red he
charges. Put the player in front of a locked
RED door. The bull breaks it down.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Preparing the way – A wrinkle on the
excluded middle puzzle that makes it
even more difficult is require the player
to create the condition. In the
proceeding example, let’s say the door
is green but the player has a bucket of
red paint.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
People Puzzles – Here, the player needs
to learn the key to a persons desires. If
he is a guard, perhaps he can be
bribed. If he is a spy, perhaps the
player can uncover the secret piece of
information he is seeking. If he is a
child perhaps the player can find a toy.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Timing Puzzles – This is a difficult class of
puzzle that requires the player to
recognize he must take an action that
does not yield an instant effect, but
instead will cause something to happen
at a particular point in the future.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
The Classic Diversion – If a player sees
that a guard will always leave his post
to investigate a noise, he can go to a
different location and set up a noisemaking device there.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Sequence Puzzles – Usually the player is
presented with a simple means to
achieve a simple goal. However,
suddenly when he performs the action
something pops up to prevent his
achieving that goal.The situation then
resets, and the player must put
something in place to solve the problem
before kicking off the sequence again.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Logic Puzzles – The player must deduce a
particular bit of information by examining a
series of statements and ferreting out a
hidden implication.
Classic Game Puzzles – In “Death Gate” the
entrance to a cave is controlled by a
mechanical device built into the wall that
requires the player to manipulate its elements
into a certain configuration before the door
will open.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Riddles –
“ My first name comes before a duck,
My last name’s found in fences.
Some days I have to bring a truck,
To bring home all my pences.”
Answer: Bill Gates
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Dialog Puzzles – These puzzles require
the player to follow a conversation
down the correct path until a character
says or does the right thing. (Paranoia)
Trial-and-Error Puzzles – Make the
player try everything until something
works. (Bad Idea)
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Machinery Puzzles – In “Companions
of Xanth” the door that controls access
to the magician’s castle is operated
from a panel with several levers. The
player has to learn how to manipulate
the levers, and when he does so
bcorrectly, the door opens.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Alternative Interfaces – In “Mission
Critical “ there’s a rupture in the pipes
that provide the coolant fluid to the
spaceships nuclear reactor. The player
has to manipulate the controls of the
machine that pumps the fluid through
the pipes, to reroute the fluid past the
rupture and prevent a meltdown.
Types of Puzzles - Continued
Mazes – “You are in a maze of twisty
passages, all alike.” You should create a
maze only if you have developed an
interesting unique twist to mapping.
Gestalt Puzzles – In “Trinity” has a
sundial puzzle where the player is
transported to a half-light, half-dark
bizarre world. It’s the face of a sundial.
What Makes a Bad Puzzle
Good puzzle design involves looking
around in the world you have created
and using obstacles, objects, and
characters that would naturally occur in
the environment. Bad puzzles violate
this rule, and they frequently break
other rules as well.
What Makes a Bad Puzzle
(Continued)
Restore Puzzles – It’s unfair to kill off a player
for not solving a puzzle and only then provide
him with the information he needed to solve
it. (Room with gas.)
Arbitrary Puzzles – Effects should always be
linked to causes. Events shouldn’t happen
just because the designer decided that it’s
time for them to happen.
What Makes a Bad Puzzle
(Continued)
Designer Puzzles – Avoid those puzzles that
make sense only to you, the designer. Just
because the connections are clear in your
head doesn’t mean that they will make sense
to the player.
Binary Puzzles – Avoid binary puzzles. These
are puzzles with yes or no answers that yield
instant success or failure. When you give the
player choices, give him lots of choices.
What Makes a Bad Puzzle
(Continued)
Hunt-the-Pixel Puzzles – Sometimes an
important object on the screen is so
small that it’s easy to overlook. This is
usually created by problems of scale. If
the room is large and the object is
small, the player might overlook it.
What Makes a Good Puzzle
Fairness – In a fair game, the answer to
every puzzle is contained within the
game. In addition, a player should
theoretically be able to solve it the first
time he encounters it simply by thinking
hard enough (assuming that he has
been presented with all the
information).
What Makes a Good Puzzle
(Continued)
Appropriate to the Environment – The
best puzzles fit naturally into the story
and give the player the opportunity to
learn more about the people, the setting
and the world they are exploring.
Amplifying the theme – The actions must
be reasonable things for his character to
do.
Levels of Difficulty
Bread Crumbs – One of the easiest
ways to adjust the difficulty is to
change the amount or directness of
information you give the player.
The solution’s proximity to the Puzzle –
How close the designer put the answer
to the problem determines how easy
the puzzle is.
Levels of Difficulty
(Continued)
Alternative Solutions – Another way to make
a game easier is to provide alternative
solutions to puzzles.
Red Herrings (Misinformation) – One way to
make a game harder is to include red
herrings.
Steering the player – You should constantly
be steering the player toward the right
answers to the puzzle by providing clues in
the responses you make to his input.
How to Design the Puzzle
Creating the Puzzle – You begin where
any author begins, with your story and
characters. You create a setting and
populate it with interesting characters.
Then you create the player and give
him an overall goal. Within each scene,
you create obstacles that hinder the
player from reaching the goals. Those
obstacles are the puzzles.
How to Design the Puzzle
(Continued)
The Villian – Something is there that does
not want your hero to succeed. Whether
it’s a person, the gods, the government,
or the ultimate bad guy – whatever that
thing is, that’s the villain. When you are
designing a puzzle, ask yourself why it
should be there. Who would have put it
there? Who is this bad guy, and why is
he threatening your hero?
How to Design the Puzzle
(Continued)
Player Empathy – This is the ability to
look at the game from the player’s point
of view. When you do this, you can
anticipate the kinds of things he will
want to try. When you learn to
anticipate his moves, you can give him
a better game experience by creating
interesting reactions to them.
Summary
Make sure that your puzzles enhance the
game rather than detract from it. Use
puzzles to draw the player into your
story so that he learns more about your
characters. Don’t withhold the
information he needs in order to solve
the puzzle. Develop player empathy and
strive for that perfect level of frustration
that drives a player forward rather than
turns him away. Above all – play fair!