!!Puzzles!!

[Seraph]

It's been awhile since I posted in here.

So, I've been making some serious progress on my game lately and I need some ideas for puzzles in my dungeons. I don't really want any mini games in my game, but every dungeon need some puzzles, right? I need some cool ideas and even some not so cool ideas. Any are appreciated. Oh, and switches suck.

So, can ya help me out please guys? Thanks!

[Pagerron]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Well, first off, about switches: http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/...ead.php?t=7552
Even knowing this, they can still be frustrating.

Possible Puzzle ideas:

1- A room with traps everywhere except one particular path

2- Timed events like "You must find the Scroll of Prefarium by noon" then change the time to 10:40 am. You have until 11:00 (noon) to find the scroll before your character dies.
Regarding Changing time, if it helps:http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/...ead.php?t=4782

3- Events which change the mood in a dungeon (using auto events and switches-your fav). Step on this switch and the dungeon glows red. Step on that switch and the dungeon glows green.

4-A dungeon with five parallel hallways (four of which lead to your death). The last one leads you to the coolest bonus item ever.

I'm sure people have lots of other ideas too.

[JPS]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Use cryptics in your dungeons, everyone love cryptical stuff

"After a long walk, a quick look back will reveal your future."

Make a long corrider, and when you reach the end you'll have the choice of going left or right, if you turn around there'll be a wall you can tear down to go through a parallel corridor

EX:


Of course place the cryptical message anywhere, theyll have to figure out where the long walk is at

I love thinking of these, if you want anymore let me know

[facts]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Do something like they do in Zelda games, such as signs that say stuff like: "1 3 5 4 2. There is always an order in which things must be hit."

And then make a room where you have to hit somethings in that order.

[Lausen]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

One of the "Puzzles" I have in my game is I put the gaint head thing in front of a hallway. Made up some myth about it. You need to find the "Crystal Scroll" to put in it's mouth so it will open the door, but before that you need to hit two switches to open the door to the scroll. You put the scroll in and it disappears. It turned out pretty cool.

Another puzzle idea that I'm coming up with on the fly is have a row of swords in the pedestools and you have to take them out in order.

[JPS]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

I remember in Illusion of Gaia there was 2 rooms next to each other and it was full of stuff, and you had to find the one thing that was different to proceed.

[facts]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Not sure it's possible, but JPS just reminded me of a cool puzzle from Illusion of Gaia.

All throughout one of the dungeons, if there was a treasure chest, there were always these two nearby head statues that would face the chest. Eventually, you came to a room with just two head statues and nothing else. You had to figure out that there was an invisible chest in the center of the room.

I think that would make for a neat puzzle.

[Seraph]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Thanks so far guys! These are all really good. Some of the examples helped me to think up some pretty cool ideas already. Keep em coming!

[Lausen]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Well going back to the pulling of the different sword idea. You could make in a doungeon 4 "boss battles" Before the first one have some kind of clue on the door to it's chamber and 4 swords that you can draw. Each on has a clue on it as well. You need to try to match the "Element" of the boss and the sword so you can kill it easy, but if you chose the wrong one the battle would be extremly hard. Then for the next boss have the 3 blades you didn't pic. and so on till the end. I think that would be cool.

[Seraph]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Well going back to the pulling of the different sword idea. You could make in a doungeon 4 "boss battles" Before the first one have some kind of clue on the door to it's chamber and 4 swords that you can draw. Each on has a clue on it as well. You need to try to match the "Element" of the boss and the sword so you can kill it easy, but if you chose the wrong one the battle would be extremly hard. Then for the next boss have the 3 blades you didn't pic. and so on till the end. I think that would be cool.

This is actually a very cool idea. I thought of something similar, but a bit different. I may use this. Thanks Lausen.

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

this isnt a puzzle idea but its advice.

when making a puzzle or thinking up an idea, try to break it up. start out with the absolute basic part and build that, then add new elements ontop of the base. if you go to make a puzzle and just start building everything at once you will get tons of bugs, confuse yourselves to death or run into a snag that your not able to fix. breaking it down into pieces allows you to remove an element that doesnt work as well as youd hoped without having to check everything you already did to make sure it works.

mini games are often the most difficult aspect of any game. cut down the stress and plan ahead. hammer out everything in your head before you begin, it will be a much smoother process. above all remember that if you build a game thats too hard (easy for you since your the creator) the player will get frustrated and give up.

include a give up option if the player just cant get it, or have a reset if the player botches it and wants to give it another try. you may even want to reduce the amount of dead ends or ridiculus luck in your games. if only one path of 8 leads to the goal then the player will get frustrated fast, same if he is forced to kill a monster the hard way because he was unlucky in picking the right weapon. the likelyhood that they will continue with the game dramatically decreases the more of these in a row you have.

use common sense and put yourself in the players shoes. we have no inside knowledge of your game which means we probably wont be successful the first try through in any mini game.

[Lausen]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

I agree Karr here. Things might be easy for you because you created it, but the player will always have a harder time. If you have a Max Drive I suggest playing Whispers in the Woods. Vonwert did such a good job with the puzzles. I know I plan on playing it again some time soon so I can get some more knowledge of puzzles.

[Gold Soul Demon Ranger]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Do a chrono cross puzzle

Example: say you have 4 passages but you need switches to move them 2 are facing forward 2 are facing sideways. you step on one switch 1 pass that was up moves sideways and one that moves sideways moves up. make a bunch of ways for that to work and you got an A class puzzle.

It is really hard for me to explain so I am sorry

[lil_das]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

Ya listen to the guy that has 1/2% in his sig.

[Perversion]

Re: !!Puzzles!!

hehe....anyway, I've made a few puzzles in a few of my games that are actually pretty straightforward and easy to program if you want to make something that doesn't involve a bunch of work.

First, you could do something like I did where you have four treasure chests, and only one of them is able to be opened. It contains the key to the next one, which, when you open it, contains the key to the next one, and so on. Nothing complex or difficult, but a simple little puzzle to add to a game.

I also had one where you had to touch four statues in the correct order. If you touched the wrong one at first, nothing would happen. When you finally touch the correct one, it said something like, "Hmmm...this seems to be the right one." Then you must figure out which one is next, because if you touch the wrong one, you need to go back to the first one and start again. I did this where each one you touched in the right order, you would get a message to tell you that you were on the right track. If you want to do something like this, but make it harder (and possibly more frustrating), you could make it where no message shows up to tell you that you are progressing correctly. In this case, the player would have to try almost all combinations in order to solve the puzzle. I chose not to do this.

I also, in A Series Aside (which is full of puzzles and minigames; over 15 total of both), made a puzzle where you had to touch one of four pillars at the correct time of day in order to open a door. Each pillar, when touched at the correct time (morning, noon, evening, and night), would reward you with a salty snack (Doritos, pretzels, etc), and when you have collected all four salty snacks, the door would open.

Finally, also in ASA, I found a way to actually use the command to rotate an NPC (to the north, west, etc). Basically, I had four animal models (gorilla, lizard, etc), and when you spoke to each one, it would ask you in which direction it should face. It would turn to face the direction you picked, and if it was the correct direction, it would disappear. Once all four of the animals disappeared (each one's solution was a different direction), you would gain access to a treasure chest in the same room.

I'll grant you that most of these puzzles are of the trial and error variety, but I've found that that's almost the only type that can be made with RPGM3, unless you type in a puzzle from a logic puzzles magazine (as it seems Vonwert did in Whispers), and basically make the player pull out a pen and paper to solve the puzzle.

Those are my contributions.