#Types of puzzle games how to#

#Types of puzzle games how to#

The player needs to look up information in various sources in order to assemble a complete picture and learn how to proceed. The challenge is to collect enough information about a problem to identify an item or type. Common puzzles in those games include item retrieval (must have a certain item to pass, but it doesn't tell you which item, so you need to think about it), trivia (remembering past happenings in the plot/dialog), and good ol' social puzzles (convincing people of things through dialog choices.) King's Quest is on sale on Steam right now ($1 for the rather lengthy chapter 1.Diagnostic puzzles. You should also check out some adventure games, such as King's Quest. Pokemon puzzles are good at challenging different skills. This video covers a bunch of Pokemon-codified environmental puzzles that can be made with RPG Maker. What you need to do is target different player skills.

Tl dr, a common mistake is to simply reskin a known puzzle, or add more complexity. It's pretty good at describing how to make puzzles actually different. Most people will claim a certain type of puzzle is the worst when they really just didn't like how it was made.Д¬heck out this Gamasutra article. There's just good and bad implementation. The shadow puzzle in Kuja's palace from FFIX, the ancient dungeons in FFVIII, that sort of thing. I do like puzzles that add to the overall atmosphere of a game by using sort ofВ arcane imagery or settings. There were riddles,В and puzzles that relied on cooperation between the party to advance through the temple, and though it was all fairly simple I felt it was effective. One exampleВ of that I can think of is the temple of sacred ashes in DA Origins.В The dungeon helps to teach the player about the history of the world and itsВ major religion, as well as to develop the characters in your party,В in an interactive way. I would think ones that use the lore of the game world would help to immerse the player if you are trying to encourage the player to engage with the game's story and world. Generally I'm pretty terrible at solving puzzles, so I rather like ones with simple rules and goals that reoccur throughout the game, increasing in complexityВ each time the sort that appear in Bioshock, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Ratchet & Clank games, for example. Not following your own rules or negating logic of the player will lead to dissatisfaction. The rips on the paper formed a number, and that was the answer. I solved the puzzle only to find out it was wrong. Another was giving the player a linear equation on a ripped scrap of paper. Why do a 2d maze for them? Sure enough when the bug was reunited with it's companion they flew off together. Naturally I said to myself lady bugs can fly, just fly to your companion over the maze. My prime example in Miracle Mask (Professor Layton 3ds) was a maze on a corn cob for lady bugs. Puzzles that make you rage when you solve them. I can sit and look at the same picture for minutes and loose interest trying to find a shopping list of items that aren't highlighted or hidden behind other things with no depth to the picture or way to rotate it.

I'm not saying I don't like brain teasers, but genuine BTs have merit and explain the puzzle fully. Puzzles that trick the player without enough information to make more than a guess. Having one usually means you have them in spades. It's the comment 'not another one' you want to avoid. While they have existed in jrpgs since the beginning, they aren't engaging to the player. The worst are Sisyphus puzzles were you push rocks onto plates. Player cues are a must, sound or otherwise. Puzzles that can be interacted with, and have visual and auditory stimulation tend to do well. As simple as pointing to something a map can be challenging and fun if it engages the player to look, recall, and think towards the best possible solution. The best type of puzzle is one that sets rules and expects the player to follow them. I'm working on a similar game and had to work on at least ten puzzles for the demo, so I thought I'd share my input.