I’m with you on this, Brian - I think integrated puzzles are (for me) the hardest part of writing parser based puzzly IF. Specifically, coming up with puzzles that are fully integrated in the world. the locale, and the story and aren’t just a puzzle for the sake of there being a puzzle - you know, the old saws: the fox, chicken, seed, Towers of Hanoi - that sort of thing.
For me, when I 'm writing a puzzly game, I try and class each puzzle into the type first, which specifically revolves around what I’m trying to achieve as the author - What do I need to enhance the player’s game experience.
For me, there are four main overarching types of puzzle and puzzle rationale which directly impact this:
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A gateway puzzle. The way/an area is blocked until the player does X. In this case, I am trying to frame the game to get the player’s focus on a specific area before I allow them to move on.
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A narrative puzzle. The plot will not move forward unless a player does X. I need the player to talk to NPC’s A and B so the plot makes sense and the player has experienced all the bits of plot I need them to experience.
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A Puzzle System - As Victor mentions above, my game, or an aspect of my game revolves around getting puzzle system into a specific state before the player succeeds.
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Score a Point. The player has a score command. They need to do X to score.
Once I have made this determination, which is directly aligned with my story, I look at the locales themselves and the world I am building. So I have multiple areas - the puzzles musty be aligned to what is presented to the player. I have a laboratory? Pop a complicated machine in there. A kitchen? Cook something. An NPC? They’re sad. Why are they sad? How can the player make them happy? A dungeon? Oh, I don’t know - something to do with locked doors and/or the timed movement of guards.
Once I have these three basic things : Here’s why I’m doing the puzzle, here’s what the player achieves by doing it, and here’s the type of thing it needs to be based on my world-building, it usually flows from there.
I’m going to link back to the white whale thread here. Of all the things I think have stopped me in my tracks when writing parser IF - it’s the realization that the world/narrative I’m creating simply isn’t conducive to puzzles - that I genuinely can’t think of anything sensible within the above framework. Re-write required!
This sort of framework helps me, personally - it may not others. Puzzle creation and integrating those puzzles into a world is an art.
Ade.