So there are a lot of topics here and elsewhere about good puzzle design. Lately I, however, have been wondering how to better (read: organically) hint at puzzles in games. I don’t mean in a HINTS kind of way, but via in-game descriptions etc. (And if you can think of good examples, please go ahead!)
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I answer this as a player, not as an author.
I think the task the player has to do should be integrated into a general text. Like this:
There’s an evil sorcerer in the east who cast a curse on your village. You are elected to defeat him.
That tells the player to go east.
Then in the location description a stone door blocking the way is mentioned. This tells the player to somehow open the stone door. If the player don’t understand it and still tries to go east, you tell him:
The path to the east is blocked by a stone door.
Then the player “x door” which further leads the path to go (a lock or a riddle or an action)
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The typical way is “sticky note in the drawer/email”.
Charles:
The lab interns have all been accessing the experimental psychedelics department and some samples have gone missing. I’m unsure what they want them for, but it’s a different person each time so I think they’re sharing it.
That said, I’ve changed the door code to 0451 to prevent unlimited access, at least for the time being. Definitely don’t tell Parsons, I believe he’s the leader of their little operation.
- Godfrey
That clues the player that something is interesting in that location and how to get there.
Sometimes it’s more subtle and the player has to infer. If the username is “Lion” there will be a photo of lions on the desk with a date stamp 02/14/1950 which is the password.
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I think @HanonO 's example is good.
I’d like to mention something that shouldn’t be used too often, but perhaps occasionally: Not giving a clue at all! Example: In the game Babel you have to touch the floor or walls to get a flash of info/memory and you don’t get a hint to do so.
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One thing I’m a big proponent of in parser games is having useful error messages. If I take an action that engages with a puzzle and it doesn’t work, tell me why it didn’t work in a way that gives me some further datapoints about what might.
I’m too tired to come up with examples from scratch right now, but I wrote about this in my review of Traffic (with suggestions specific to that game’s puzzles).
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I think “productive failure” is a good approach. The player might “look under” the sink. There’s nothing there. But maybe they should look under the table. So you don’t want to discourage looking under things altogether (this is parser talk, but I think the principle has broad application).
edit: jinx!
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But fear “scope creep” (reverse scope creep?) where the player will try to LOOK UNDER everything they find, fearing that they’ll miss something. Make sure that it’s clear to players when to use custom search commands, otherwise it’ll get very grindy very quickly.
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But the touching is talked about in the ABOUT text of the game. (Or maybe it’s the HINT text. I can’t remember.)
In any case, it’s usually good to have slightly unclear hinting in, say, the room description, or something very easily found, as they venture deeper into trying different things, you increase the obviousness of the hints.
In Milliways, I had a puzzle where there is a clover which has a plug where the roots should be, and a radio which “feels like something is missing” -and you have to plug the plant into the radio. Some people found it very very easy, and some just could not get it. You know why? Because I had not mentioned the plug in the examining before the plant with plucked, 'cause it’s still in the ground. However, it never mentions something odd when you pluck it at all, so those who already examined the plant before plucking it didn’t examine again, meaning they had no clue - and those who hadn’t already examined the plant did now, and they had a very good idea of what to do. Ultimately, it was the act of plucking the plant that should have mentioned a very odd change in appearance or something.
Just a tidbit of help.
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Emery / Drew have already shared the most important advice… good but incomplete attempts should gesture towards a solution. (If you want the player to find and climb a ladder to unscrew a lightbulb, “get bulb” should probably mention that it’s too high, “jump” should mention that you’re closer but not quite there, and an attempt to stand on nearby furniture should get some encouraging response.)
Other ideas:
- Narrow the focus - Giving the player just one thing to work on and a limited toolset to experiment with guides them toward the solution. Counterfeit Monkey starts you in a small area and makes you solve a puzzle using the core mechanic to move on; Spider and Web’s core puzzle works partly because it literally straps you to a chair until you figure it out.
- Start with similar, simpler puzzles - If a player has solved a simple puzzle, they’re more likely to solve a more complicated followup puzzle that shares the same idea.
- Implement in detail - in a game made of words, it makes sense to use more words for the important things. Default or minimal descriptions suggest something’s not that important, while verbose or detailed ones suggest it’s worth exploring further.
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