Isle of Eros: Dev Journal #1

This is the first of probably several Dev Journal entries I plan to do for the new game. My intent is to provide some insight into my vision for the game, as well as offer something (hopefully) interesting to those of you who are supporting its ongoing development.

The topic of this first journal is Puzzles.

When working on Enter the Expansion Mansion, I wasn't really thinking of what I was doing as "designing puzzles" until pretty late in the process. I was just coming up with interesting choices with in-narrative consequences. Interactive fiction is best when the outcome of a decision isn't immediately obvious, so I tried my best to implement that. Maybe consequences would be delayed. Maybe an unknown variable would cause a reversal of the expected outcome. Maybe the "obvious" solution was unlikely to have been encountered before the problem so you had to keep searching.

By the end, though, I knew I was designing narrative puzzles. Some were item based. Some were action or sequence based. The bulk of them were focused around knowing what order to do things so you didn't cut yourself off from future options. (SPOILER ALERT: For example, you needed to make sure the wife wasn't too big before going upstairs, otherwise, she had major problems and needed to shrink herself back down.)

This time around, I'm approaching the puzzles differently.

I started from the beginning by writing out the long-ass sequence of interactions/items/locations/etc. you needed to follow in order to get the "true" ending of the game. That meant I needed a good handle on all of these things before I ever started writing code/prose. And it was a nightmare. I had so many issues crop up. The big one was the solution for one "problem" on the island required a location that could only be accessed with the reward for the initial problem. It was a closed loop with no entry/exit, a chicken and egg puzzle where each solution required the other be done first. The bright side is the exercise helped me see the issue BEFORE it was too late to fix it. I immediately came up with a new problem/solution combo, and now everything is cool!

The next step was adding the "difficulty." A simple sequence shouldn't be too hard to figure out, since I HATE that stupid point/click game logic where no one would ever think of the proper solution unless they knew it already. The ones that devolve into just trying every item at every spot just to see what happens. Come on! Why the hell would I ever use the frying pan on the boulder at night?! Who was going to figure that out on their own?! (Disclaimer: not a real example.)

Instead of esoteric solutions, I decided to just provide a TON of solutions. That item you need for this one specific part? The key to advancing? Yeah, you can actually use it three other places. You can also solve that problem with two other items.

When every problem has several solutions and every solution can solve several problems, the puzzle becomes figuring out which ones will get you what you need.

Sure, you could start a fire using the lighter. Or you could spend all day rubbing sticks together. Or you could use a mirror you found. But if you go the stick route, then you miss the hunting party walking nearby during that time. And if you use the lighter, you won't have any fuel left in it to light the fuse on the dynamite down in the dark, damp cave. The mirror certainly won't help you down there.

Again, this is an example not taken from the game, but just something to illustrate my point. Hopefully it makes sense.

It's pretty obvious how to solve a puzzle in this kind of game when you walk into a room and there's a button that says "use the hammer to pry out the nails." It's less obvious when you get three options that all seem to work equally well... until you realize it's cost you a solution for a later problem.

Not much of this interwoven web of problems and solutions has been implemented yet. But they're coming. Every new location added to the island includes its own puzzle elements.

How many ways do you think you'll eventually have in order to help out the woman in the workshop? It might be super easy to help her. But which solution(s) will you need to save for another problem on your path to that fabled "true" ending?

Have fun figuring it out!

Well, that's it for this journal. Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. If you did, please like this post or comment so I can get a feel for whether you guys want more write-ups like this. I've got at least a few more topics in mind I can discuss. Next, I was thinking I'd talk a bit about my approach to Locations then maybe my philosophy on the game's "spicy" content.