Puzzle Design Challenge
2D Design
Whitebox
Introduction
This is similar to a design test, but I did not get given this design test by a company but challenged myself. I tend to do this when I'm applying to a studio that I'm particularly passionate about. In this case I challenged myself to design some puzzles for the game The Last Campfire developed by Hello Games. I will be detailing my process and showing some of the puzzles I designed for the game. I also have made a video detailing my whole process which you can watch below.
Process
For my process one of the first things, I do is establish design goals. These will be created and informed by my understanding of the games core design and intentions. I will be designing puzzles the context for puzzles in the game is that you are helping to solve some kind of problem that a character has they are referred to as a “forlorn”. The problem that the character is facing often it represented in the puzzle. For example, one puzzle is based on a turtle character who is a chef, he's hunched over a cooking pot but the fire has gone out. The puzzle that the player solves has you collecting a ember a fire and trying to transport it back to the character without it getting blown out. So, in this puzzle the story that the character goes through is represented literally in the puzzle. I aim to do a similar thing with my puzzles so therefore I need to create some kind of character arc for the forlorn character before creating the puzzle and trying to see if I can integrate the story of the character in the puzzle.
Design Goals
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Puzzles are innately integrated within the context of the forlorn’s character arc.
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The player should be able to see a connection between the forlorn they're saving and the puzzle they're solving.
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Puzzles are short and not too challenging.
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The puzzles in the game are relatively quick brain teasers and very accessible meaning not too complicated.
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These goals represent my best guess of what the design goals would have been for the team at Hello Games.
2D Designs
Puzzle One
The player's mission is to get to the puzzle end point but they can't get access to it as it's covered in branches so they will need to light the 3 campfires to get a flame to burn down the branches. They are unable to directly light the first campfire as there is a fan in the way which blows out their torch so they will have to burn the branches and walk round.
This will introduce that mechanic to ensure the player knows it for later. The player will then have to roll two stones in order to block the fan. They will then be able to light the final campfire, the final element of the puzzle is a combination of the last two elements. The player will be unable to burn the branches directly as there's a fan in the way so they will need to burn the branches over to the right and then roll the stone so they can then get around the back and burn the branches.
Puzzle One Whitebox
Puzzle Two
This is the 2D design for the marsh forlorn puzzle. As you can see in the image there is a bridge but the player needs to activate each section of to get across they will be given metal blocks. The metal block needs to be sat in the socket when this happens the socket will activate the corresponding bridge sections. The player will be able to move around metal blocks. With two metal blocks they will be able to activate the first platform which will give them an extra block. Then with all three metal blocks they will then be able to activate the second platform and then activate the first one again they can then take their final metal block and activate platform 3.
Puzzle Three
So, this puzzle has the player travelling down to the bottom right of the level to collect an ember and carry it back up to the top without the embers being blown out. The first air fan can be avoided by moving the metal block in front of it. After this the player can move the snake so they can get over to the ember but they will have to manoeuvre the snake a different way than they came so they avoid the fan. They can then walk back up the stairs and finish the puzzle.
One thing I would like to say before I move on to the next stage. Game design is an iterative process ideally, I would love to make these levels puzzles functional and test them, get feedback and iterate. And then repeat that process multiple times for the time scale of this project that's not possible so it's best to think of these puzzles not as the final product but as an initial idea of what they could be.
