Puzzle Ideas

After the second team meeting, I further discussed ideas for puzzles with Becca and Shannon in order to get a better idea for how the environment should be designed. We decided that there should be main puzzles that are either necessary or important to the gameplay whilst the other puzzles would be smaller optional puzzles that help establish narrative and give the player a reason to explore the environment.

Firstly, we began by making an estimate for how many main puzzles were required. We decided that five main puzzles was a good amount – it was enough to provide an entertaining gameplay experience. However, we did not strictly stick to this amount as the puzzles may consist of several mini puzzles or we may feel the need to add or subtract puzzles during the process.

Next, we decided to have both environmental/physical puzzles and puzzles that involved animals. We initially chose to have two animal puzzles and three environmental puzzles but deviated from this as we found that some animals didn’t have to be spoken to in order to involve them in a puzzle. We also discussed that adding elements of narrative to each puzzle/having the puzzles be part of the environmental storytelling would help cohere the puzzles together.

Afterwards, we chose an animal to focus on. We decided that the frog would be most suited to the mushroom environment. It could be in an unreachable place, which prevents the player from killing it too soon, e.g. the frog is on a mushroom in the middle of a pond – the player would need an item to reach it. We pondered the idea of making the frog’s personality unlikable to give the player incentive to kill it, e.g. it taunts the player. However, we shouldn’t make the frog too unlikable as it may seem like the game is trying to push the player to kill it. I suggested that we make it so that the player finds out more about the frog through playing the game, which may explain its behaviour and make it more likeable, e.g. its family also got killed. We also theorised that giving the animals human noises as opposed to animal noises would give them more personality.

I proposed the idea of making the frog give the player the first quest but when the player returns to frog after completing it, it mocks the player and refuses to help them by stating that what they really wanted was something more difficult to achieve – this would be the last main quest. This gives the player incentive to explore the environment as well as giving them reason to initially dislike the frog. We decided that the frog would ask for flies as its initial request in return for obtaining an item for the player. However, we found that it made little sense for what the player could want that would help them progress to the next area.

Eventually, we settled on the player requiring the frog’s help getting to a high ledge that leads to the next area instead of obtaining an item as it made more sense. There would be two ledges – one lower and one higher – and the frog would pretend to think that the player meant the lower one and ask for more to help them get to the higher ledge.

Below is a diagram we made that shows how the quests could be distributed throughout the game (in between the 1st and 2nd quests are the other main quests).

We also decided that listing down some ideas for puzzles would be a good start to the ideation process. Below is the list we came up with.

List of Puzzle Ideas:

Snake – lure away
Tree – eat bark
Hidden Area (underground) – find
Fake End – get flies
Bat – help it get in cave
Spider – flower
Guard – blocks one of two paths – distract them
Real End – get plant

Next, we decided to expand on how each puzzle could be accomplished by the player whilst keeping in mind the game’s environment, narrative, the player’s enjoyment and gameplay time. During the process, we found that some quests were unnecessary and some didn’t make sense in terms of how it can be completed. Thus, many changes were made. Listed below are the changes made.

Changes made:
The guard quest was dismissed as being unnecessary as many of the quests already involved animals – this one was an optional quest that involved the player using the shell to distract the guard – travelling the blocked path would allow the player to get flies – this meant that the spider quest would then be rendered unnecessary – this was problematic as the player would have no way of knowing that they didn’t need to do this quest when they come across it

The snake quest was originally supposed to involve the player catching fish in the waterfall to lure the skunk out and scaring it by barking so that it would cause the fish to smell – the fish would then be thrown and the snake would be awoken by the stench and proceed to follow it – this was deemed nonsensical as there would be no need to stink up the fish when the skunk itself could act as a smell to lure the snake away – however, we still wanted to retain the involvement of the waterfall and decided to change it so that the player would have to disguise themselves in order to scare the skunk

The plant quest was originally supposed to involve the player giving an item to a large animal in exchange for their flower – however, this seemed too similar to other quests – thus, we decided to change it so that the flower would be in an unreachable place – like the side of a mountain – the player would have to fool the frog by replicating the flower through combining items – these items were undetermined

The tree quest was initially a quest on its own where two fallen trees would block the player’s path and the deer would have to eat the bark to get past – however, this was deemed too simple and too similar to other quests – it is something blocking the path – thus, it was combined with the hidden area quest as the quest’s visual indicator was undetermined

Shown below is the final list of main puzzles that resulted from this discussion.

Flies Quest:
The frog asks you to get it some flies so that it can help you reach the highest ledge – this is the entrance to the next level

The player must find the spider and talk to it – it will ask for a flower from the sakura tree it resides on – it is too scared to leave its web

The player must ram the tree and a sakura will fall onto the web whilst another sakura falls to the ground – the player can pick this up to use in another quest

The spider gives the player some flies

The player returns to the frog to give it the flies

Hidden Area Quest (optional):
There are fallen trees off to the side of the path

The deer can eat the bark to find a burrow underneath

They can enter the tunnel to discover an area beneath the path

In the area is a turtle shell

The player can pick the shell up – this will unlock the option to kill the frog if used as a stepping stone to reach the frog or it can be used in another quest

Snake Quest:
Snake is blocking the path – prevents player from progressing – the tiger destroyed its home so it is sleeping here

A skunk is hiding nearby due to the tiger chasing it (can show this through footprints) – the player must scare the skunk so that its smell can lure the snake away from the path

The player must go to the waterfall and enter the water so that they’re covered in seaweed – this makes the deer look mutated – like they have stripes – similar to the tiger

The player must then bark at the skunk – this scares the skunk and the snake is lured away – the skunk sees the deer and is reminded of the tiger – the player can now progress

Plant Quest:
The frog will pretend to think that the player meant the lower ledge after it gets the flies – it will then ask the player to fetch it an item – a special, one-of-a-kind flower

The player must travel to the mountains – there they will see the flower on the side of a mountain – it is unreachable

The player must then combine the sakura they have with other items in order to replicate that flower to fool the frog

The player will then return to the frog and give it the fake flower

The frog helps the player reach the highest ledge and the player gains the frog as a friend – the player moves onto the next level

Order

Below is an image of the order things will appear in:

Frog/Pond & Waterfall Area
Hidden Area Puzzle
Snake & Skunk Puzzle
Spider Puzzle
Plant Puzzle