Puzzle/escape mechanics

[fleskesvor]

We should think of at least a couple of puzzle mechanics that the player will work on while keeping the villain occupied. Since we're short on time and few of us have experience with game design, they should be fairly simplistic.

Room escape and hidden object games often have these very simple mini games that we perhaps can use for inspiration.

[JenniBee]

I was thinking about the first puzzle, to keep it simple, and a way to link it with the dialog.

The skeleton code right now simply has a sprite walking around a room, and shows the ability to go behind objects, as well as the lighting capabilities of the engine - and the adventure game standard of displaying an object's name when you hover over it, and a description when you click on it.

The player character (Lemming Woman), should be tied up (at least at first), so the walking code won't be there on first run. Feddlefew suggested the villain - Frontiersman - and one trap - a mechanized Paul Bunion.

To start, we could have Frontiersman telling his evil plan to Lemming Woman, who is tied in a chair. The solution to the puzzle could be clicking on the chair, which causes it to fall over. Once she's fallen over, she antagonizes the mechanized Paul Bunion via a dialog choice, and it lowers its axe and cuts her free. If you antagonize the robot before you're on the ground, you get chopped up instead, and lose. If you antagonize Frontiersman for too long, or take too long to respond, he tells the robot to lower his axe (if you're on the ground, this can work to your advantage, but if you hadn't yet clicked the chair, you get chopped).

This would serve as a a good introduction to the game mechanics. It would also allow us to free up Lemming Woman to have some more involved puzzles where she is free of the chair, but still stuck in the overall trap in the room (and allow us to use the skeleton code's ability to walk around freely).

It could also allow us to have a fully completable short game - as we could end it there once it's coded in. Then every time we come up with a new puzzle, we can extend it, then end it there. That way, no matter where we are - we should have a completable game - and extend the scope organically while we have time.

[JenniBee]

We had an interesting discussion about puzzles, and scope. It's expanding beyond what I had originally envisioned - but it's actually doing so in an organic way - so we'll still be able to end it after each puzzle so we still will have a completable build at every point once the first puzzle is rigged up.

There were some interesting points brought up, so I'll post the chat log here:

22:00 Feddlefew Maybe multiple, increasingly bigger mecha paul bunions? 22:01 Jenni I was thinking of using mecha Paul Bunion as a beginning puzzle - to get people used to the mechanics 22:05 Cheeseness I'm excited to see where things end up. This is going in a different direction to where my instincts would have taken it 22:06 Jenni The platform above the floor on the right is where I plan on putting Frontiersman - where he can command his mecha army out of reach of Lemming Woman 22:06 Jenni :D 22:08 Feddlefew If we do tourist trap stuff we need to have a giant round object on a ramp chasing the protagonist down hill. 22:08 Feddlefew Like a rubber band ball. 22:08 Cheeseness :) 22:09 Feddlefew Or we could subvert the indian jones boulder and just have the protagonist side step it. 22:11 Jenni I'm planning on building this incrementally as we go on to keep the scale reasonable (so we can have a playable game at any point) - so it will end after the first puzzle, but then once we add the second, it can end after that, then the third, etc. 22:14 Jenni If we did want to go the route of the Indiana Jones boulder - we could have Mecha Bunian break a hole through a wall, and then have the rubber band ball come through a hole in the next room, and have the ball come through a hole, where she has to figure out how to avoid it (the sidestep idea sounds like a good plan) 22:15 Jenni then we could have that boulder break a hole through that wall, and we can go to another room with another puzzle. We could expand our scope out literally as we go on. 22:15 Feddlefew Rubber band balls are bouncy. 22:15 Cheeseness I feel like the villain probably shouldn't be present in person, otherwise they'll effectively be following the player around as they work through rooms 22:16 Cheeseness It'd be better to have them being a voice over, and maybe present on monitors? 22:16 Jenni ah, yeah - if we do go out to more than one room - that would be best 22:16 Feddlefew Give Mecha Paul Bunion a little speaker mouth and have him follower her around> 22:16 Feddlefew ? 22:17 Jenni a monitor in each room could be fun - or maybe a monitor in some - but a speaker and camera in every room 22:17 Jenni that way you know Frontiersman is always keeping an eye on things 22:20 Cheeseness Yeah 22:23 Jenni Mecha Bunian could leave in shame after the early puzzle, then come back in more ridiculous ways at different points as the game goes on 22:23 Feddlefew Oooo 22:23 Cheeseness With upgrades? 22:24 Cheeseness A-la Monkey Island's more and more effectively locked door? 22:24 Feddlefew Embiggen MPB? y/n 22:25 Feddlefew My mom has suggested that the rubber band ball should roll down a long ramp at high speeds, and then bounce back up the ramp, BTW. 22:25 Feddlefew If we used the rubber band ball. 22:26 Jenni heh, that could actually be used for humor too - Lemming Woman sidesteps the ball, just as Mecha Bunian comes back for round 2. The ball bounces back up the ramp, and hits Mecha Bunian - and he breaks a hole in the wall to freedom again 22:28 Jenni well, in this case, freedom = puzzle #3 22:28 Feddlefew What's puzzle number one? 22:29 Feddlefew Escape chair? 22:29 Jenni yeah - basically to insult Mecha Bunian at the right time 22:29 Cheeseness I kinda like the buzzsaw conveyor belt thing - that sets some stakes from the outset 22:30 Jenni you need to click on the chair - then interact with Mecha Bunian when you're on the floor 22:30 Jenni if you do it at the right time, he'll accidentally cut you free - if you don't he slices you and it's over 22:30 Feddlefew (I was thinking descending buzzsaw). 22:31 Jenni that way an easy puzzle like that would let the player get used to the game mechanics 22:31 Jenni and we could go hog wild after that 22:32 Jenni that puzzle would get players used to both the dialog tree, dialog branches (addressing Bunian instead of Frontiersman), and clicking on objects 22:33 Jenni flesk also suggested a timer for the dialog with Frontiersman's monologuing - and I was thinking of doing it organically rather than with a physical timer like the kind Telltale uses 22:34 Jenni to have Frontiersman know he's tiring of you if you wait to long through dialog, and then if you wait again after that, he commands Bunian to lower the axe 22:35 Jenni and it could actually benefit you depending on where you are. If you're on the ground, you'll get free - just as you would if you antagonized Bunian, but if you are still in the chair you die 22:37 Feddlefew So, what is the Frontiersman's plot? Gather more tourists and attractions for the tourist trap? 22:37 Cheeseness My instincts would have been to have the world at stake 22:38 Jenni He could do both - plan to hypnotize all of the world via satellite, so they are compelled to visit his deadly tourist trap. 22:39 Feddlefew Only the cheesiest hypno commercials for the Fronteirsman's evil plot! 22:40 Jenni like Telltale's Hell Inc ad for Sam & Max 22:40 Cheeseness Back in a bit 22:41 Feddlefew Maybe? 22:43 Feddlefew We could draw inspiration from our own hilariously cheesy local ads. Like the ones obviously made with a consumer grade video camera and someone who barely knows how to use video editing software. 22:47 Jenni complete with awkward pauses and jerky motions towards signage 22:48 Feddlefew And a dog with a persons lips crudly image-shopped over it. 22:52 Feddlefew Do you have any ideas for what the Frontiersman looks like yet? 22:52 Jenni I'm thinking Disney Davy crockett like 22:53 Jenni with a coonskin hat, and a vest with tassles (like Marty's costume in Back to the Future Part III) 22:53 Feddlefew Lol 22:53 Jenni and big, garish cowboy boots 22:53 * Feddlefew left #DFAF 22:53 * Feddlefew joined #DFAF 22:53 +++ ChanServ has given admin to Feddlefew 22:53 +++ ChanServ has given op to Feddlefew 22:53 Feddlefew Sorry, closed the wrong windo. 22:54 Feddlefew He should be really short. 22:54 Jenni heh - that'd be funny - Conroy Bumpus-like 22:55 Jenni thinks he's a bigger celebrity than he is 22:56 Feddlefew Needs a step stool to get onto the obligatory evil chair. 22:56 Feddlefew (The tackiest cowhide chair possible) 22:56 Jenni and his big cowboy boots cover his entire legs ^_^ 22:57 Feddlefew He also needs an abundance of gold-plated stuff. 22:59 Feddlefew I think the evil chair should be a wingback rocking chair covered in cowhide and brass studs. 22:59 Feddlefew Maybe with a leather tassel fringe. 23:00 Feddlefew (I am looking at pictures of really ugly chairs) 23:00 Jenni maybe like the redneck cowboy version of the throne in Game of Thrones? 23:01 Feddlefew Mom suggests longhorn horns coming off the top. 23:01 Jenni hah - yeah - we actually had a steak house here in the 1980s that had decorations like that 23:02 Feddlefew "And the rivets are made of spent bulits", she says. 23:03 Jenni and maybe the armrest is made from shotgun parts? 23:03 Feddlefew Lol 23:03 Jenni this is certainly going to be fun to make a concept from 23:05 Feddlefew http://rusticartistry.com/product/cowhide-rocker/ 23:05 Feddlefew ^Like that as the base. 23:05 Feddlefew But then he added a bunch of other stuff in an attempt to make it "better". Cheeseness I feel like we should probably be looking at puzzle dependency charts and general pacing/structure stuff soon too 23:17 Jenni Yeah. It's growing into a different beast than I imagined - but it should be fun 23:17 Feddlefew Night. 23:18 Jenni We'll definitely need to keep an eye on pacing and structure though - to make sure we don't get feature creep 23:18 Feddlefew I'll try freewriting a rant later tonight. 23:19 Jenni ah, good - if you can get an intro rant of some sort up, I can see if I can get the dialog up for the first room puzzle 23:19 Jenni as well as a monitor to introduce the villain 23:19 Cheeseness Jenni: Did you play Above The Waves? 23:20 Feddlefew It should stay pretty linear- like, if we have multiple endings it should probably be based on if you spent more time interacting with MPB or The Frontiersman, or were very, very fast at solving the puzzles so he didn't even really tell you his plan. 23:20 Jenni I don't think I tried that one yet (enjoyed your postcard art though) 23:21 Cheeseness I did cutscenes as a series of still images in that. I was thinking that that might be doable for this project as well (although with nice Ken Burnes style pan/zoom effects?) 23:21 Cheeseness Beats trying to animate anything 23:21 Cheeseness :) 23:21 Jenni I was thinking maybe Beneath a Steel Sky style comic strips for the story 23:22 Cheeseness Could work 23:22 Feddlefew Animating is a huge time sink. 23:23 Jenni I love it though 23:23 Jenni but definitely need to keep the scope light on this project

[JenniBee]

Now that Feddlefew contributed the majority of the dialog for the first room, I've been able to make a puzzle dependency chart for the first room. Most of the dialog is there now, as is most of the framework. We're about 80% done with the first room now. :D

[reidhcooper]

I feel so bad for missing out on this but just as I thought I'd have time to participate, real life got in the way.

[Cheeseness]

No need to feel bad! There's still plenty more work to do for anybody who's enthused :)

[JenniBee]

Plus, I plugged in the bit that you wrote in the Double Fine forum chat into the bad ending, so you did get a chance to participate, as your writing did make it into the game. :D