Scott Kin Notes

Scott Kim

Puzzle makers survival kit

                                                                   |                        |

                                                                   |                        |

                                                                  \/                       \/

Fun                  Solvable

Ø  Challenge

Ø  Distraction

Action Puzzle

         |

        \/

Error Recovery (players deliberately makes the puzzle more difficult to get the bonus prize but then they don’t know what to do so they temporarily fix it then they find a way).

Easy to learn - To draw the player in by making the controls simple but after increase the twitch skill so you don’t eliminate your audience (e.g. mentally challenged).

Story Puzzle – Use the puzzle to tell a story. Possibly use as decision points in the game but they have to re relevant with in the game. (About the line between story & puzzle and the link you make between them.)                                                                                |

                                                                                          \/

                                                                                      Relevant

Certain genres are more readily acceptable to story puzzles.

Competitive puzzles

They are similar to game, but in game they are more like battling an opponent.

E.g. Boggle

A	L	Z	E
S	O	Q	I
K	D	K	O
M	P	M	A

Shshvehon puzzles

    Lego – Modularity

                                                      |                         |
Too little structure       <-----------                         ---------> Too Much structure

Intensity ramping in puzzles

Different mechanisms

___________>

- - - - - - - - ->        Accelerating

   Semi linear ordering (Insert diagram)

Ordered (Insert diagram) – be careful, because you’ll get to a puzzle you can’t solve and get stuck and can’t progress.

Meta puzzles

(Insert stuff)

How should you start?

Enjoying the manipulation of the puzzle

Ø  Start them with the familiar

Ø  Specifying rules – making clear what the player can’t do.

Ø  Building up puzzles – so the player will play for a long period of time otherwise they will be baffled by the puzzle and they’ll dump it.

Ø  Simplifying the puzzle – boiling the core component of the puzzle, making it easy so you know what you’re doing. (Getting the car out of the car park).

Ø  Editor – Puzzle must have the same assets each level and can be easily edited and tweaked each step easily.

Ø   

Ø  Sub rules for level editing – Level Design

Ø  Start with a bang

Ø  Teach techniques –you teach through intensity

Ø  Paint a picture

Ø  Develop a theme