Level Up.pdf

350 LEVEL 12 The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics
as a non - player character to gain entry into a location. In order to create the
disguise, the player had to stick tape over a hole in a fence that a cat
passed through. The cat ’ s back would rub against the tape and hair would
stick to the tape which the player would use to create a mustache disguise.
However, the non - player character that the player was disguising
themselves as DIDN ’ T EVEN HAVE A MUSTACHE!! My very important
motto for creating puzzles has since become:
NO CAT MUSTACHES
In other words, don ’ t be so damn clever. If you have created a Rube
Goldberg style12 solution to your puzzle, then you ’ ve overthought it and it
needs to be simplified. The conflict isn ’ t “ game designer vs player ” but
“ player vs puzzle. ” So check your ego at the door and do what ’ s right for
the player and the game.
Of course, up to now, we ’ ve been talking about puzzles that you find in
story- based games. But there are plenty of other puzzle - based games:
• Dexterity- based action puzzles like Bejeweled or Puzzle Quest
• Observation puzzles like the Mystery Case Files games
• Pure puzzles like Sudoku or crosswords
• Knowledge puzzles like Buzz! or You Don ’ t Know Jack.
When creating trivia and knowledge puzzles, don ’ t assume everyone knows
what you do. Keep your questions short and clear. Do your research and
determine what kind of questions your audience would want to answer.
Make sure you have a wide range of difficulty from simple to obscure, but
mostly simple. Write lots of questions. Knowledge games cease to be fun
the minute you have answered all of the questions.
There are many different ways a player can answer a question. Which one is
right for your game?
Multiple choice: give players a range of choices — at least three. Create
“ close answers, ” with answers that are similar to the real answer or ones
that could be easily confused with the real answer. Remember to change
things up by allowing the player to select the wrong answer from a group of
correct ones.
Find the object/image: the player must hunt for the answer among a
variety of images or objects. Don ’ t make the hunt be pixel perfect, allow for
12 Rube Goldberg was a newspaper cartoonist who drew very complex and amusing
contraptions to do very simple things. The famous board game “ Mouse Trap ” is unofficially
based on his cartoons.