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LOOKING FOR SOME DUNGEON PUZZLE IDEAS...
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UPRC
5516
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CloseNo idea where else to post this! Figure it fits the design aspect and such.
Anyway, I'm trying to spiff up with my game's dungeons a bit more. Most of them are just standard dungeon crawls with a boss at the end, but I'm aiming to have a puzzle in about ever third dungeon or so.
So I'm kind of... stuck on two dungeons. I was wondering what you folks would personally find fun for these two places.
1. Library: Lots of books. Lots and lots and lots. I'm trying to think of a good book themed puzzle, but I am drawing blanks.
2. Sewers: I'm doing this dungeon as I type this. It will generally be pretty straight forward since it's just sewers, but I'd like to add something in so it's not just a "point A to B" dungeon. What would work in a sewer dungeon? I was thinking something with levees or gears?
I'm asking you because I want to see what you folks would deem as fun.
Anyway, I'm trying to spiff up with my game's dungeons a bit more. Most of them are just standard dungeon crawls with a boss at the end, but I'm aiming to have a puzzle in about ever third dungeon or so.
So I'm kind of... stuck on two dungeons. I was wondering what you folks would personally find fun for these two places.
1. Library: Lots of books. Lots and lots and lots. I'm trying to think of a good book themed puzzle, but I am drawing blanks.
2. Sewers: I'm doing this dungeon as I type this. It will generally be pretty straight forward since it's just sewers, but I'd like to add something in so it's not just a "point A to B" dungeon. What would work in a sewer dungeon? I was thinking something with levees or gears?
I'm asking you because I want to see what you folks would deem as fun.
DBAce9Aura
52
I've got a couple of good ones:
Library: Try doing the book puzzle from Kingdom Hearts, albeit making the solution not so obvious.
Sewers: Now there's some potential labyrinth style exploration right there. Toxic fumes for traps (which damage you), switches to control the flow of water, tunnels leading to potential secret areas, and so on.
Library: Try doing the book puzzle from Kingdom Hearts, albeit making the solution not so obvious.
Sewers: Now there's some potential labyrinth style exploration right there. Toxic fumes for traps (which damage you), switches to control the flow of water, tunnels leading to potential secret areas, and so on.
prexus
309
A sluice gate concept for the sewers might work (levers controlling gates that stop water from flowing into other areas, allowing progression and secret finding.)
Another alternative is a theme that effects combat in some way. I'm not sure what combat system you are using, or what kind of encounter system you are using.
If it is random encounters, you could have a status ailment that you get if you stay in the sewers for too long that always causes the enemy to get a pre-emptive strike (some sort of sickness or illness)
If its touch encounters, you could make them invisible and instead use a fog that scrolls around the screen that somehow indicates when you might be in for an encounter.
If it's an ABS, again an illness or ailment that in some way changes you controls or disorients you.
You could also have things flowing down the water in the sewers, mostly junk (boxes, unmentionables, etc.) but occasionally have an item floating down, which if you follow will stop somewhere for you to grab, or perhaps have a gate that when you close will catch the item for you to collect.
Or you could have pipes that stick out over the pathways you walk, which occasionally spew out something (which could be announced by a flushing sound, or sudden rushing water) which could do damage, or cause a status ailment, or something if you get hit by it. Perhaps slow your walking speed, or attract a particularly nasty combat encounter.
Libraries are boring. You could hide clues to a riddle in books, you could have certain books that have magical incantations that do certain things (if this is a library that has anything to do with magic.)
You could have shifting bookcases, which are triggered by levers, if the library is laid out like a labyrinth.
Another alternative is a theme that effects combat in some way. I'm not sure what combat system you are using, or what kind of encounter system you are using.
If it is random encounters, you could have a status ailment that you get if you stay in the sewers for too long that always causes the enemy to get a pre-emptive strike (some sort of sickness or illness)
If its touch encounters, you could make them invisible and instead use a fog that scrolls around the screen that somehow indicates when you might be in for an encounter.
If it's an ABS, again an illness or ailment that in some way changes you controls or disorients you.
You could also have things flowing down the water in the sewers, mostly junk (boxes, unmentionables, etc.) but occasionally have an item floating down, which if you follow will stop somewhere for you to grab, or perhaps have a gate that when you close will catch the item for you to collect.
Or you could have pipes that stick out over the pathways you walk, which occasionally spew out something (which could be announced by a flushing sound, or sudden rushing water) which could do damage, or cause a status ailment, or something if you get hit by it. Perhaps slow your walking speed, or attract a particularly nasty combat encounter.
Libraries are boring. You could hide clues to a riddle in books, you could have certain books that have magical incantations that do certain things (if this is a library that has anything to do with magic.)
You could have shifting bookcases, which are triggered by levers, if the library is laid out like a labyrinth.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Libraries are good excuses for riddles, rather than traditional puzzles. Just don't make your riddles too hard, especially if the player can't continue the game without solving them. Riddles can be extremely different difficulties for different people so I've learned the hard way that even stuff as simple as "Water summons wind, wind makes fire burn" probably needs to be optional, unless your game is full of progressively harder riddles so that the player gets used to the way you tell them.
FF5's first library had moving bookshelves, and demon-posessed books that could inexplicably control the shelves after they were defeated. FF5's other library had a scholar who opened a door for you after you alphabetized some books.
Wild ARMs's first library had several heights, and ladders you could push around, along with an insane number of readable books and some magically sealed doors that required you to read all the books so you could answer some plot-important questions. (It was their awful way of making 20 minutes of meaningless lore mandatory instead of optional. I don't mind mythology in spurts, but please don't make me read, and in fact study, your shitty world-creation mythos and ancient history for the better part of half an hour.) Wild ARMs's other forty-five libraries ranged from rotating walls/bookcases, to elevator riddles, to magical teleporters, to hidden dimensions inside of books, to force fields, to corridors filled with Temple of Doom style traps, to block puzzles upon block puzzles upon block puzzles. Every damn dungeon in that game was either a cave or a library, I swear to God.
FF5's first library had moving bookshelves, and demon-posessed books that could inexplicably control the shelves after they were defeated. FF5's other library had a scholar who opened a door for you after you alphabetized some books.
Wild ARMs's first library had several heights, and ladders you could push around, along with an insane number of readable books and some magically sealed doors that required you to read all the books so you could answer some plot-important questions. (It was their awful way of making 20 minutes of meaningless lore mandatory instead of optional. I don't mind mythology in spurts, but please don't make me read, and in fact study, your shitty world-creation mythos and ancient history for the better part of half an hour.) Wild ARMs's other forty-five libraries ranged from rotating walls/bookcases, to elevator riddles, to magical teleporters, to hidden dimensions inside of books, to force fields, to corridors filled with Temple of Doom style traps, to block puzzles upon block puzzles upon block puzzles. Every damn dungeon in that game was either a cave or a library, I swear to God.
EnderX
562
1) What is your theme to the library? Is it a modern-style 'library', with actual librarians holding checkout mechanisms? Is it a 'library of the ancients', with ponderous tomes of hidden and forbidden lore? Is it, perhaps, a museum, as many ancient 'libraries' actually were?
2) What is the purpose of the library? Is it a waypoint (must pass through to advance), a repository (must obtain item to advance), or a side area?
Worst case scenario, toss 'em a cartload of books, and have them sort the whole thing by Dewey order for the librarian to hand them their next clue.
2) What is the purpose of the library? Is it a waypoint (must pass through to advance), a repository (must obtain item to advance), or a side area?
Worst case scenario, toss 'em a cartload of books, and have them sort the whole thing by Dewey order for the librarian to hand them their next clue.
Well in my game I'm doing, I'm doing a big series of puzzles inside ancient ruins. Basically, when you go in, there is this ancient monster standing in-front of 3 designs that are on the floor behind him. He explains that they are portals. To get through the Ruins, you'd have to activate all 3 designs/ symbols. Light them up. He gives you a spell, to use the portal with the symbol for daylight. The puzzles inside this area all focus around light based subjects. For one, there is a guy in this room that explains that he must locate a small difference in the long bookshelves and then read the passages from the book inside that one, then go to the gate and reply to a series of questions. This takes you to more places in the Daylight realm. There is Daylight, Dusk and Night Portals.
I'm just saying this, as you can always base your puzzles on subjects such as how I chose to do mine.
I'm just saying this, as you can always base your puzzles on subjects such as how I chose to do mine.
Pokemaniac
3559
Based on what LockeZ said about worlds inside books, you could have a thing like in some cartoons, where you kind of "hop" from story to story and play through a little tidbit of the story. It'd be a good way to jam a whole heap of different area types into your game, and if you had any significant history it certainly wouldn't be a bad way to hear about it.
Murmillo
0
author=Pokemaniac
Based on what LockeZ said about worlds inside books, you could have a thing like in some cartoons, where you kind of "hop" from story to story and play through a little tidbit of the story. It'd be a good way to jam a whole heap of different area types into your game, and if you had any significant history it certainly wouldn't be a bad way to hear about it.
That sounds like fun! Each level could have a different graphic and sound design.
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