Grimrock

A while back I decided I would come up with a new puzzle every day and write it down. This way I'll have a lot of puzzles ready for the level set I'm planning on making once the editor is out. Sometimes I come up with multiple puzzles on a given day. So far I've got 34 puzzle ideas. I'll keep adding more and more puzzles to the list until the editor is released, and perhaps even beyond. Since not all puzzles may even be possible, I'm thinking as many as possible can only be a good thing. If I end up with spares I can always use them in another dungeon.

So far I've got 34 puzzle ideas.

That's awesome! Once the editor is released and you start coding them, perhaps you can add some of those to the grimrock wiki so others can learn from you and expand on it by adding more puzzles?

Kevin

Ixnatifual wrote:A while back I decided I would come up with a new puzzle every day and write it down. This way I'll have a lot of puzzles ready for the level set I'm planning on making once the editor is out. Sometimes I come up with multiple puzzles on a given day. So far I've got 34 puzzle ideas. I'll keep adding more and more puzzles to the list until the editor is released, and perhaps even beyond. Since not all puzzles may even be possible, I'm thinking as many as possible can only be a good thing. If I end up with spares I can always use them in another dungeon.

Here is a puzzle... Unlike LoG where there is only going down. (except for a few secrets making you go up) How about going through a floor multiple times? For example... 3 floors. Start on floor 1, and can only explore 10% of the map before hitting a locked door, and stairs to floor 2. Go to floor 2. Explore 10% of the map, and at the end, go back up to floor 1. Explore and find a switch, that opens the locked door found before going to floor 2. Go there, explore even more of Floor 1 before going back down to floor 2 in a new area of the map.

This is what I want to see. Not just going down and down 1 floor at a time. I want big huge maps where you can go down AND up multiple floors. Hitting a switch won't activate a door on a different floor. But if you can go to the floor through 2-3 different ways to different areas. A switch in one area, can unlock a door in another, making you backtrack and prove puzzles to be more fun and awesome.

Jirodyne wrote:Here is a puzzle... Unlike LoG where there is only going down. (except for a few secrets making you go up) How about going through a floor multiple times? For example... 3 floors. Start on floor 1, and can only explore 10% of the map before hitting a locked door, and stairs to floor 2. Go to floor 2. Explore 10% of the map, and at the end, go back up to floor 1. Explore and find a switch, that opens the locked door found before going to floor 2. Go there, explore even more of Floor 1 before going back down to floor 2 in a new area of the map.

I love it! (But most people don't.)
In practice if you go down multiple floors and click several switches along the way (that don't seem to do anything) most would probably not want to return several floors up to check. I went all the way back to the start several times during my play through, but I doubt that most players did.

If you had this kind of puzzle, it should come with notes that explain the parts of it or that send the party walking towards the right area by mentioning landmark (rooms) that they would have passed through and recognize.

When i wrote about the horrors of alpha & beta testing, i aimed at people of average and below patience, endurance and maybe a good lack of general understanding.
It was not aimed at the dedicated individuals in this forum.
But most gamers are not part of the latter - today, they are normally an ungrateful, impatient lot.
Hell, i hex-patched my way through BTCS and broke it a thousand times - It was frustrating but also awesome to do so, because i like to tinker with such things and if it doesn't work like intended, i don't jump butt-first into the face of the next developer.

What i experience more & more is that growing impatience especially in younger gamers. If you want an overdose of it, head over to moddb.com. Not all of them are trolls.

I myself would have happily helped with testing if i had the time for it.
Well, then - i hope to have the time to do things with Grimrock i couldn't do with BTCS.

Isaac wrote:

Jirodyne wrote:Here is a puzzle... Unlike LoG where there is only going down. (except for a few secrets making you go up) How about going through a floor multiple times? For example... 3 floors. Start on floor 1, and can only explore 10% of the map before hitting a locked door, and stairs to floor 2. Go to floor 2. Explore 10% of the map, and at the end, go back up to floor 1. Explore and find a switch, that opens the locked door found before going to floor 2. Go there, explore even more of Floor 1 before going back down to floor 2 in a new area of the map.

I love it! (But most people don't.)
In practice if you go down multiple floors and click several switches along the way (that don't seem to do anything) most would probably not want to return several floors up to check. I went all the way back to the start several times during my play through, but I doubt that most players did.

If you had this kind of puzzle, it should come with notes that explain the parts of it or that send the party walking towards the right area by mentioning landmark (rooms) that they would have passed through and recognize.

EOB1 was like that for most of levels 7-9 (All the ones with the Drow wallset), and I loved that part. It felt so maze-y!

I think one of the good things about the Dungeon Editor is it'll be possible to make different dungeons for various different groups of people. Some dungeons will be mostly combat others may be mostly puzzles, some will be about exploring huge labyrinthine tunnels, and I reckon all of them will be cool!

Everything for everyone.

Daniel.

Jirodyne wrote:

Ixnatifual wrote:A while back I decided I would come up with a new puzzle every day and write it down. This way I'll have a lot of puzzles ready for the level set I'm planning on making once the editor is out. Sometimes I come up with multiple puzzles on a given day. So far I've got 34 puzzle ideas. I'll keep adding more and more puzzles to the list until the editor is released, and perhaps even beyond. Since not all puzzles may even be possible, I'm thinking as many as possible can only be a good thing. If I end up with spares I can always use them in another dungeon.

Here is a puzzle... Unlike LoG where there is only going down. (except for a few secrets making you go up) How about going through a floor multiple times? For example... 3 floors. Start on floor 1, and can only explore 10% of the map before hitting a locked door, and stairs to floor 2. Go to floor 2. Explore 10% of the map, and at the end, go back up to floor 1. Explore and find a switch, that opens the locked door found before going to floor 2. Go there, explore even more of Floor 1 before going back down to floor 2 in a new area of the map.

This is what I want to see. Not just going down and down 1 floor at a time. I want big huge maps where you can go down AND up multiple floors. Hitting a switch won't activate a door on a different floor. But if you can go to the floor through 2-3 different ways to different areas. A switch in one area, can unlock a door in another, making you backtrack and prove puzzles to be more fun and awesome.

I think these are all great ideas. I've used similar stuff in my D&D campaigns.
Fun and twisted, but entertaining for all.

Treybor wrote:I think these are all great ideas. I've used similar stuff in my D&D campaigns. Fun and twisted, but entertaining for all.

If maps can only be so big, and you can only have so many of them, going back and unlocking new area's in old maps is a nice way to get the most out of the size of every map, and make the game longer even with limited number of floors.

Jirodyne wrote: If maps can only be so big, and you can only have so many of them, going back and unlocking new area's in old maps is a nice way to get the most out of the size of every map, and make the game longer even with limited number of floors.

Heh I wonder how long it would take to make a fan dungeon as big and intricate as the Almost Human original? If fans make dungeons even a fifth or tenth as large I would be impressed!

Daniel.