Articles

‘Puzzles are the
lifeblood of an adventure game’ so someone said, at some time
or another. Unfortunately, I do not remember whom or even where, or
even when! Personally, I think that quote is something of an overstatement
however, especially when taken literally because adventure games can
and do contain more than puzzles. However, it does remind us that
the puzzles are nonetheless important to an adventure game, even if
they are not all important. And puzzles are something that our game
Baron Wittard has in abundance. Lots of puzzles: all shapes, sizes,
colours, flavours and difficulties. Wittard features some short and
self-contained brain teaser puzzles, it features some large and complex
machinery to operate and decipher, and it features all manner of cryptic
clues to decode and interpret.

But just as the puzzles
form a large part of what makes the game so challenging and enticing
for the gamer, they also make the development process a challenge
and a puzzle for the developer. But unfortunately for the developer,
it is a puzzle for which there is no walkthrough. In creating the
puzzles for Baron Wittard, we had to decide not only what kind of
puzzles we wanted to create, but how they were to be presented to
the gamer, whether or not there should be one or another type of clue
available for them, whether or not the difficulty was appropriate.

And how is a developer
to respond when its beta-testers are divided into two groups over
a dispute about the difficulty of a single puzzle, one group thinking
it is far too difficult and another thinking that it is far too easy?
It is something of a puzzle indeed, and I would like to share with
you a part of the solution that we found for creating the puzzles
for Baron Wittard.

Creating Puzzles and
Learning from the Puzzle Masters

I mentioned in the previous
entry of our development diary that the development of Baron Wittard
was inspired by both the Shivers and Myst series. The style of these
two games is present in Baron Wittard insofar as it allows the player
to explore the deepest and darkness recesses of the game world. The
gamer is, in fact, from the outset of the game, at liberty to explore
as much of the game world as his or her puzzle solving skills will
allow. However, it is in the area of puzzles that I neglected in our
previous diary to mention a third game series that has had a significant
impact on Baron Wittard. That series is the 7th Guest series, and
it consists of two famous games: The 7th Guest and its sequel the
11th Hour. These games were particularly notable for their difficult
and brain-teaser style puzzles, some of which I remember playing for
hours.

There was something about
the style of the puzzles in all three of these game series that we
loved and that we wanted to take with us in creating Baron Wittard.
For this reason, Baron Wittard represents something of a blend between
all these puzzle styles, and I am pleased with the results. We tried
to take the best things about the puzzles in all three games and merge
them together into a coherent whole. Solving them too can feel very
satisfying for the gamer, and I have had beta testers frequently mail
me to mention the sense of achievement that they felt after completing
some difficult puzzle in the game, or after discovering how to enter
some new region of the Utopia. It has been our intention to inspire
the player with a feel-good factor and a sense of anticipation when
completing the puzzles, and there is a range of ways in which this
was achieved. Completing some puzzles will unlock a new region of
the Utopia, ripe for exploration and interaction. For example, we
have one puzzle in which the gamer must operate the controls to a
device in order to create an opening or pathway to a new and second
region of the Utopia that has been completely inaccessible since its
opening. On the other hand, we have puzzles which, when solved, do
not open new regions but in some way change the existing regions or
unravel a new secret or plot line. Common to all these puzzles, however,
is integration with the game environment: all puzzles interact in
some way with the game world. Completing them makes sense and offers
the game a feeling of accomplishment and progress.

Puzzle Types and Puzzle
Difficulty

I have received emails
from some gamers who are very curious about and interested in what
the puzzles are like in Baron Wittard. What kinds of puzzles are they?
Are they easy or difficult? Most of these gamers have requested that
I create for them some difficult puzzles, since they felt disappointed
that many contemporary adventure games were too easy for them. I would
like to say something in answer to both of these questions.

To me, adventure games
have generally featured three kinds of puzzles: inventory-based puzzles,
object manipulation puzzles, and brain teaser puzzles. These terms
are not necessarily industry standard or established terms. I use
them only for the purposes of illustration. The inventory-based puzzles
are the kind in which the main character maintains an inventory of
collected items and uses those items in combination with the game
environment to make progress in the game. These include puzzles such
as: Use key on door, use hammer on nail, and use custard pie with
face. Many gamers might be pleased to hear that Baron Wittard does
not contain any of these kinds of puzzles; it was our decision from
the outset to avoid inventory-based puzzles. Not because we disliked
them per se, but because we wanted to focus on the other two kinds
and to see what interesting results we could produce without relying
on an inventory.

The second kind is the
object manipulation style, which is frequently found in the Myst series,
and also occurs frequently in Baron Wittard. These puzzles do not
require the player to collect items, but require the player to decipher
how ancient machines work; how to operate strange and alien devices,
and how to interpret and read diagrams or journals so as to get things
done. For example, after journeying their way through part of the
Utopia, players will finally reach the roof area where they will need
to determine how to operate a rotating bridge. The point of this will
be to rotate the bridge so as to cross to the other side and explore
what dangers wait there.

The third kind of puzzle
that we have in Baron Wittard is the 7th Guest-style Brain Teasers,
which are usually classic or modern logic-puzzles. The beauty of these
puzzles is that they are self-contained, such as the famous eight
queens puzzle in which the gamer must fit eight queens onto a chess
board, and no two pieces can be in the same column, row or diagonal.
With these, the player encounters the puzzle, decides what needs to
be done, and the challenge is in reaching the correct solution. Players
already have everything with them that they need to solve the puzzle:
they have minds, and the determination to succeed.

Making Puzzles

Though some of the puzzles
that are used in Baron Wittard are classic puzzles, we had to make
sure the graphic design of every puzzle was unique. And the puzzles
also had to blend in with the environment. For some puzzles this was
quite easy, but other puzzles posed more of a challenge. For each
puzzle we picked a theme that was suitable for the location in which
the puzzle was placed. Some puzzles had to blend with the building’s
electrical system, others were supposed to be door locks, and others
had different purposes. After deciding where each puzzle would be
placed, we searched for reference pictures for inspiration.

After designing the graphics
and coding the puzzle we started to look for sounds to complete the
final design. Getting the sounds just right was a difficult process,
but very important. The sounds of sliding parts and buzzing electricity
made the puzzles really come to life.

In short, Baron Wittard
contains what many beta testers have called a charming blend of object
manipulation and brain-teasing, and it is a blend of which I am proud.
As to the difficulty of this blend, this no doubt varies from gamer
to gamer. But I think those gamers who have emailed me for a challenge
will not be disappointed with what I have created for them.

I hope you have enjoyed
this second entry of the developer diary. The next and final entry
focuses on the exploration involved in playing Baron Wittard.

Part
1