books

[seguso]

I only know Paul Sloane's lateral thinking puzzle books, and Smullyan's pure logic puzzles books. Both are very amusing, however only 5% of the puzzles from each book would be usable in a game.

[Radiant]

Smullyan rocks! However, most of his puzzles are far too difficult to use in adventure games. Note though that KQ2 uses a simple variation thereof, with the lion puzzle.
I'm afraid that most puzzle books are too abstract.

[DragonRose]

There's "The Fantastic Book of Logic Puzzles" that shipped with The Castle of Doctor Brain oh so many years ago.  It took a bunch of the old standards of logic puzzles and put them into science fiction and fantasy settings. I enjoyed that book very much, but I know all the answers now so it's not so much fun.

However, I would strongly advise against using puzzles you found in a book in an adventure game, which seems to be what you're proposing. If it isn't, please ignore this. There's nothing here but pretty flowers.

First- if someone has read the same puzzle book as you, they're going to be pretty ticked off to see the same puzzle in the game. Solving a puzzle you'e solved before is boring. How many times have you had to slide a newspaper under the door to knock the key in the lock onto it?  And how many times have you enjoyed it?

Second- copying a puzzle will seem really artificial.  Has it ever made sense to meet two people, where one always tells the truth and the other one always lies? No, but it's often thrown in to a game or story, and it does nothing but destroy the flow of the narrative. Puzzles will grow naturally out of the story.

First- you're copying someone else's idea.  If you aren't going to use your own ideas, you might as well do a fan-remake.

[TerranRich]

w00t! I have three of Sloane's lateral thinking books, and yes some of the puzzles are indeed translatable to adventure games, for example the puzzle about how to get a truck out that's stuck under an overpass.

Spoiler

Deflate its tires, then move it out.

[close]