Puzzle-Making Practice: "Cross the River" (result)

[RootBound]

Welcome to another installment of puzzle-making practice, where you decide the solution!

The Rules!

Participants respond to the set-up by writing entries that must do the following:
1. Use at least 3 of the provided elements (inventory, NPCs, a piece of the room like a cabinet or faucet etc.)
2. Give a step-by-step walkthrough of your puzzle solution.
3. Don't add new elements. For example, if the room is a forest, breaking a thin branch off a tree makes sense unless the host said the trees were huge and tall. But adding a hollowed-out stump with a bear sleeping in it is too specific. Assume all important elements have been mentioned by the host.
4. Keep any dialog elements summarized rather than typing out the whole conversation (for example, "threaten the mailman", "ask the child for advice", and so on, instead of giving every spoken line).

Each contest runs for two weeks to allow for a good number of entries, and then it switches to voting for one week. The participant whose solution gets the most votes gets to come up with the next scenario! (Please also provide a link to these rules). Current entries until March 20th.

Voters use the criteria of:
a) how logical the puzzle seems
b) how creative or unexpected (but still sensible) is the use of elements
c) how satisfying is the solution (Is it too simple? Way too complicated? Or just right?)

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:

CROSS THE RIVER

The Situation:
You're a volunteer disaster relief worker on your way to a rescue after a devastating flood. But you can't get there--a bridge across a river has washed away. The river has returned to normal levels but no constructed crossings remain. The current is strong and muddy, unsafe to swim.

The Goal:
Get across the river safely. Ideally with your first-aid kit intact.

What's Around You:
--The river: a raging muddy 60-foot-wide death trap.
--A wooded area with many giant piles of leaves and sticksLarge driftwood limbs, half buried in mud.
--Pieces of garbage washed up along the shore, including household goods and items you might find in a home garage, all water damaged.
--A person with a fishing pole standing in the shallows, struggling to reel something in.
--A beachcomber searching for anything valuable that's washed up, and carrying a very large backpack full of whatever he's collected.
--A gigantic alligator sunning itself on the other side of the river (the person with the fishing pole keeps eyeing it cautiously).
--One broken concrete pillar standing in the middle of the river (30 feet away), which is all that remains of the bridge, and is slightly wider at the base.
--Several ducks on the pillar base.
--What looks like a submerged car below the surface of the river, just barely on this side of the broken pillar.

What You Have:
--Your beat-up tiny sedan
--A bungee cord about ten feet long (the river is 60 feet wide)
--A large emergency flashlight
--A flare gun with two flares
--Four plastic traffic cones, which can float but not hold much weight
--A fully stocked first aid kit
--A six-pack of bottled water rations
--A handheld radioA box of matches
--A box of large trash bags
--A spare raincoat A fire extinguisher
--Your EMT training manual (you haven't finished reading it yet)
--A large empty plastic cooler

Entries accepted through June 2nd.

Good luck!

[cat]

Just to make sure: the only thing on the other side of the river is the alligator?

[RootBound]

@cat Yes, that's all I thought to put there. I sort of forgot about that part of the room.

[heltenjon]

Bump! (I almost forgot about this. Will try to come up with something.)

[cat]

I'm still stuck half-way through the river. Gotta find a way for the other half.

Edit: Just got an idea. Puzzle incoming!

[cat]

The bottle approach

Spoiler

> Use large plastic cooler with river
It floats, and could work as a boat!

> Board boat
You get into the boat. It can carry you, but the current is too strong. You barely manage to get back to the shore 100 meters down the stream. Carrying your boat, you walk back to where you started.

> Use fire extinguisher with boat
You could use this for propulsion, but you are sure it would only get you half across the river. Besides, there is still the alligator on the other side.

> Help fisher to reel in the item
It is a flip-top bottle. The fisher hands it to you and continues fishing.

> Use bottle with boat
You baptize your boat NPC (normal plastic cooler) Chris Jones, breaking the bottle.

> Open first aid kit
The kit is fully equipped with bandages, band aids, sticking plaster and scissors.

> Take scissors
> Use scissors with trash bags
You cut the trash bags into stripes

> Use trash bags with trash bags
You knot the trash bags into a long rope
An hour later, you have made a 60 feet long rope

> Use scissors with first aid kit
You put them back where they belong

> Use rain coat with first aid kit
You carefully wrap the kit in the coat to protect it from water

> Use first aid kit with NPC Chris Jones
You stow away the first aid kit in the boat

> Use bungee cord with trees
You have built a slingshot

> Use NPC Chris Jones with slingshot
No way!

> Use rope with slingshot
You can't catapult just rope.

> Help fisher to reel in the item
It is a flip-top bottle. The fisher hands it to you and continues fishing.

> Use bottle with rope
You attach the bottle to one end of the rope

> Use bottle with slingshot
You shoot the bottle as far as possible slightly upstream of the pillar

> Help fisher to reel in the item
It is your flip-top bottle, still attached to the rope. The fisher hands it to you and continues fishing.

> Use rope with tree
You tie both rope ends around the tree. You now have a rope spanned across to the pillar.

> Use NPC Chris Jones with rope
You board the boat and pull yourself over to the pillar. As you get close, the ducks fly away.

> Use fire extinguisher with NPC Chris Jones
You are now close enough to the other side. However, there is still the alligator waiting for you.

> Use NPC Chris Jones with rope
You return to the shore

> Use bottle with slingshot
You miss the duck by a few feet.

> Help fisher to reel in the item
It is a flip-top bottle. The fisher hands it to you and continues fishing.

> Use bottle with slingshot
You miss the duck by a few inches.

> Help fisher to reel in the item
It is a flip-top bottle. The fisher hands it to you and continues fishing.

> Use bottle with slingshot
You shoot a sitting duck. It was not as easy as it sounds.

> Use NPC Chris Jones with rope
You return to the pillar

> Pick up dead duck
> Use dead duck with alligator
You throw the duck into the river. The alligator chases after it, vanishing in the muddy water.

> Use fire extinguisher with NPC Chris Jones
Using the fire extinguisher, you manage to create enough impulse to bring you to the other side of the river.

[close]

[RootBound]

Anyone else want to construct a solution? I'm happy to extend the deadline. 

[RootBound]

Deadline extended through June 2nd since I'm away this weekend.

[RootBound]

Last chance to throw your hat in the ring with an ingenious (or outlandish) solution!

[heltenjon]

Last chance to throw your hat in the ring with an ingenious (or outlandish) solution!

The Cartoonish approach:

Spoiler

TALK TO MAN WITH FISHING POLE
He's Popeye!

TALK TO BEACHCOMBER
Mini-game – negotiation.
You end up selling your car for what is in his backpack.
Got BOX OF SPINACH

GIVE SPINACH TO POPEYE
He reels in a PART OF THE BRIDGE
You can now walk to the pillar base

WALK TO PILLAR BASE
INFLATE TRASH BAGS
MAKE FLOATATION DEVICES OUT OF COOLER AND TRASH BAGS
WALK ON WATER
USE FIRE EXTINGUISHER
You are propelled forwards!

The Alligator and the now angry ducks are growing hostile.
Mini-game: SHOOTING FLARE GUN TO SCARE OFF ALLIGATOR
You succeed in scaring it away. It hides in the car on the bottom of the river, and drives away to safety, cartoon style.
The floatation devices are leaking air!
Mini-game: STEP ON ANGRY DUCKS FAST ENOUGH TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE

You have made it across! Yay! But...you forgot your first aid kit and the other stuff!
You shout to the beachcomber to bring it across. He just has to
TIE CORD TO FIRST AID KIT
SWING CORD TO BUILD MOMENTUM
THROW FIRST AID KIT ACROSS THE RIVER
He successfully...hits the pillar. Why didn't you ask Popeye instead?

[close]

[RootBound]

NOW VOTING! We have two entries. Pick your favorite using the criteria and poll at the top of the thread. Voting closes on June 11. Good luck to both the entrants!

[heltenjon]

This one should be an easy win for Cat.
Feedback:

Spoiler

(I didn't read yours before submitting your own, but the only common idea seems to be using the fire extinguisher as a means of propulsion in the water.) I absolutely loved this. You made the solution an exploration of game mechanics, like repeatedly pulling up the bottle with the fishing rod. (But I believe you had water bottles in your inventory, too.) Using the bungee cord for making a giant slingshot had me go "Why didn't I think of that?", which is always a good thing. I liked the way you made use of it for connecting the rope to the pillar, too. And you had to train duck hunting before finding your aim. I think the game shows its logic through your responses, which makes up for not everything being completely doable in the real world. I praised your creativity above here, and I would absolutely be a happy player if I played this and managed to solve it. Great entry!

[close]

[cat]

@heltenjon I really like your cartoonish approach

Spoiler

It was an unexpected beginning but you consequently followed the cartoon logic. From giving spinach to Popeye to the alligator driving the car, it all makes sense! I can clearly imagine the look and feel of the game, including some wacky animations. We both have the fire extinguisher doing the same thing, but due to the different setting, it feels quite differently. The only thing I'm missing is an ACME package containing an anvil.

[close]

[RootBound]

Well, with a mere 3 votes (I didn't vote since it was my theme), it seems the winner is @cat !

I don't know if people have simply lost interest in the contest or if recent themes have been less interesting or too difficult for some reason. Maybe the novelty of a new contest has simply worn off.

In any case, I think it's worth considering what makes some setups more attractive than others when it comes to people thinking it will be fun to propose a solution. Comments and discussion here would be welcome.

[cat]

I was also wondering about the decline of activity. But it seems to happen to all activities in the recent year(s). Except for MAGS, which is rather active at the moment, there is only the writing competition. And this is also mostly running because of a dedicated group of people, doing their thing, with sometimes an "external" person joining.

This time, the difficulty for me was that there was nothing on the other side of the river where you could possibly connect something to make a bridge or similar. Other than that, I found the scenario perfectly fine.

Maybe people are intimidated by the complex puzzle chains of other participants? In the sense, if you don't use all (or at least a lot of the items), you don't have a chance to win? Maybe we should encourage people to also come up with simpler but more solutions?

I'll ping people who have participated before:
@Creamy @The Great Underground Empire @Kastchey what do you think?

[Laura Hunt]

I don't know if people have simply lost interest in the contest or if recent themes have been less interesting or too difficult for some reason. Maybe the novelty of a new contest has simply worn off.

I personally love reading the crazy (and hilarious!) solutions people come up with, but I don't have the imagination to take part myself. Also, since I don't drop by the forums too often, I don't always make it in time for the voting round. That's definitely my fault!

Also, like cat said, there used to be more activities and competitions in the past (a couple of years ago we had a communal detective game that was super fun, for example), but we seem to be in a lull right now. I guess it's just the natural ebb and flow of any online community, but personally (and selfishly) I would love to see these puzzle-making challenges continue. They really brighten my day

[Kastchey]

Nice avatar, Laura!

@cat , as for me, I did attempt to participate a couple times, I even had half-finished flow for your "Stranded" scenario.

I didn't finish it because I ran out of ideas halfway through and never managed to get back to it before the competition was over, sort of similar thing that happens with my MAGS attempts sometimes. I wasn't comparing myself with the other participants (in fact, I would avoid reading other entries while working on mine), and I didn't really mind whether I was going to win or not. Maybe I just have an innate tendency to overscope everything I do for no reason at all

[heltenjon]

If we take a look at the views the contest threads have got, this one has a bit over 700, and the one before about 900. In comparison, the art and writing threads are numbered in the thousands, while MAGS are in the tens of thousands. Still, lots more than the core participants are checking out these threads. But the leap from reading to posting is great for many people - most of us are lurkers.

I do like the over-complicated puzzles within puzzles, and basically have made my attempts into drafts for short games. This may not have been the intention of the contest. However, I like to be able to be a bit silly and write stuff that I wouldn't necessarily be able to translate into code.

I doubt that people are intimidated. The point of these contests should not be winning, but making something and hopefully improving our skills. However, many members express that making puzzles are hard. My hope would be that even just reading the submissions could give ideas about methods for doing this. Especially if we take time to provide feedback about what works and what doesn't.

We could try to make a thread where people could make suggestions for the next puzzle-making contest, or we could try to make scenarios with shorter solutions, but we could also just give it time and try to attract people by making it a fun contest.

[RootBound]

@Laura Hunt thanks for commenting! It's encouraging to know people are reading and enjoying the threads even if they don't have time to submit an entry. I think it was the incredibly low voting turnout that I found discouraging this time, so maybe it's just a matter of too quick a contest period.

@heltenjon yes, making puzzles IS hard. The goal of this contest definitely should be designing a fun solution rather than something brilliant, so maybe we can shoot for slightly simpler setup scenarios. Still, I'd also like to preserve the open-endedness as much as possible so that a "right" solution isn't immediately apparent. It's a tricky balance.

@cat feel free to take as much or as little of this into account as you prefer while you make the next scenario. It's true this is still a young contest on a comparably quiet forum, so maybe we need to just keep it going until it's all that people can think about better known as a fun and low-pressure place to build puzzle design skills.

I suppose we could also think of a more appealing title, like, I don't know, "Playing with puzzle design"? The current title might be fine though.

Maybe we can extend the entry period to three weeks instead of two?

Just thinking as I type. Maybe as we get a larger sample of themes and threads it will become clearer if any changes are actually needed to encourage more entries (or at least more votes and comments!)

Onward to the next theme?

[cat]

Okay, give me a few days to come up with a new scenario. Worst case that can happen is that a few people are having fun, ignored by the rest of the forum