This is meant to be an extensive list of every possible type of adventure games puzzles ever used in any type of videogames.
You're invited to complete it.
If you read carefully, you'll see that some puzzles are very generic and don't need to be repeated in the list. They can be summarized in an asbtract description, as it's meant here. don't focus on the situations, focus on the mechanism.
Put thing in hole, aka key
There's a hole with a specific shape, and you must find an object tat fits in it.
Seen in : the dig, where you don't really know what you're doing but every hole seems to have a crystal with the same shape meant to fit in it.
Tool
There's a contraption that can work only with a specific tool, that you're expected to identify. You're supposed to understand that it's irreplaceable because of its shape and size.
Seen in: any game with a screwdriver. the tool can have an approximate subsitute, like the spear head in Fate of atlantis or the Monkey wrench in MI2.
Alternate reality
You can visit the same room either in another dimension or in a different time period, and whatever you do here will affect the state of the room in the other "reality".
Seen in : Day of the tentacle (future/past rooms), Unavowed (when you're a ghost nobody sees you while you visit the room)
See also : Only when the lights are off
Remote trigger, aka magnet
The lever in the room is blocked by something that you are never meant to overcome, but you can remotely trigger the object with some other device.
Seen in : Monkey Island, when you steal the key using the magnet. Nelly cootalot, when you work out the lift controls to drop a crate onto the villain.
I can't walk there
There's a part of the room where you can't go but there's counterintuitive way to go there.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when you crawl down the ventialtion shaft to spawn in a different room behind the robot statue. Flight of the amazon queen, when you're in the amazon city and must take the proper corridors to wlak on the other side of a channel.
Trap
There's a critter in a room that walks around seemingly randomly and you must wait for the right time or push it to catch it.
seen in Fate of Atlantis, when you put the ribcage in a pond and wait for a crab to get caught. Also seen in Fate of Atlantis when you wait for the jungle rodent to move in front of the right jungle path.
Hidden dialog
There's a dialog option that will appear only if you follow a specific dialog options sequence and/or exhaust all dialog options. If you choose the wrong option then the dialog "reboots" and the hidden option goes unnoticed.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when you try to convince the bouncer to let you in. Any dialog line where you criticize Madame Sophia brings you back to dialog start. The final winning option is a compliment.
question-answer fight
Any sentence said by the other characer must be answered by you with the corresponding line of dialog until you win.
Seen in : Monkey island (swordfight)
Seen in : Monkey island 3 (insults fight on the seas)
Not to be confused with : memory game, where you have to reproduce a sequence (e.g. the banjo fight in Monkey Island 3)
Have someone else do it
You cannot perform the action yourself but you can ask your sidekick to do it.
Seen in : fate of Atlantis (ask Sophia to do it)
Wait for the right time
The action that you perform will succeed only if you click at the right time / if it matches some not-too-obvious ingame timer.
Seen in : Monkey Island 2 when you must spit precisely when the wind is blowing.
The parrot knows
A dialog option in suggested to you by a character that seems to talk unrelated nonsense.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when the parrot says "hermocrates", which is actually the answer to Sternhardt's riddle. Until then the player character is offered a seemingly infinite number of wrong answers.
Follow the navigator's head
In every room the player must consult a tracking device that tells him to go North, South, East or West.
Seen in : Fate f Atlantis, when you check the orichalcum fish on a string. Monkey Island, when you ceck the navigator's head.
See also : Listen to the noises
Listen to the noises
In every room the player must listen to a sound that tells him/her to go North, South, East or West.
Seen in : Telltale Monkey Island.
See also : Follow the navigator's head
Trigger something in a different room
You activate something in the current room, expecting it to have a consequence in another room, off-screen.
Seen in : last Crusade, in the catacombs, when you unplug the plug on the ceiling and it emptues the pond the room above.
See also : Pull something from a different room
Pull something from a different room
In the passageway leading to the previous room where you left an object, you can still (barely) see that object. You find a way to pull it into the current room.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when you whip in a statue head into the current room, in the Crete labyrinth.
see also : Trigger something in a different room
Empty pond/fill pond
Approximate recipe
You must follow a recipe but you use substitue ingredients, based on puns or resemblance.
Seen in : Monkey Island (use black powder instead of pepper). Kyrandia 2 : all the magic spells.
Disguise
You are forbidden to walk past a certain area unless your character is wearing some outfit
Seen in : Last crusade, where you have to dress as a nazi or as a waiter.
Coordinates
Your guide asks you "where do you want to go?" and you must answer with a set of coordinates that were provided to you separately. Only the proper combination of coordinates works (e.g. "12 degrees South, 6 degrees North")
Seen in : Monkey Island 2 (to find the wreckage of the ship) , Fate of Atlantis (when you go down the entrance of Atlantis in a scaphander)
Repeat until it works
Trigger a room element until it does something. The first attempt doesn't work. You're being given a hint that, even though unsuccessful, every attempt is not the same as the previous one.
Seen in : (I can't remember, but basically the character says something different every time he fails, and eventually succeeds)
See also : Exhaust neverending dialog
Exhaust neverending dialog
Say the same line of dialog repeatedly to a character. He will refuse to do what you ask every time, but finally accepts afyer many attemps.
You're usually given a different answer at every attemp, to give you a hint that each attempt is different.
Seen in : Monkey Island, when you ask the navigator head to give you his magic necklace, and he'll refuse numerous times. All you have to do is to insist.
See also : Repeat until it works
did you listen to what I said?
A character asks you a question about something he said earlier in the game. You need to give the right answer.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when Trottier asks you what his favorite passtime is.
See also : Did you read the book?
Did you read the book?
A character asks you a question about something you're supposed to have read. It's a game designer trick to make sure you're ready to go on with the adventure.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when Trottier asks you questions about the contents of the Lost Dialog to prove to him that you have read it.
See also : Did you listen to what I said?
What would you add to this list?
Wow! Very nice. Thank you for this!
Long hooked thing
There's something that's too far to grab, so you need to pick up something long, and something hooked, to combine them and reach the distant thing.
Seen in : Curse of Monkey Island, Zak McKracken Between Time and Space, most Maniac Mansion Mania episodes, and many many other games.
I would add:
Mazes - unfortunately.
Code Breaking - of course.
Ludicrous Lock - whereby a puzzle or minigame kind prevents progress, usually quite unreasonably.
And I'm not sure how to define this one, but something to do with Cultural Understanding? Like learning the numbering system in Riven or Fez? Or working out the purpose for which a machine was designed and taking action accordingly.
LostTrainDude did a very nice lecture on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5V5GzuEHRs
Nice thread!
Trading
A character has an item you need and is willing to trade it for another item.
replace something
To get that item you need, you replace it with something similar.
Seen in: Monkey Island 2 - get the book on Phatt's belly, replace it with another book or he wakes up, this is imho the best animation for this puzzle. another example might be indy in raider of the lost ark, the movie, with the idol in the beginning, but that's a movie, but you get the idea...
Quote from: Ali on Tue 13/11/2018 14:52:46
Mazes
Code Breaking
You need to define them. That's too vague as it is.
Tell me if this is what you had on mind :
MazeYou must walk from room to room and find the exit through trial and error.
Seen in : King's Quest VI (minotaur), Kyrandia 1 (dragon cave)Code breakingYou must decipher or encode a word or sentence, by finding the meaning of each letter or word.
Seen in : Indy & the fountain of youth (demo), when you have to type in a sentence where all the words are pictograms and you get the definition of each pictogram from translated sentences written somewhere else.
I'm adding these new ones :
Burning candleYou're in possession of an object that consumes itself and you must use it before it's entirely gone (timer). There are two variations (seen below). Variation #1 requires you to use the object (the object is useful at the end), while variation #2 doesn't require you to use the object (it's useful for as long as it hasn't run out)
Seen in : Variation #1 = Monkey Island when you must use the grog onto the cell before the grog melts the mug.
Variation #2 = Kyrandia 1 when you must pick up fire berries and exit the maze before they run cold (and stop making light)Walk at the same paceWalk at the right speed and stop when you're being told to stop, until you win the puzzle
Seen in : Inside, when you have to walk in line, walk forward and stop a the same pace as every zombie in the queue, so that the video camera does not detect you amongst them.and those from the video
Distract-and-grabA variation of the timed puzzle where you perform an action that will distract an NPC (he will look away or move away teporarily) and you must perform your winning action while he does so.
Seen in : Maniac Mansion, when you ring the doorbell and you can steal stuff from Weird Ed while he goes to answer the door.TrackingAn NPC leaves the room and you must follow him/her from room to room until he/she unwillingly leads you somewhere.
Seen in : Monkey Island, when you follow the shop owner into the forrest.Memory-basedyou see a sequence that you must repeat.
Seen in : monkey island when you must open the safe by repeating the combination that you've sen before. Monkey Island 3 when you must repeat the right banjo notes sequence during the duel.Staircase to nowhereNone of the dialog options that you're being offered are interesting, but it's only after exhausting them all that you will be offred a new, hidden option.
Seen in : Monkey island 2, when you have to exhaust the absurdly long list of colors offered to the player as dialog options in response to Herman Toothrot teaching you philosophy.Search engineyou can virtually type anything into a search box but you have to be clever with your choices to get interesting information
Seen in : her story. Primitive version of this puzzle seen in : Monkey island 2, when you have to find the wreckage coordinates in the giant book index of the library.The password is on a stickerYou must fond a password and it's written somehwere around
Seen in : an advanced version of this puzzle is found in unavowed: There's a sticker that says "old man, man, horse" and another sticker that says "leg". The code is "3, 2, 4", the number of legs of each of those.
Liquid in a container
There's some sort of liquid, usually water, and you need to pick it up by putting it in something, like a bucket.
Seen in : Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Deponia, and many many others.
Yeah, I know that might seem a bit too generic. But it is usually a genuine attempt at a puzzle in adventure games. Simply figuring out that the container can be used as a container is usually part of the puzzle.
Quote from: Danvzare on Wed 14/11/2018 13:14:09
Liquid in a container
There's some sort of liquid, usually water, and you need to pick it up by putting it in something, like a bucket.
Seen in : Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Deponia, and many many others.
Yeah, I know that might seem a bit too generic. But it is usually a genuine attempt at a puzzle in adventure games. Simply figuring out that the container can be used as a container is usually part of the puzzle.
One puzzle with liquid I've seen used in numerous games is the puzzle where you have a 5 unit jug and a 3 unit jug, and need to use both in order to fill the 5 unit jug with 4 units.
I've seen this in at least three different adventure games and even one Bruce Willis movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cAbgAaEOVE). I've no idea why everyone recycles this puzzle but I've seen it a lot.
Last crusade had a jar you had to put in liquid to get a key from Indys office.
Quote from: Danvzare on Wed 14/11/2018 13:14:09
Liquid in a container
There's some sort of liquid, usually water, and you need to pick it up by putting it in something, like a bucket.
Seen in : Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Deponia, and many many others.
Yeah, I know that might seem a bit too generic. But it is usually a genuine attempt at a puzzle in adventure games. Simply figuring out that the container can be used as a container is usually part of the puzzle.
I would rephrase it like this :
Liquid in a containerSomehow there is only one container in the world to carry this liquid.
Seen in : Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Deponia, and many many others.Variation: You need to take an object immerged inside a container. Somehow you can't just drop the liquid on the ground, you have to find another container to swap.
Seen in : Last Crusade
Use only the horse on chessboard
seen in 7th guest and Gabriel Knight 3.
_
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Wed 14/11/2018 22:50:10
I would rephrase it like this :
Liquid in a container
Somehow there is only one container in the world fit to store this liquid.
Seen in : Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Deponia, and many many others.
Variation: If you're trying to empty the liquid from a container to take an object that's immerged inside of it, then you can't just drop the liquid on the ground, you have to find another container to swap.
Seen in : Last Crusade
That is much better than what I wrote. I love it! :-D
good summarizing categorization.
Sadly many of these can be condensed to "fetch quest", asserting that even a meme like "open sesame" is a spell-entity that can be found and transported.
Fetch quests are not what makes fetch quests a bad trope. the general badness of puzzles comes from out-of-context diegesis (when the UI is separated too far from the story/gameplay in utility/theme/space )
, when puzzle and solution are removed too far from each other, and require too many assumptions to jump to one true conclusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
A good puzzle exists in harmony with its environment/theme, with a close and personal correlation, and not in an antagonistic obscured contrast against it.
Lateral thinking, permuting (combining puzzles), or serendipity (unusual novel utility that still makes sense) are useful, but puns/DoublkeEntendres/Albures/Ambiguities localize poorly!
beware tvtropes.com where some puzzles come with attatched strings of being overused or used in unfit contexts, or ad-absurdum in any way.
I think an extreme example of "Staircase to nowhere" is one [hinting system in monkey island 2] that is hidden behind an absurdly long dialog tree of color names.
Spoiler
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqsmEHrOklE
is clearly satire against:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmStJQzclHc
guybrush "could you teach me some philosophy"
herman toothrot "okay here is a zen-koan for you"
guybrush "what?"
herman toothrot "a philosophical puzzle, if a tree falls in a forest an no ones is around to hear it, what color is the tree."
guybrush has a very long dialog tree of color names, a lot of them are X11-CSS-color labels of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11_color_names
(thouch "rebecca purple" is left out, and likely replaced by "Deep purple")
(listed below are only (the slightly more creative/unique) and not (common) x11-colors that guybruah can guess):
ForestGreen
Lavender
Puse
Taupe
BurntSienna
RawUmber
Sepia
Mulberry
Perriwinkle
Orchid
Plum
peach
Aubergine
Teal
Mustard
Cabernet
Slate
Smoke
Brick
Chartreuse
Cherry
Wisteria
Raspberry
Vanilla
Asparagus
Cranberry
Sangria
Eggshell
Driftwood
Sumac
Alpaca
StormGrey
EveningHaze
Tarragon
Sachet
Venetian
Juniper
Drizzle
SweetPotato
Bayou
Manilla (not a typo)
Mackintosh Red (is a monkey island color)
Mange
Sharkbite
SashimiGreen
Ebony
Ivory
Menthol
Sahara
Salmon
Oxblood
Robin'sEgg
Ash
Spice
Copper
WeatheredPewter
Vernillion
MetallicBurgundy
Russet
CadmiumWhite
Cerulean
TealocyanideGreen
ochre
Deep purple
beryl
OatmealHeather
AllColors
you have to collect 3 crackers, but most of the locale is a noneuclidean-teleporting maze?
you likely are missing the last 1/3 crackers.
Herman Toothrot is a philosopher and the only other human in your locale, mostly appears to be a waste of time and red herring
, and all you can talk to him for a while is a guessing game about a color name, from a list of almost 100 color names, on philosophy.
Each color name can only be guessed once, they are all false.
after exhausting trough the long list of responses, the NPC-is-out-of-dialog-options is actually an almost useful hint on how to progress.
Quote from: ollj on Thu 15/11/2018 22:36:14
An extreme example of "Staircase to nowhere" is in monkey island 2, where a hint is hidden after an absurdly long dialog tree of color names.
Each color name can only be guessed once, they are all false. After exhausting trough the long list of responses, [the rest of the adventure gets unlocked].
Great example
Quote from: ollj on Thu 15/11/2018 22:28:56
A good puzzle exists in harmony with its environment/theme, with a close and personal correlation, and not in an antagonistic obscured contrast against it.
I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately most people see the puzzles in adventure games, to be a completely separate entity from the story. And as such prefer to have the story blocked off by segments of puzzles.
While what they should be doing, is making the puzzles an integral part of the story. So that if all of the puzzles were removed, the game would make no sense, since you'd be losing a huge chunk of the story.
But this is off topic. So... sorry. :-[
Anyone has more ideas? That can't be all puzzle models (by the way, every "logic" puzzle need not be included. It's just a logic puzzle)
The "Approximate recipe" in a broader sense may be called something like "Improvise with the pattern" (forgive me for possibly awkward wording). Then, another example of this would be the second part of the Insult sword fighting, where you need to use the retorts that you've learnt in the first part against the previously unknown insults.
But then, the original examples of "approximate recipe" require to fit new items in known slots, while the example above require to fit known items into new slots. Does that count as same kind of puzzle or different one?
Also, how distinct these puzzle types are supposed to be? I think if we've tried to get to the barebones of the puzzle mechanic, some of the listed above are practically subset of others.
Guess the puzzles may be categorized by some internal mechanic, and - separately - by its representation.
Let's take same Insult swordfighting as an example again. Is not it the case of finding a matching key to the lock? Only the key and lock are defined not by the geometric shape, but by the phrase semantics.
This sort of thread tends to provoke me to particularly snarky responses aimed at pointing out the folly of the project (which I think is no more possible than "let's list all the stories there are" at any useful level of specificity).
However, let me just say that I think most of the ones listed so far aren't actually puzzles or puzzle types, but puzzle elements or puzzle motifs, before adding a few of my own (I have a bad memory for games, so I don't have specific examples of all of these):
Riddle
Just a classic riddle. A cryptic description makes it hard to identify what it describes. You must realize the correct response to the riddle and provide it.
Examples: Conquests of the Longbow (tons of them)
Just Do It
A problem has a straightforward, "obvious" solution, but the game makes you overlook it by misdirection (distracting you with other apparent solutions) or making you assume it won't work or is somehow outside the game parameters. Usually requires lateral thinking to realize.
Examples: Fate of Atlantis (push Sophia), Secret of Monkey Island (pick up idol), Trilby's Notes (die)
Spot the Pattern
For challenges based on repeated choices (e.g. mazes, dialog puzzles, in-game contests), here the right option is always hinted in some subtle but systematic way. If you are observant and recognize the pattern, you can make the correct selection every time. "Listen to the noises" is a subtype of this.
Examples: The Shivah (rabbinical boxing)
Fiddleware
You have to "manually" conduct certain (trivial or only mildly challenging) operations, through special UI controls that often attempt to mimic the haptics of the actual actions. If dexterity/skill is required and time pressure is added, it may turn into a quicktime event or arcade challenge. If the simulation is very realistic, it may turn into a physical puzzle.
Examples: Fahrenheit (many instances, e.g. mopping the floor), Resonance (e.g. cutting wire)
Coded Clue
A puzzle requires some arbitrary series of actions to solve. Instructions are provided in cryptic form, encoded e.g. as a song, recipe, painting... The encoding may be as a riddle or hidden somehow (e.g. the first word of each line), or just consist of spotting the connection.
Examples: Monkey Island 2 (skeleton song), Frostrune (tapestry)
Combinatorial Gate
A way to ensure that the player has mentally solved a puzzle (come to some realization) without needing the character to do so explicitly. Require 100% correct responses to a series of choices; because of combinatorial explosion, brute-forcing or lucky-guessing your way through is effectively impossible if you don't know the solution. ("Did you read the book?" will often be an example of this.)
Dragon's Lair
You must carry out a sequence of actions precisely, without any deviation (and often timed). Any failure to do so results in instant death or a reset of the puzzle. There is no way to know what the correct action is at each step except by trial and error, so you must try repeatedly, gradually memorizing the correct sequence.
Examples: Dagger of Amon Ra (end chase)
Needle in the Stacks
The game presents you with a large collection of items. Most of them are irrelevant, only one is the thing you're looking for. Often the setting is a library, where you have to find the right book from a large selection of titles. Solution may involve reducing the search scope (e.g. to a certain shelf) based on some characteristic of how it's organized (alphabetical, genre) and then simply brute-forcing it.
Examples: Heroine's Quest (library), Thimbleweed Park (library)
Magic Lens
You have a tool like a scanner, which allows you to see or detect otherwise hidden things in the environment. Often you must sweep it over the backgrounds to scan for clues.
Hot or Cold
You must reach a certain end-state. Along the way, you get feedback after each step as to whether you are moving in the right direction (warmer) or the wrong one (colder) so that you can find the right approach/path. This can be physical movement, but also something like a dialogue puzzle (e.g. character's facial expression changes). Compare insult sword fighting (advance/retreat).
Objection!
A character tells you a number of things. Some of them are lies. You must find and present the evidence or conflicting testimony that contradicts their untruthful statements.
Examples: The Ace Attorney series (cross-examination mechanic), Contradiction (contradiction mechanic)
Break the Cycle
A certain chain of events repeats on a loop in the background, always with the same outcome. By changing some condition, you can interfere with one of the steps and create a different one. (In a variation, the chain of events doesn't go on all the time in the background, but only when you trigger it.)
Examples: Day of the Tentacle (Edna/chair/statue)
Divert the River
By damming or diverting a river upstream, you can affect which areas are flooded or dry downstream, potentially causing destruction. Can also be e.g. a conveyor belt, electricity in a grid, etc.
Examples: The Secret of Monkey Island (rock in stream)
Quote from: TheFrighther on Thu 15/11/2018 08:13:57
Use only the horse on chessboard
seen in 7th guest and Gabriel Knight 3.
_
also in the whispered world
A few more:
Examine Crime Scene
Certain scenes in the game are signaled to be of special importance, requiring particularly careful examination. Pixel hunting, use of special instruments (magnifying glass, swab, fingerprinting kit…) and other exhaustive methods that would be tedious to use on every screen are accepted as fair game here.
Examples: The Dagger of Amon Ra (various murder scenes)
Ask the Oracle
Certain types of information can be fed to a machine or person that will (often) provide further information about it. This can be a search engine or database where you can look up e.g. names, addresses, or an NPC with exhaustive knowledge on some particular subject. A variation is the Lab Analysis, where you can run an analysis on certain items to find out more about them (e.g. a DNA test, blood test, mass spectrometer, etc.).
Zoom and Enhance
You need to closely examine a picture using some sort of zoom tool (either digitally or with a magnifying glass) to uncover otherwise hidden details.
Examples: Blade Runner (Esper machine), Kathy Rain (scanned photos)
Break It!
An inventory item is useless until it is broken, which requires a specific deliberate action. (E.g. a bottle, where you need the glass shards.)
Special Skill
Your character has an unusual special skill, which is useful in certain situations. The puzzle consists of remembering that you can do something that wouldn't normally be possible, and recognizing that the situation calls for it. (As a matter of game design, if you give the player character special skills, you should also provide plenty of occasions to use them.)
Right Person for the Job
In games where you control multiple characters, and where they each have distinct abilities. Some actions are only possible (or will only be successful) with a certain character.
Examples: Two of a Kind, Blackwell series, Unavowed (wow, Dave Gilbert really loves this one!)
Constraint-Based Reasoning
A type of logic puzzle where you have incomplete information about a finite universe, and use the information you have and the constraints of the world to deduce further information (e.g. by process of elimination), until you have the answer you need.
Examples: Return of the Obra Dinn (matching identities to victims)
Dial-A-Pirate (Mix and Match)
You construct something by combining pieces from at least two distinct sets. The resulting construction has different properties depending on the combination, and you need a particular combination with the right properties.
Examples: Technobabylon (AI mind fragments)
Copy from Examples
In order to solve some complex problem, you first must solve a number of simpler problems (or study already-solved ones), in order to acquire the tools you need for the actual puzzle.
Examples: The Secret of Monkey Island (learn insults and responses through lesser fights), Gabriel Knight (decode messages to learn voodoo symbols, apply to other messages)
Right Place, Right Time
You must be in a certain place at a certain in-game time in order to witness an event. You may have a hint in advance, or you can tail an NPC, or it may be down to trial and error or clues only available after the fact, requiring a replay.
Examples: The Last Express, The Colonel's Bequest
Well, you say it's a folly, and you challenge the vocabulary (patterns, motifs, elements...) and yet you give a perfect answer and you perfectly understood the idea.;-D (roll)
Well done and thank you!!!
Convince/beg/trick remotely
You send another character into another room and you can only hear their voice and talk to them. You must convince to accomplish an action through any kind of dialog-based puzzle even though they're impossibly reluctant to do it.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis (convince Sophia to crawl into creepy tunnel and pull lever to unlock gate for you)
Unlock the steering wheel to unlock the speed lever
You have this big "machine" or vehicle which has several independent controls (forward, backwards, left, right, up, down...). Unlocking one of the controls (let's say : "switch between forward and backwards") lets you act on the game's universe (let's say: the sudden braking makes everyone on-board the vehicle lose balance and fall down) which in turn allows you to unlock the next control (let's say : you get access to the steering wheel aka left/right lever). Repeat until you have access to all controls.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis (take control of the nazi submarine, bit by bit)
Close this end to open the other end
Closing a door automatically opens another door, otherwise permanently locked.
Seen in : Foa, on Thera ( "wits" path)
Win by failing
In order to get through a gate, the player must placate a gatekeeper. This gatekeeper repeatedly poses some exercise that the player must solve correctly. But whenever the player does so, the gatekeeper simply dishes out the next exercise, so the gate continues to be blocked. But if the player answers incorrectly, perhaps repeatedly, then the gatekeeper becomes so angry that he stomps off (explodes in anger etc.) and frees the gate.
Seen in “Machinarium†where a ventilator guards an entry to a greenhouse.
Is it possible to get this thread stickied? I find myself coming back to it.
Hi,
1) I like puzzles where some character has a routine that you need to disrupt. Maybe he depends on some object to do this routine. You can tamper with the object to disrupt his routine so he makes a mistake.
2) I like puzzles where you first have to talk with a character, but this does not solve a puzzle by itself: this only changes his mood, or his pose. And THEN you need to do something to him. (Indy4: talk to sophia to make her consider being the assisant of the knife thrower, then push her)
Cheers!
(duplicate)
Rephrased to fit the thread's formatting :
Derail the NPC's routine
An NPC is repeatedly performing an action. Get in the way (steal their tool or confuse them) and it unlocks new possibilities.
Note: An advanced version of this puzzle makes you benefit from the change in the NPC's state in both ways : You benefit from taking their tool and you benefit from their new routine.
See also: trigger the NPC first
See also: hidden dialog
Trigger the NPC first
Put an NPC into a certain state to unlock new actions. the victory does not come from the NPC being in that state but from what you do with it afterwards. (for example: use a given dialog line to make them angry, then use that anger for something else).
Note: An advanced version of this puzzle makes the NPC reset to initial state if you're not careful.
Note: An advanced version of this puzzle makes you benefit from the change in the NPC's state in both ways : You benefit from taking their tool and you benefit from their new routine.
Seen in : Indy4: talk to sophia to make her consider being the assisant of the knife thrower, then push her
See also: Derail the NPC's routine
See also: hidden dialog
( Not sure if this was posted here -> https://www.alanvandrake.com/puzzler/ )
Quote from: eri0o on Fri 05/06/2020 18:01:05
( Not sure if this was posted here -> https://www.alanvandrake.com/puzzler/ )
Interesting. This is based on a model that's one step higher, with about 10 different situations to face depending on the kind of goal to reach (temporal object and so on)
Aren't these essentially the same?
Quote from: Snarky on Sun 18/11/2018 09:12:56
Break the Cycle
A certain chain of events repeats on a loop in the background, always with the same outcome. By changing some condition, you can interfere with one of the steps and create a different one. (In a variation, the chain of events doesn't go on all the time in the background, but only when you trigger it.)
Examples: Day of the Tentacle (Edna/chair/statue)
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Fri 05/06/2020 13:54:43
Derail the NPC's routine
An NPC is repeatedly performing an action. Get in the way (steal their tool or confuse them) and it unlocks new possibilities.
Note: An advanced version of this puzzle makes you benefit from the change in the NPC's state in both ways : You benefit from taking their tool and you benefit from their new routine.
See also: trigger the NPC first
See also: hidden dialog
Quote from: Snarky on Fri 05/06/2020 21:49:41
Aren't these essentially the same?
Quote from: Snarky on Sun 18/11/2018 09:12:56
Break the Cycle
A certain chain of events repeats on a loop in the background, always with the same outcome. By changing some condition, you can interfere with one of the steps and create a different one. (In a variation, the chain of events doesn't go on all the time in the background, but only when you trigger it.)
Examples: Day of the Tentacle (Edna/chair/statue)
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Fri 05/06/2020 13:54:43
Derail the NPC's routine
An NPC is repeatedly performing an action. Get in the way (steal their tool or confuse them) and it unlocks new possibilities.
Note: An advanced version of this puzzle makes you benefit from the change in the NPC's state in both ways : You benefit from taking their tool and you benefit from their new routine.
See also: trigger the NPC first
See also: hidden dialog
yes they are. I've become a bit lazy with curation.
Only when the lights are off
The player enters a room where the lights are on. He must turn the lights off to make appear an object that was hidden in plain sight.
Seen in : Zniw adventure, when the glowing pebble looks like every other pebble as long as the light is on.
See also : Alternate reality
The object to click is not one of the many objects to click
You're in a room with seemingly a lot of objects to interact with or pick up. But the one object to interact with is none of them. The object to click is much closer to you than you think.
Seen in : MI3 : You've been eaten by a snake and you stand inside the snake, while all around the snake there are objects laying on the ground, that you can't reach (because you're in the snake). You're also tempted to use one of your many inventory objects on the snake. The solution is actually to locate a special area on the snake, that corresponds to its stomach. you can't click directly on the objects that are in there but you can see their description when you hover.
Seen in : Monkey Island 1 : You're at the bottom of the sea, about to drown. Your foot is attached by a chain to a heavy object that prevents you from swimming up. All around you there are sharp objects laying at the bottom of the sea. It's temting to try and reach one of those many swords to cut the chain. The solution is actually to simply pick up the heavy weight (the one object of the room that you thought immutable) and walk away.
Seen in : Monkey island 2: Guybrush is facing a huge door covered in padlocks, and clearly says "I'll NEVER be able to open those padlocks". All the player has to do is click "open door" and Guybrush opens a smaller door inside the huge door.
Beneficial misunderstanding
Someone gave you a letter or an object or a tag that was intended for you and meant something only to you. But then it turns out that if you give it to someone else they interpret it in a completely different manner and believe it's an order to do something they'd otherwise refuse to you. The core of this puzzle (and what makes it different from the basic "use receipt to get free object") is that the object has a clever double-meaning that depends on the context.
Example : at the start of the game, someone tries to kill you in your sleep in your hotel room. After killing the assassin, on their dead body you find an official secret service letter that says "kill the spy" -- meaning "killing you". Later in the game as you try to sneak in the secret service headquarters you give that letter to the guard pretending there's a mole in the HQ and these are your official orders to investigate.
- Variants : letter, recording, passport, etc.
- Variant (simplest version) : you learnt the name of a guard that you later name-drop to earn the trust of another guard (seen in : Fate of Atlantis)
- Variants (advanced) : You recycle only a part of the original material : you cut out the stamp or the signature to forge a new document (seen in : Day of the tentacle), or you edit the recording to repeat only a part of it or change its meaning (seen in : Gabriel Knight 2), etc.
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Fri 04/12/2020 13:56:40
Beneficial misunderstanding
Ah, you also use that one in Day of the Tentacle to get a vacuum cleaner in every American's basement.
Good one. :-D
(/bookmarks thread) :=