Encyclopedia of every adventure games puzzles ever

Started by Monsieur OUXX, Mon 12/11/2018 23:47:45

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Snarky

#20
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)

selmiak

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

Snarky

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

Monsieur OUXX

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!!!
 

Monsieur OUXX

#24
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)

 

fernewelten

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.

Retro Wolf

Is it possible to get this thread stickied? I find myself coming back to it.

seguso

#27
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!


Monsieur OUXX

#29
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
 


Monsieur OUXX

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)
 

Snarky

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

Monsieur OUXX

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.
 

Monsieur OUXX

#34
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.
 

Monsieur OUXX

#35
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.
 

Danvzare

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

Ponch


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